USAF crews describe ‘apocalyptic’ environment as they effect final evacuation from Afghanistan

Eyewitness accounts describe things such as fireworks and tracer rounds from gunfire, as well as packs of feral dogs darting in and out from under the planes as they lifted off from the tarmac at the Kabul international airport.

According to Fox News, there were no more air defense systems in place and no personnel to direct them out as the five last C-17 transport aircraft took off with armed Taliban members bizarrely waving them goodbye.

"It just looked apocalyptic," commented USAF Lt. Col. Braden Coleman

"It looked like one of those zombie movies where all the airplanes had been destroyed, their doors were open, the wheels were broken. There was a plane that was burned all the way. You could see the cockpit was there, and the whole rest of the plane looked like the skeleton of a fish."

"I had my NVG’s on, my night vision goggles, and I had a Raven (specially trained military bodyguard) behind me following me out, making sure that I was, you know, safe," Coleman continued. "It was a bit tense, I’m not going to lie. But I guess you don’t really think of it at the time. You just ... do what you’re trained to do."

"It was just definitely very tense, and we were definitely all on edge watching everything going on to make sure that we were ready," stated USAF Capt. Kirby Wedan, going on to state that one of the transport planes was almost taken over by a group of civilians that same night.

"It was definitely different. I've never been on an airfield where I didn’t really have permission to take off," Wedan concluded.

The trip was made especially harrowing because rockets had recently been fired at the airport recently.