Former Afghan Air Force (AAF) Maj. Samimullah Samim, one of the thousands of Afghans who ran the gantlet of Taliban checkpoints and the deadly chaos at the Kabul airport gates to escape to the U.S. in late August 2021, is still in the fight.
But rather than bombing and strafing Taliban positions as he did in the AAF, he's targeting fires in the Pacific Northwest, using his piloting skills to combat a pressing threat in his adopted country.
Samim flew hundreds of close-air support missions in a U.S.-supplied A-29 Super Tucano attack aircraft and a rigged-out Combat Caravan Cessna AC-208 to back Afghan ground forces in what was ultimately a losing fight in Afghanistan.
With the support of a U.S. veterans group, the 32-year-old Samim earned U.S. flight certification and now flies reconnaissance missions out of Montana in a single-engine turboprop Pilatus PC-12 to scope out the wildfires ravaging the U.S. Northwest and direct fire attack aircraft to the scene.
"As I fly over the fire, I send images. Our company [Bridger Aerospace] uses that if needed for the fire attack," Samim said in a phone call with Military.com last week. "I love the job, the meaning of it.
"We track fires everywhere," he said, adding that his most recent missions took him over Idaho, Oregon and California. "Wherever there is fire, we go there," said Samim, whose new life in America has been profiled by outlets including The Wall Street Journal.
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