A team, formed around Representative Michael Waltz (R-Fl), organized a private rescue operation inside Afghanistan: “Operation Pineapple Express”.

“Pineapple” was the password they used.

The identity of these volunteers is unknown, but it is believed they mainly consist of Green Berets veterans (of which Michael Waltz is one) under the command of Colonel Scott Mann and Captain Zac Lois. About fifty advisers supervised the commandos on the ground. The identity of those rescued is equally unknown.

It only took these commandos roughly a week to rescue over 600 Afghans, bring them to the airport and entrust them to US troops.

A second group was composed by Colonel Russell Worth Parker under the name of “Dunkirk Task Force” (Task Force Dunkirk), in reference to the massive evacuation of French forces from Dunkirk by the British army in 1940. It includes Mick Mulroy, former deputy assistant secretary of defense and current ABC news analyst. He is said to have extricated 83 Afghans.