One of the families at the gate of the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul Thursday had gone there with papers John and Jan Bradley helped them acquire and a letter the retired Air Force general had written for them.  

As of late Thursday afternoon, the news from Afghanistan was not good. And not clear.

“They were at the gate where the explosion took place today,” John Bradley said. “The 14-year-old son, in an early report, had said, ‘I saw my mother and father on the ground — they are dead.’

“But we found out this afternoon they are not dead,” the retired general added. “We don’t know about injuries, don’t even know where they are, but the mother and father are together. The 11- and 6-year-old are missing. The 14-year-old is still near the gate and wants to get inside.”

Bradley talked to The Christian Chronicle after two blasts ripped through crowds trying to enter the American-controlled facility, killing at least 13 U.S. service members and 90 Afghans. 

The family were the parents and siblings of a young Afghan woman in Alexandria, Va., who has become a close friend of Jan Bradley. Since retiring, the couple has lived in Lebanon, Tenn., where they are members of the College Hills Church of Christ.

“We sent in paperwork to have them evacuated — gave them a copy that went to the joint staff in the Pentagon that’s overseeing this for the Department of Defense — and tried to help them get approved,” John Bradley said. “They decided to go to the gate, with papers and a letter I had written, when the explosion happened.”

The Bradleys are heartbroken, particularly Jan and the couple’s daughter Leigh Ann Kosmas, who had taken time off as communications director for a Minneapolis law firm to help her parents complete the paperwork for Afghans seeking to flee. 

“Leigh Ann and Jan were just in tears — it’s just devastating,” the father and husband said.

John Bradley tried to be more circumspect. ISIS or the Taliban did this, he told them.

“We did what they wanted us to do — they begged us for help to get out — we don’t need to feel guilt ourselves for this,” Bradley said. “We have to look at it from that point of view. At least that’s what I’m trying.”

President Joe Biden said in a press conference later in the afternoon that the Pentagon has blamed the attacks on ISIS-K, the Afghan affiliate of Islamic State.

The Bradleys at least know something about the family at the gate today. And they know of one other group of 10 family members, relatives of a Houston physician they know well, who got out earlier this week with their help. 

But the founders of the Lamia Afghan Foundation, a humanitarian foundation that has provided more than 3.5 million pounds of aid over the past decade, initially hoped to get out about 50 volunteers and family members who had supported their work building schools and clinics, and whose lives are now in danger because of it. That quickly grew to 100, then 500, as others contacted them with names of Afghan friends desperate to flee. 

The foundation’s country director and his family, part of the original 50, were at the airport gate for hours Wednesday with papers, even after two different people had told Bradley their names were on the approved list. 

“He was told to go and someone would meet him, and that person didn’t show,” Bradley said.

The applications the Bradleys have helped file must include a photo of the person in the clothing they will wear when they present themselves. Some have been submitted through the State Department, “ but no one has ever heard anything from that paperwork,” he said.

They have also completed paperwork for the joint chiefs’ staff at the Pentagon, working on the non-combatant evacuation order, referred to in the military as an NEO.

“We thought at a certain time they’d say have ‘X’ family go to a certain gate, but we’ve not had any calls to do that,” Bradley said.

And he’s not optimistic going forward, especially after the deaths today: “I think that with the explosion today, I believe President Biden doesn’t want to extend the Aug. 31 deadline. With these deaths … I think Biden has said a number of times, ‘How many more sons and daughters?’”

As the deadline draws nearer, the military will require at least the last few days to get the military out, Bradley said.  The president did, however, say he had asked military leaders for a plan for retaliation.

Air Force generals are not in the business of guessing. But Bradley is quick to say, “I’m not in the Air Force anymore.”

“I think they’ll be really careful about trying to get people through there — and may decide it’s not worth the risk to keep going. That’s a guess.”

This article was originally published at The Christian Chronicle.