Please join us via Zoom for this special presentation. Register on the Temple Israel Portsmouth website calendar to receive the Zoom link.

New Hampshire will be the new home for Afghan evacuees in the near future. Learning about the harrowing journey that many of these individuals and families would help our understanding of the difficult choices that needed to be made in order to leave Afghanistan. The Tikkun Olan Committee is hosting an evening conversation with Dr. Barrett Ward and his involvement in helping over 40 Afghans leave their country. This promises to be an educational and interesting conversation.

About the speaker: Barrett Ward is from Plano, Texas. He was commissioned as an Armor Officer in the US Army in 2004 after graduating from Texas Christian University. In 2009, he took command of an interrogation analysis company and served in Baghdad, Iraq for a year, where he was awarded the Bronze Star for meritorious service in a combat zone. In 2012 he began his PhD Studies in English Literature at the University of Texas at Austin and went on to teach at West Point and The United States Air Force Academy. He is presently teaching at The Pingry School.

In late August of 2021, Dr. Ward contacted one of his former students from West Point, Shabir Kabiri. As Kabul was being overtaken by the Taliban, Shabir indicated that he needed immediate assistance. Dr. Ward, along with a small cohort of Shabir's West Point 2015 classmates, joined together to find a way to get Shabir, his family, and another West Point graduate, Naquib (and his family) out of Kabul. Dr. Ward will discuss the attempts made to provide Shabir, Naquib, and their families an escape rout from the chaos in Kabul.

Following the presentation, Dr. Ward will be happy to take questions from the audience.