On a rainy morning in Auburn, Azimullah Mohammadi sat on his couch and pulled out his phone to show a video filmed at an air base in Slovakia.
In it, some men in flight suits watch and cheer as a hulking, Russian-built Mi-17 military helicopter barrels toward them, passing low before sweeping back up into a cloudy sky.
Mohammadi is piloting the helicopter in the video. He said this was his last training flight before returning to Afghanistan for deployment.
Mohammadi said becoming a pilot was the realization of a long held dream, the answer he gave when people asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up.
"It was my wish," he said. "The first option for me, or the first hope for me, it was to be pilot."
After Slovakia, Mohammadi said he returned to Kabul in 2020 and joined the Special Mission Wing, or SMW, an elite airborne unit.
But his dream of serving his country as a helicopter pilot lasted only about a year. In August of 2021, as the Taliban broke through the defenses surrounding Kabul, Mohammadi said his commander summoned his unit to the airport, and led them on an aerial evacuation to neighboring Uzbekistan.
Flying over his country one last time, Mohammadi said he began to cry.
"After one year, I lost everything," he said. "I lost everything in Afghanistan."
Omar Zai, a Black Hawk helicopter pilot in the SMW who now lives across the street from Mohammadi, was also part of that aerial convoy.
Zai said his decision to enlist in the military was personal. When he was a kid, he said the Taliban killed his older brother, his cousin, and their family’s driver in a suicide attack.
But he said he was also motivated to fight for a future without Taliban rule, a future his generation grew up believing in.
"I was excited for, for what was going to happen after war, after me fighting in the war," he said. "We will have something that we were all, like, expecting and wishing for."
He said being ordered to fly out of the country as the Taliban took Kabul brought a crushing end to those dreams.
"I felt that as much as we tried, we just failed so, so terribly, that we failed the entire... a whole country and generation," he said.
After landing at an airbase in Uzbekistan, Zai said he and the others were held for about a month, before American diplomats arranged their transfer to the United Arab Emirates, then to a U.S. Army base in Virginia.
In late 2021, Zai and a handful of other Afghan veterans decided to move to Maine, following a recommendation from a contact in the U.S. military.
Zai said he’s worked a handful of jobs – as a caseworker, at a restaurant, and at a Walmart distribution center. He said his asylum case was approved, and he has applied for a Green Card.
But he said he’s still trying to make sense of his new life.
"I was a pilot, I was in the army," he said. "But now, nothing. Like, a refugee in a different country. With nothing in hand, no clear future."
Zai said he would like to get certified to fly in the U.S., but that he’s not sure how that process would work or how he would pay for it. In addition to supporting himself, he said he’s also sending money to his parents and siblings who are still in Afghanistan.
Across the street, Azimullah Mohammadi was boiling water for tea.
He said his asylum case was also approved, and that he’ll apply for a Green Card next month, in the hopes of eventually bringing his family to the U.S. He said they’re currently in hiding, fearing retribution from the Taliban.
He said it’s been a jarring transition to the U.S., but that he takes some comfort in living within walking distance of a handful of other Afghan military veterans. He said sometimes they’ll come over to sit, eat, and just spend time together.
"Sitting in here, just play [a] game. Or watch a movie," he said. "That's nice."
Mohammadi said he’s also looked into going back to flight school, but thinks it’s probably too expensive. So for now, he said he’s thinking about enrolling in a class to get a commercial driver's license.
