CNN’s Brianna Keilar Dedicates Thread to Afghans Who Kept Her Husband Alive While He Served in Their Country

Leia IdlibyAug 18th, 2021, 10:44 am
 

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CNN’s Brianna Keilar praised the Afghan soldiers and translators who kept her husband, Lt. Col. Fernando Lujan, alive as he served in their country in 2011.

“My husband is alive because of Afghan soldiers and translators — a short thread,” Keilar wrote in a Tuesday tweet:

The CNN anchor went on to share segments of an op-ed her husband penned for The Washington Post in 2012, which detailed the dedication Lujan’s friends in the Afghan army had to his safety.

“’Ooooh, Major Far-nan-do, we’re gonna sell you to the Taliban for a million dollars . . . laa-di-laaa . . . we’re gonna trade you for a new truck . . . for a new house!’” Lujan wrote, sharing an improvised and humorous song Afghan soldiers sang to him one night.

Lujan admitted that while he did his best to laugh at the joke, it still made him nervous, as he wasn’t confident that he could actually trust these soldiers as a United States Army major who was stationed in their country.

He eventually gained faith in their alliance, as he witnessed Afghan soldiers sacrificing their own comfort and safety to help and protect U.S. troops.

“I never told my singing Afghan friends, but later that night in Helmand, I was startled from my sleep, nervous about their joke,” Lujan wrote. “When I opened my eyes, I saw a shadow in the doorway. Struck with fear, I reached for my pistol, only to realize that the shadow was Jawad, the one who had joked about selling me to the Taliban. He was guarding me as I slept.”

Throughout the piece, Lujan also revealed that while many Afghan soldiers did not understand why Americans had any business in their home, sometimes questioning their motives, they still worked to keep them safe.

“While the Afghans we worked with protected us from harm — often at great risk to themselves — sometimes doubt would creep into our conversations: Why do you speak our language? Are you a Muslim? Why not? Do you want to take away our religion?” Lujan wrote, adding. “Many of these men had never heard of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. They didn’t know why we were in their country.”

Keilar shared her husband’s experience as thousands of Afghan allies to the U.S., including translators and advisers who aided American troops, are still trapped in Afghanistan as the Taliban continues to take over the country.

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