Army Veteran Claims Military Charged Him for Gear He Was Ordered to Abandon in Afghanistan
“I’m just so happy to separate,” the former soldier said in a now-deleted TikTok video.
On Monday, a former soldier claimed on TikTok that he was charged more than $3,000 by the U.S. military for equipment that he was ordered to abandon in Afghanistan.
The veteran, who goes by Brock on TikTok, joined the Army’s 82 Airborne Division four years ago, and two years into service, his unit was deployed to Afghanistan to assist with the withdrawal.
“We spent a few weeks over there. It was hectic, it was chaotic, it was disgusting, and it made me very disappointed in our government. Today, I’m reminded how disappointed I am in our government,” he said in the video which was later shared by the popular X account, LibsofTikTok.
The veteran continued, “They want to charge me $500 to $1,000 for gear I was ordered to leave in Afghanistan two years ago because as the last two birds were sitting on the tarmac ready to leave, there wasn’t any room for extra gear, extra weight. Therefore, we were told to leave it. Some lower-level dudes including myself were like, ‘No, this stuff is expensive. I’m not leaving this. I’m gonna get charged for this when it’s time to leave.'” He then said that he and others who raised concerns were assured that it would be taken care of. “It’s time to get out of the Army and they want to charge you for that [the gear].”
In 2021, the U.S. federal government ordered a hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan, resulting in the loss of 13 military service members and more than $7 billion in equipment, which now lies in the hands of the Taliban — the violent extremist group the U.S. attempted to defeat for 20 years.
Over the course of 16 years, the U.S. gave $18.6 billion in equipment to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces — which fell apart entirely at the time of American soldiers’ withdrawal. According to a Department of Defense report, approximately $7.12 billion in weapons, ammunition, aircraft, air-to-ground munitions, military vehicles, communications equipment, and other equipment.
“Meanwhile, we can continue to give millions of dollars to the Taliban; we can give billions of dollars to Ukraine; we can give billions of dollars to student debt relief; we can give a bunch of stupid stimulus checks, we can cut those to the American people — but we can’t cover $500 to $1,000 for a dude that left gear in Afghanistan — for a dude that left gear in a place you put me to begin with. The government is so stinking backwards right now, man,” he added.
He said that the government’s “last priority” is the “American people, and inside of the American people their last priority is their soldiers, their Marines, their Airmen, their Navy.”
To this day, funding sent by the U.S. and member countries of the United Nations continue to keep Afghanistan’s economy afloat. Despite the immediate Taliban takeover of the nation, following the U.S. military’s exit, America has continued to fund the Afghan economy to the tune of $11 billion in the past two years. A report from John Sopko, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), dubbed the U.S. the “largest donor to the Afghan people,” even post-withdrawal.
The Army veteran who aired his complaints online said that he thought the moment would be “bittersweet,” but instead he said, “I’m just so happy to separate.” He concluded by stating that he was excited to “stop serving [his] government, and [to start] serving [his] country.”
