Norwin grad, Afghan war vet, helps interpreters to safety

A Norwin grad who served three tours of duty in Afghanistan over the past 15 years was able to help two Afghan interpreters he worked with at bases in Afghanistan safely escape the chaos of Kabul in the last hours of the massive U.S. airlift of evacuees.

Major Jason Smith, 46, a North Huntingdon native, said Monday afternoon that one of his interpreters, identified only as Q, made it onto a flight to Qatar, and another interpreter, A, made it to Paris.

“They are quarantined, so I don’t know their final stops yet,” Smith said.

Smith, a 1993 Norwin High School graduate who joined the Air Force in 1994, plans to retire from the military in January. He is hoping to have a reunion with the two interpreters with whom he worked in Afghanistan.

“If I can get them here for my retirement ceremony, I certainly will,” Smith said.

He credits the interpreter Q with saving his life when he was part of the Provincial Reconstruction Team in the Panjshir province when the interpreter hurried him out of a diner where two suspected Taliban fighters were located.

Since the fall of Kabul, Smith had been working frantically in an effort to get both interpreters through Taliban checkpoints to Hamid Karzai International Airport and through security to where they could board planes. Smith said he worked with aides for Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Lehigh Valley, to plow through the bureaucratic red tape to ensure the interpreters had the proper documentation. He said he also had assistance from a fellow Norwin grad who has connections in Washington, D.C.

Because Smith remains on active duty, he can not comment on current events in Afghanistan as the United States removed the last of its military troops from Afghanistan, ending an almost 20-year presence in that country.