Las Vegas rideshare driver helps facilitate wife’s escape from Afghanistan

By Kim Passoth

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    LAS VEGAS (KVVU) — They are a couple caught in chaos. They’ve been a world apart for more than a year, but they will soon be back together.

Last week, FOX5 shared the story of a local Uber driver who was born in Afghanistan and served as an interpreter for the U.S. military, desperately trying to get his wife out of the country.

Now he said he feels comfortable showing his face and using his nickname “HK” knowing his wife has safely made it out.

“I heard from the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait, that my wife is in Kuwait … they made it. They are inside. They are safe,” HK said.

Since he got married one year ago, HK said he tried unsuccessfully to get his wife a U.S. Visa and get her to Las Vegas, but the urgency escalated when the country fell to the Taliban within the last few weeks.

“This is the ‘No Sleep Club’ that has assembled from across the country,” Bryant Johnson said.

Johnson, a Las Vegas business owner, met HK a couple of weeks ago. HK is a rideshare driver and picked him up from a business meeting at the Wynn and shared his story of desperation.

“There’s stories like this all around us if we take time not to stereotype those around us,” Johnson said.

Since that fateful encounter, Johnson has been helping HK. Both are at an undisclosed location within the U.S., a command center of sorts where people with loved ones still in Afghanistan are coming to work together, doing everything they can from a world away to help those still trapped in a country in chaos.

It was not just HK’s wife they were able to get out.

“My buddy that served with me, Zack, on the same unit in Afghanistan, him, his pregnant wife, and his 18-month-old baby with my brother-in-law, my wife, and another interpreter’s wife that lives in Vegas, so I was able to save not just my wife but two other women, a baby, and two males,” HK said.

HK said he can’t wait for his wife to come to the U.S. for the first time and start her a new life and live the American dream.

“I am going to take her down the Strip on a drive, and it’s got to be a drop-top so she can see all the lights and stuff and we will go from there,” HK said.

HK said he does not yet have a date his wife will arrive in Las Vegas. He doesn’t want to reveal exactly how they were able to get her into the airport and onto a flight hoping they can still help more people.

For now, he said he will be staying at the command center, helping translate and trying to get other people out knowing exactly what their families are going through.

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