Many have called then-President Joe Biden’s August 2021 troop withdrawal from Afghanistan the most humiliating, disastrous, expensive and spectacularly incompetent military event in American history. And most agree it’s way past time for a serious probe into what really happened and why.
Thus, on May 20, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sent a memorandum intended for senior Pentagon leadership and other Department of Defense personnel, calling for a departmental review of the deadly, chaotic military withdrawal from Afghanistan. Among the many catastrophes that ensued, on Aug. 26, 2021, 13 U.S. service members and 170 civilians lost their lives to a suicide bombing at the Kabul International Airport’s Abbey Gate.
“The Department of Defense has an obligation, both to the American people and to the warfighters who sacrificed their youth in Afghanistan, to get to the facts,” Hegseth wrote. For this reason, he has directed the creation of “a Special Review Panel (SRP) for the Department who will thoroughly examine previous investigations, to include but not limited to, findings of fact, sources, witnesses, and analyze the decision making that led to one of America’s darkest and deadliest international moments.”
Lt. Col. Darin Gaub, USA-Ret., joined Fox News to discuss the timing of the investigating panel and more. Although three-and-a-half years have passed since the military’s chaotic withdrawal under the Biden administration, the former UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter pilot and battalion commander said, “It’s never too late to do this kind of review.” For him, accountability is an absolute necessity, “and that starts at every level, from the president on down to the people on the ground.”
Gaub, who deployed to Afghanistan four times in his career, quickly took to X to express his interest of joining the panel to investigate “the disastrous Afghanistan surrender.”
I was just on @foxnews to discuss Hegseth’s call for a review into the disastrous Afghanistan surrender.
It’s never too late for accountability and truth. I just wish I were on the commission to investigate and put my four years of service there to good use.
At one point… pic.twitter.com/Zv7PdNqw5U
— Darin L. Gaub (Callsign – Defiant) (@DLGaub) May 20, 2025
Speaking to WorldNetDaily, the former Black Hawk pilot first reiterated his point that “it’s never too late to hold people accountable for their actions,” while adding that, conceivably, some people may even need to be commended for their heroic actions. However, he said, “it ultimately comes down to this review” finally exposing the strategic, operational and tactical aspects that led to such a historic disaster.
“This includes the decision-making in the White House down to the radio calls made at the Abbey Gate,” Gaub asserted. The over-arching question of “who drove decisions” must be answered, he said, an imperative since many service members have lost trust in the nation’s military over the unbelievably incompetent and deadly outcome that transpired on Aug. 26, 2021, he explained.
For Gaub, courts-martial are not out of the question. “A court martial is not an admission or determination of guilt in advance; it is a process where the truth can be determined,” he explained. “The possible outcomes of courts-martial range from complete exoneration to incarceration.”
And while everyone has a right to a fair investigation, Gaub is cautious about the advancing careers of some that followed the Afghanistan withdrawal. For example, Maj. Gen. Chris Donahue, division commander of the 82nd Airborne, was “on the ground in Kabul, but where is he now? A four star in charge of American forces in Europe.” In addition, he said, “Donahue’s boss was a three-star who has since been promoted to commander of U.S. Central Command.”
“I’m not necessarily saying they are guilty of anything, but if you promote people involved in the Afghanistan disaster, I will say you could be creating a national security risk at the highest levels,” Gaub said, referencing again the urgency of the investigation announced by Hegseth. “What’s the evidence going to say?”