Afghans AWOL From U.S. Military Base

In a story that the U.S. government has worked hard to keep quiet, a major news organization reveals that numerous Afghan soldiers attending English classes at a Texas Air Force base have disappeared with the help of their Mexican girlfriends.

The young men, all members of the Afghan military, were participating in a special exchange program at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio when they went AWOL (absent without leave), according to a diplomatic official quoted in the news story. Most were attending the Defense Language Institute’s English Language Center, a precursor to receiving specialized military training at sites throughout the U.S.

Some of the deserters are believed to be in Canada and others have vanished to unknown locations, according to authorities quoted in the piece. Most of the Afghans disappeared with the help of Mexican girlfriends they met at local bars, many of them illegal immigrants. The ring of abettors is affectionately referred to as “Big Mexican Women” by their Afghan boyfriends.

Because many of them are illegal aliens, the women have offered the Afghan soldiers great tips on traveling throughout the U.S. without documentation. Authorities estimate that at least 46 members of the Afghan military have gone AWOL from the language institute in the last few years.

Embarrassed U.S. officials clearly prefer to keep this from going public. The Department of Defense has deferred all inquiries to the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which is supposedly the lead agency responsible for the AWOL Afghans. ICE, in turn, claims that all inquiries should go the Defense Department. For its part, the FBI says that is has “an interest in locating these individuals.”