Leaving Afghanistan, U.S. general's ghostly image books place in history

A combination image shows U.S. Army Major General Chris Donahue, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, stepping on board a C-17 transport plane as the last U.S. service member to leave Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan August 30, 2021 in a photograph taken using night vision optics, and Boris Gromov, the last commander of the Soviet Union's 40th army in Afghanistan, holding flowers as he walks on a bridge with a boy during the withdrawal of the last Soviet troops from Afghanistan, in Termez, Soviet Union, February 15, 1989 in this still image taken from video. XVIII Airborne Corps/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo and Reuters TV via REUTERS

(Reuters) - Carrying his rifle down by his side, Major General Chris Donahue, commander of the storied 82nd Airborne Division, became the last U.S. soldier to board the final flight out of Afghanistan a minute before midnight on Monday.

Taken with a night vision device from a side window of the C-17 transport plane, the ghostly green and black image of the general striding toward the aircraft waiting on the tarmac at Kabul's Hamid Karzai Airport was released by the Pentagon hours after the United States ended its 20-year military presence https://www.reuters.com/world/india/rockets-fired-kabul-airport-us-troops-race-complete-evacuation-2021-08-30 in Afghanistan.