Task Force Antal

Category: Fundraising

  • Mark and Christine Antal of Task Force Antal Honored with Still Serving Awards

    Mark and Christine Antal of Task Force Antal Honored with Still Serving Awards

    The Antals were honored by the United Veterans War Council for Humanitarian Work in Ukraine and Afghanistan in a private ceremony on 1oth November, 2022 and again on the Today Show NBC on 11th November 2022 (Veteran´s Day)

    NEW YORK CITY (November 14, 2022)—In honor of their life-saving humanitarian work in Ukraine and Afghanistan, Task Force Antal co-founders Mark Antal, a decorated former Green Beret and member of Delta Force, and his wife Christine Antal, a former Army lawyer, were recognized with a Still Serving Award from the United Veterans War Council  (UVWC) in conjunction with Veteran’s Day.

    The award, given to veterans who exemplify ongoing service after they leave the military, was presented by Mark Otto, president and Executive Director of UVWC, who is himself a US Marine Corps Veteran of the Panama invasion and Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm. The presentation took place on the Plaza of The Today Show, which did a feature story on Task Force Antal (visit www.bit.ly/3tv3Rcz  ).

    “On behalf of the United War Veterans Council and the New York City Veterans Parade, it is my great privilege and honor to present this 2022 Still Serving Award for outstanding service to our country and the veteran’s community,” Otto said in presenting the award to Mark Antal who was accompanied by Christine and their three daughters.  Otto presented a second Still Serving Award to Christine Antal, an army veteran, co-founder of Task Force Antal, and the family’s “commander.”

    Headquartered in New York with offices and logistical hubs in Poland, Hungary, and Ukraine, Task Force Antal began in 2021 when Mark and Christine helped a friend evacuate his interpreter from Afghanistan during the U.S. withdrawal. Since then, it has leveraged its depth of knowledge and vast network to evacuate more than 2000 people from Afghanistan, become part of the Afghan Evacuation Coalition, and continue to support 1800 people on the ground awaiting unification and resettlement, including 1300 family members of active US Citizen soldiers.

    Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Task Force Antal has added humanitarian work to its portfolio, tapping a network of more than 60 veterans , who deliver food, medicine, critical trauma equipment,  transport, and temporary housing, as well as delivering supplies for NGOs and NPOs who are unable to enter war zones.

    The Antals are uniquely suited for this work. Since retiring in 2015 after more than 30 years of decorated service in the U.S. Special Forces, Mark has provided risk and crisis management services, counter-terrorism, and training and extraction services for various clients, and serves as the inaugural Ambassador for the Special Forces Charitable Trust. His awards and decorations include two Bronze Stars with Valor, four Bronze Stars, a Joint Service Commendation with Valor, and two Purple Hearts. Christine, an attorney, served over 14 years as a National Security legal advisor, spending six years as the primary Legal Advisor on Ukraine and Security Assistance at U.S. Army Europe from 2015-2021. 

    “We can’t stand back and let this happen when we have an opportunity to assist,” said Mark Antal in accepting the award. “Veterans want to help, and elite special operations veterans have the skills and expertise to provide life-saving service in conflict zones where others cannot go.”

    “This is democracy in action, said Christina Antal.  “We’re not going to be complacent, and we’re not going to be observers.  This is vital humanitarian work, and veterans are willing and able to make a difference.”

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    About Task Force Antal:

    A registered nonprofit in the U.S. (501c3), Hungary, and Ukraine, TFA is headquartered in New York City while maintaining offices in Hungary, Poland and Ukraine to best serve the people who need us most. It empowers elite special operations veterans to use their skills to continue their dedicated work after the military and provide life-saving services and support to those who need it most in conflict zones where others cannot or dare not go. Comprised of  Tier One Operators, medics, intelligence analysts, handlers, legal advisors, national security professionals, and logistical staff across the globe, Task Force Antal specializes in providing safe evacuation support, humanitarian aid, and complex crisis management solutions for U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, allies, and their families in the most conflict-ridden parts of the world where others cannot or dare not go. Its ability to come to the rescue of those in greatest need is based solely on independent contributions. It receives no government funding, and its team takes no salary. To learn more or make a tax-free donation, www.taskforceantal.org

    About the United War Veterans Council:

    The United War Veterans Council, Inc. (UWVC) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that honors and serves veterans. The UWVC supports and promotes a wide range of initiatives that provide vital services to our veterans community (including health, wellness and education); raises positive awareness and increases public understanding of the needs of our veterans community through major public events and promotional activities; and brings together veterans groups, community organizations, government agencies, businesses of all sizes and the general public. For more information, visit www.uwvc.org  and follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

  • Today Show NBC: Antal Family and Task Force Antal Featured on Veteran´s Day

    Today Show NBC: Antal Family and Task Force Antal Featured on Veteran´s Day

    Thank you to Today Show producers and hosts for the opportunity to share our mission with your viewers, and for helping to spread awareness about the important work and the lives our volunteers and donors are supporting through our Ukraine and Afghanistan programs. It was an honor.

    “Veterans and married couple Mark and Christine Antal’s sense of honor and duty compelled them to take on a new mission where they provide aid to Ukraine and Afghanistan. NBC’s Cynthia McFadden reports for TODAY.”

    Watch the segment.

  • Task Force Antal Afghanistan Volunteer Highlight: P.

    Task Force Antal Afghanistan Volunteer Highlight: P.

    We spoke with Task Force Antal Volunteer P.* about her time with the project, and what it means to be an advocate handler for families of U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and those who qualify for special immigration visas working through the immigration system and waiting period to be brought out of Afghanistan safely and lawfully.

    *As our volunteers put themselves at risk as direct liaisons to families targeted by the Taliban regime, their names have been withheld for security purposes.

    What is your role with Task Force Antal? 
     
    Originally, I helped coordinate the volunteers into various groups and acted as the liaison between leadership and the advocates assigned to each evacuee family, and I also helped with flushing out the org charts and some of the processes in the beginning. Now, I still work as part of the advocate team, the “handlers” as we are called. 
     
    What motivated you to become a volunteer with TFA? 
     
    I knew I wasn’t the only one feeling the way I did watching Afghans cling to the wheels of a C17. Suddenly I had coworkers approaching me about their Afghan counterparts. I was added to a chat with a colleague who had just redeployed from Afghanistan and we started flushing out ideas of how to get his interpreter out. It really just happened naturally; we were Task Force Antal before we were Task Force Antal. 
     
    What is the best part about volunteering with TFA? 
     
    The smiling faces of the kiddos reunited with their parents. 
     
     
    How do you feel after you’ve helped family members get safely to the states? 

    I smile, then remember the work isn’t done. On to the next. 
     
     
    What have you learned as a result of volunteering with Task Force Antal? 
     
    I am a proud American. There’s nothing a group of vets cannot do when they’re organized behind the right mission. 
     
     
    What do you want others to know about our organization? 
     
    We aren’t reckless cowboys. Rule of law and national policy are foundational principles. Safety first and always. 

    Is there anything that has surprised you related to your volunteer experience? 
     
    How small the universe is. Also, if we don’t remember the past we are bound to repeat it.  

    _______________________________

    If you´d like to join our team as a donor helping to protect, house, and transport those left behind by the U.S. withdrawal, we welcome your contribution. Please visit our Campaign #StillThereAFGH.

  • Out of Afghanistan, Prince Wafa Shares the Miracle

    Out of Afghanistan, Prince Wafa Shares the Miracle

    When the U.S. government withdrew from Afghanistan in August 2021 after 20 years of assisting the Aghan people to establish a democracy and fighting the Taliban, hundreds of thousands of our own were left behind. American citizens, lawful permanent residents, visa holders, U.S. service members, and Afghan colleagues who had fought beside us were left to fend for themselves in chaos and in fear for their lives as the Taliban violently took control of the country.  
     
    Prince Wafa, an Aghan-American citizen and San Diego business owner, and his wife, were among those who found themselves trapped in Afghanistan desperate for a way out.  
     
    In the summer of 2021, Prince returned to Afghanistan to help his wife. In 2018, the couple had applied for an immigration visa for his wife to join Prince in the United States, but due to a backlog in visa processing, she had been waiting for an interview and medical exam since 2019. As the Taliban began claiming territory and fearing for his wife’s safety, Prince returned to Afghanistan to find a way to get her to safety while waiting out the processing. Instead, when the U.S. troops and government left the country and it quickly fell to the Taliban, Prince found that he and his wife were now stuck behind enemy lines.  

    Prince returned to Afghanistan to find a way to get her to safety while waiting out the processing. Instead, when the U.S. troops and government left the country and it quickly fell to the Taliban, Prince found that he and his wife were now stuck behind enemy lines.  

    They were terrified. Prince dutifully called the numbers provided by the Embassy to no avail. The couple tried several times to go to Kabul airport to get on a U.S. State Department flight but were turned away. Money was running out and the security situation was becoming more precarious by the day. Back in the U.S., Prince’s business was faltering because of his absence. They needed help, and urgently.  
     
    That same August, after receiving countless calls from friends to help rescue family members and colleagues in similar situations, trapped in Afghanistan, Christine and Mark Antal and a team of special operations veterans, lawyers, and crisis managers responded to the crisis and would come to be known as Task Force Antal. Leveraging their depth of knowledge of the region and vast network, in the three days of chaos that ensued after the Taliban takeover, this volunteer task force facilitated the safe and lawful escape of hundreds of U.S. citizens, their family members, and Afghan colleagues.  

    We directly supported Prince and his wife on the ground in Afghanistan to keep them safe and helped resubmit the necessary documents to the U.S. Department of State to get the visa cleared. We were in contact with them every step of the way to ensure they made it out safely. 

    When Task Force Antal learned of Prince’s story, we immediately jumped to action. coordinating a letter-writing campaign to Prince’s congressional representatives and to the President. We directly supported Prince and his wife on the ground in Afghanistan to keep them safe and helped resubmit the necessary documents to the U.S. Department of State (DOS) to get the visa cleared. We were in contact with them every step of the way to ensure they made it out safely. 
     
    Inspired by the work Task Force Antal was doing to save people in Afghanistan, Prince joined our team as a volunteer on the ground helping to source and deliver medication to families in need, escorting families through Taliban checkpoints, and watching over traveling children.  
     
    It was a miracle that Prince and his wife made it out of Afghanistan and back to the United States. Prince has shared the miracle with many others. As soon as he made it back to the U.S., he organized fundraisers and food drives. He has remained a valued member of our team and continues to help with the logistics of keeping families still in Afghanistan safe and healthy.  

    Watch the NBC interview with Prince and Afghan Evac Coalition organizer Shawn Vandiver in the Task Force Antal media stories.

    Prince and his wife are among the 2000 people we have brought out of Afghanistan and kept safe from Taliban violence, but many others remain in danger. Task Force Antal currently cares for 1800 children, women, and men (1300 of which are immediate family members of U.S. citizens) in safehouses in Afghanistan and Pakistan. We keep these families safe, fed, healthy and supported.  

    We answer this call every day
    to keep people and hope
    alive in Afghanistan.

    The costs for providing safe housing, food, medicine, transportation, and doctor and application fees run in the range of $76,000 a month and rising) There is no government funding for this work, and the costs are covered solely by private donations from caring people like you. We will not stop fighting for families like Prince’s to get out of Afghanistan and to safety.  

    We leave no person behind.
    Please answer this call with us.

    Donate today to the #StillThereAFGH Campaign

  • Remembering Afghanistan in August, Then and Now

    Remembering Afghanistan in August, Then and Now

    Many ran for Kabul International Airport. It was complete chaos.

    That fateful night, August 15, 2021, sent hundreds of thousands of people running for their lives. American citizens, U.S. legal permanent residents, U.S. visa holders, and non-visa holding family members and Afghan allies of U.S. forces – all targets of Taliban retaliation, actively hunted by the terrorist organization as retribution for helping or being associated with the U.S. and its 20-year effort to keep Taliban terror at bay in the country. 

    There were few who were fortunate enough to reach the airport, then a gate, then an evacuation flight. Our team got a few hundred of them through and onto planes in those first days after the Taliban takeover. Since then, we´ve helped nearly 2000 get that miracle passage to safety. But there are thousands more still trapped, with months and months of waiting ahead of them.  

    The innocent children, women, and men left behind who had lived with or beside our U.S. citizen-soldiers in Afghanistan, served them as interpreters and intelligence operatives, fought in combat alongside them, married them, and birthed their children, and their actual children… they need us now more than ever. They have the right to lawful entry into the U.S., but the processes to secure their visas are arduous and flights are few and far between even for those who have long since been approved for evacuation and repatriation. 

    Today, Task Force Antal cares for 1800 children, women, and men that we are actively trying to get out. Those in this dire circumstance are not able to live and work freely in Afghanistan, as the Taliban continue to hunt, torture, and kill allies and family members of U.S. troops. But they can´t leave yet, because their paperwork is in process or there simply aren´t enough flights (as we publish this post, the average is only one flight per week). So, we hide and care for them as we advocate their cases with the State Department. 

    The innocent children, women, and men left behind who had lived with or beside our U.S. citizen-soldiers in Afghanistan, served them as interpreters and intelligence operatives, fought in combat alongside them, married them, and birthed their children, and their actual children… they need us now more than ever.

    These people require and deserve our full and dedicated support. We cannot and will not fail them.  

    The first call Christine and Mark Antal received to help a friend´s interpreter get to the gate in Kabul Airport, was one of countless calls Task Force Antal has answered. Our efforts have not let up, and we have not rested since that first day. Every day for a whole year, we have been a literal lifeline for thousands.

    We must continue to provide for those who haven´t yet made it out, who have yet to get their miracle. With your help, we can keep housing and caring for them, helping get them medical care and medicine, covering the high and rising costs of application processes. 

    Sincerely, every dollar counts. Please donate today to our campaign for those left behind in Afghanistan so that they may make it out alive, healthy, and able to live freely and safely. 

    Answer this call with us. 
    DONATE TODAY  

  • FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: One Year Anniversary of U.S. Withdrawal, Task Force Antal Increases Fundraising for U.S. Family Members Left Behind

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: One Year Anniversary of U.S. Withdrawal, Task Force Antal Increases Fundraising for U.S. Family Members Left Behind

    NEW YORK – August 15, 2022 – On the one-year anniversary of the withdrawal of United States and allied troops from Afghanistan, and the takeover of the country by the Taliban, Task Force Antal is launching a fundraising campaign to support its humanitarian efforts in the country.  

    In conjunction with the “Still There” campaign, Task Force Antal has launched a new website, taskforceantal.org, where people can read about its lifesaving work. 

    Following the Taliban takeover of the country and the humanitarian crisis that ensued, Task Force Antal got 2,000 immediate family members of United States citizen-soldiers and Afghan colleagues, such as interpreters, and allies out of the country. Task Force Antal is currently caring for 1,800 people in hiding who are at high risk for Taliban retribution, according to Mark Antal, who founded Task Force Antal with his wife, Christine Quinn Antal. 

    Task Force Antal was created as an immediate response to the urgent humanitarian crisis that ensued on August 15. 

    Gifts to the “Still There” fundraising campaign, which funds the housing, feeding, and medical and general care of those Task Force Antal is hiding from the Taliban, can be made on the Give Lively fundraising platform at https://taskforceantal.org/afghanistan/

    Task Force Antal’s lifesaving work is 100 percent supported by private donors, with no government funding.  

    There is an approximate 18-month wait to be granted visas and then get a flight out of the country. Task Force Antal is advocating for these people and their repatriation with the Department of State. 

    Task Force Antal is an original member of the #AfghanEvac coalition, whose members collaborate on a full pipeline of efforts, from humanitarian support on the ground through relocation opportunities and resettlement work. 

    “Through our efforts, we are blessed with a small role in alleviating that human suffering. We are blessed to watch them
    pursue… a life of freedom.”

    Task Force Antal Volunteer

    “Most of the people we assist are in mortal danger, do not have enough to eat, are in danger of losing their homes, and have not been able to work for a year. Through our efforts, we are blessed with a small role in alleviating that human suffering. We are blessed to watch them pursue legal residency in the United States, to pursue their citizenship, and to know we are helping them pursue a life of freedom. I’m never more encouraged than when I know we have assisted young girls and women escape a regime that would have them be second-class citizens and now they are free to pursue their dreams,” said a Task Force Antal volunteer. 

    In addition to its efforts in Afghanistan, Task Force Antal provides crises management services and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, including critical first response and medical equipment for volunteer defenders and community leaders on the ground.  

    “We support and protect the most vulnerable people trapped in active war zones by leveraging the expert skills of our world-class volunteers and elite special operations veterans. We provide critical services and humanitarian aid in conflict areas where others cannot or dare not go while enabling retired Tier One Operations veterans to continue their life’s work of protecting life and liberty for those who need them most,” Mark Antal said. 

    About Task Force Antal 

    Task Force Antal is a non-profit humanitarian action organization providing life-saving supplies, evacuation support, and crisis management to the vulnerable in high-risk conflict zones. Our team of world-class volunteers and elite special operations veterans is currently leading the humanitarian efforts in Ukraine and Afghanistan. Task Force Antal, a registered nonprofit in the United States, Hungary, and Ukraine, is headquartered in New York with offices in Hungary, Poland, and Ukraine. 

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