Watching and reading the news recently has revived memories for us of Vietnam – not of combat, but of a look of desperation and fear. We see it now on the faces of thousands of Afghan citizens as they hasten to Kabul International Airport in hopes of being spirited away from their crumbling country and into the arms of the type of democratic nation that they have been fighting to build for the past two decades.

Where have we seen that look before?

In April 1975, one of us was 19 and on her way to Misawa Air Force base in northern Japan to serve as a Mandarin Chinese translator for the U.S. Army. The other was in his mid-20's, married and living in Norwich and having already served three years in the Marine Corps in Vietnam where he was awarded a Silver Star for "conspicuous gallantry" in battle.

That month, reports of the evacuation of Saigon were everywhere on TV, in newspapers, and on the radio. Most everyone recalls the photo of the CIA officer helping evacuees up a ladder to board a waiting helicopter hovering atop 22 Gia Long Street, which was a hotel about half a mile from the U.S. Embassy. It was a gut-wrenching scene.

Fewer people remember the story of Francis Terry McNamara, the consul general in the city of Can-Tho, about 100 miles from Saigon, who was told to evacuate 18 Americans but who demanded that he also rescue hundreds of Vietnamese citizens loyal to America – which he was allowed to do, but only by sea, not by helicopter. McNamara commandeered some barges, sailed down a Mekong Delta tributary, survived rocket fire from the Viet Cong and bobbed in the ocean for a few hours before being picked up by a CIA-chartered freighter.

One of the people McNamara saved was Anne Pham, 3 years old. She later went on to become a U.S. Foreign Service officer.

“By saving me on that fateful day, they planted the seeds of strength and hope that helped me to achieve my dream of working for the State Department," Pham later told U.S. officials. "While I am a product of a painful chapter in history, I am also a product of the greatness of America, with its diverse society, democratic ideals and opportunity for all.”

Now in August 2021, psychologically, we and other military veterans are back on the roof of 22 Gia Long Street. We think a good portion of America is, too.

In 2009 – almost a decade into our war in Afghanistan – Congress created something called a "Special Immigrant Visa" to provide refuge for Afghans who had worked with Americans as interpreters, translators, and advisers. It was a way to recognize the service of our in-country allies and to help save those who could be targeted by the Taliban for assisting the United States. Afghan security forces, government officials, journalists, judges, college students, women's rights advocates – they are all potential targets for reprisal.

These are the people who need our help. Of course we need to retrieve all American citizens, and we believe we will. But it’s a sad fact that the battlefields of war are filled with all manner of cast-offs and loss: minefields, shell casings, MRE packaging, bottled water, boots, Jeeps without keys. And human beings. It happened in Saigon. It happened with the Kurds. And it's happening again right now in Afghanistan.

We cannot leave behind the human capital who stood with us. It's imperative that we change our longstanding national policy of leaving behind those who helped us. We're not making a political statement about the 20-year Afghanistan War and how it's ending. We all have our own opinions, and this topic will be debated in many forums as we look to apportion both praise and blame.

What we will say is that while Americans are coming back home to a grateful country, many of the people who helped us are fleeing their homes, leaving behind clothes, furniture, bank accounts, businesses, and their hopes and dreams for a brighter future in their home country of Afghanistan.

If the lessons of Vietnam and other wars have taught us anything, it's that we must rescue and welcome as many of these Afghani allies as possible. We should not leave behind the men and women who stood beside us and who put their lives and the lives of their families on the line to serve America and our ideals of freedom, democracy and human rights. Somewhere in that crowd is another Anne Pham, another future American citizen waiting to do great things for the country that they cherish and befriended. Let's not let them down.

Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, is a U.S. Army veteran and the Democratic state senator from the 19th Senate District. Harold Tucker Braddock of Norwich spent three years in Vietnam with the U.S. Marine Corps.