True or false: The August 2021 Kabul airlift was the largest non-combatant evacuation in US military history.

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The August 2021 Kabul airlift was indeed the largest non-combatant evacuation operation in US military history. Between August 14 and August 30, US military and coalition partners evacuated more than 123,000 people from Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. US military personnel alone transferred 79,000 civilians through the airport over the 18-day mission. This exceeded previous major evacuations, including the 1975 evacuation of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War. The scale was made possible by around-the-clock flights and the use of large military cargo aircraft. In one remarkable instance on August 16, a single C-17 Globemaster III cargo plane evacuated approximately 823 people to Qatar, far exceeding the aircraft normal capacity of about 150 paratroopers. The historic scale of the operation reflected the urgent circumstances: the Taliban had seized control of Afghanistan faster than US intelligence had predicted, creating a desperate rush to evacuate Americans, allied nationals, and Afghan allies.

True or false: The August 2021 Kabul airlift was the largest non-combatant evacuation in US military history.

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