Private rescue group now deploying to Lebanon, motivated by memory of Afghan withdrawal chaos

As Israel continues to conduct airstrikes deep inside Lebanon and contemplates a ground invasion to neutralize the Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah, one American rescue group deploying with the goal of evacuating U.S. citizens is still motivated by the memory of the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. 

The founder of the Grey Bull Rescue group told Just the News Thursday he hopes his efforts will fill an important gap left by government evacuators and rescue planners and help American citizens in Lebanon leave the country, a role his team played before in evacuating citizens left behind in the wake of the chaotic U.S. military pullout from Afghanistan.

He said that any citizen stuck in the country that wishes to leave should contact his group, Grey Bull Rescue. The nonprofit group is funded by donations through the same website. 

Bryan Stern, who leads the group, said he and his team have already conducted “in the dozens” of both evacuations and rescues in Lebanon since the State Department issued its warning in August for U.S. citizens to leave the country in the midst of the escalating violence between Hezbollah and Israel. 

“So in Lebanon, we have ground options, maritime options and air options based off evacuations and rescues leveraged against the threat at the time. So, right now I have boats sitting in Lebanon where I can bring people to Cyprus or Turkey. I also have access in southern Lebanon, in Hezbollah-filled, Israeli-bomb-riddled, southern Lebanon, where we can do operations there also, and we've already done operations in that part of Lebanon recently,” Stern told Just the News in an interview. 

The group does not disclose the numbers of successful evacuations and rescues, but said dozens of successful operations have been conducted in the country since they began their efforts. 

Israel began a bombing campaign last week against Hezbollah positions, munitions depots, and rocket sites after enduring months of rocket attacks from the Iran-backed terror group. The group, which also operates as a political party in Lebanon, has strongholds in the south of the country along the Israeli border and in the Beqaa valley in the north, where Israel has concentrated its attacks.

On Friday, Israel conducted what it described as a targeted strike on Hezbollah headquarters in Southern Beirut, the capital of Lebanon. Israel’s recent response comes after Hezbollah rocket attacks begun in the wake of October 7 when the Palestinian terror group Hamas launched an across-the-border attack from the Gaza Strip. The terror group said that its strikes into Israel at that time were designed to overwhelm Israel and overextend the country to blunt a retaliatory assault on Hamas. 

Stern noted that in this escalating scenario, even if the U.S. government wanted to evacuate its citizens from Hezbollah-dominated areas, it would be difficult for the Americans to safely travel to the designated evacuation points. 

“Well, if you're in southern Lebanon and you're surrounded by Hezbollah, how do you get to the boat? Right, right. Are we going to send Marines into Lebanon to go drive people? No, we are not, probably not, probably not, right?” he said. 

Stern said the group’s previous operation in Haiti showed them how they could do what the U.S. government could or would not do. 

“What we did is, is we did density mapping. Figured out where there were clusters of Americans and I flew helicopters into their backyards. That way they're not on the streets, because the streets are where it's dangerous,” he said. 

Stern’s team first conducted foreign rescue and evacuation operations in the wake of the chaotic American evacuation withdrawal from Afghanistan. Back then, his operation was called Project Dynamo, which he set up with friends shortly after the withdrawal began. 

Watching the withdrawal on TV made him angry as an Afghan War veteran and 9/11 first responder and motivated him to do something to help, Stern told Just the News.

“So when Afghanistan happened as an Afghan vet, as a vet of the Afghan war, and a lot of other things… I was a 9/11 first responder. A lot, a lot, a lot of things went into it, but I didn't want to just watch it on TV,” Stern said. 

"I got very upset, got very angry with so many people, but knowing that I was able to help, we packed our stuff, we got we got our, kind of got the band back together, and we deployed overseas, and we've been deployed pretty much consistently since then, all over the world,” he continued. 

The group saw immediate success. On September 28, 2021, a privately chartered flight left the Kabul Airport carrying more than 100 U.S. citizens, green card holders, and other American visa holders that had been trapped in the country after U.S. forces completed their final pullout on August 15. 

"It was just pure emotion," Stern, who was personally on the flight, told Business Insider at the time. "I was just so relieved and happy with what we had accomplished.” 

Stern says this was the first successful privately chartered flight to leave Afghanistan. 

“My team and I, we became famous for getting the first airplane out of Afghanistan under Taliban rule about three years ago,” he told Just the News. 

“We did 117 Americans about a month after the last US military guy was in Afghanistan. General Donahue was the last man, he left August 30. We were doing operations the whole time, but our big monster enchilada, first big monster enchilada was was 117 Americans left behind Afghanistan a month after the military and the government left, right, without any option whatsoever,” Stern said, noting the three-year anniversary of that operation this week. 

Since the group’s work in Afghanistan began three years ago, they have engaged in operations across other global hotspots to bring Americans home or getting them out of danger zones, including in Ukraine, Russia, and Gaza. 

“We've done 617 operations in 37 months. It turns into…just over 7,000 people. We've conducted operations in Afghanistan, Ukraine, Russia, Sudan, Haiti, Israel, Gaza, hurricane, Ian, the fires in Maui,” Stern said. “So we've done lots of different kinds of operations all over the world in the last three years.” 

Those U.S. citizens still in Lebanon in need of an evacuation or rescue can go to Grey Bull Rescue’s website and click on “REQUEST HELP.”