The Pentagon had been drawing down the troop presence in Afghanistan for years, and the Biden administration made it clear the last remaining troops would be out by September 11 at the latest. As the withdrawal progressed, it became clear they would be out far earlier. Over the last few days of the US withdrawal, crews loaded shipping crates onto cargo planes, loading up the last of what was deemed valuable enough to remove from the country. On Tuesday, US Central Command, which oversees Afghanistan, said it had removed the equivalent of nearly 900 C-17 cargo loads out of Afghanistan and destroyed nearly 16,000 pieces of equipment.