(Military.com) Thousands of Afghans briefly called Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia home after fleeing a Taliban takeover in August.
The last of those 3,755 refugees were resettled elsewhere in the U.S. just days before Christmas, leaving only an empty, impromptu village of tents and barracks rooms on the base — and a $188 million bill for the Marine Corps and the Pentagon.
The cost of the housing effort reported this week by the Defense Department inspector general is a snapshot of Operation Allies Welcome, the mission of eight stateside bases to host 67,000 Afghan refugees airlifted out of Kabul at the end of August when the U.S. military ended all operations in Afghanistan after a 20-year war.
