CJ Photinos

Pictured: CJ Photinos (Photo obtained via KSDK) 

KABUL, Afghanistan (WAND) - A St. Louis native's work is helping with intense air evacuation efforts happening in Afghanistan. 

Captain CJ Photinos was called to deploy early during the week of Aug. 16 when she was visiting family in St. Louis. Now, she's pushing forward with her mission after a suicide attack outside of the Kabul airport carried a high death toll, including the lives of at least 13 U.S. service members and over 100 Afghans.

Photinos is a crew commander of a C-17 Globemaster, which is the type of Air Force plane helping thousands of Americans and refugees out of Afghanistan, NBC affiliate KSDK reports. She has spent most of her time in the air since first touching down, as the flight time to the safe zone from Kabul is close to three hours, and the crew is cleared to fly for 26 straight hours with two other pilots on the plane. 

Every minute of that 26-hour time is used to do what needs to be done, she said. 

"We're doing most of the heavy lifting out here," Photinos told KSDK in a phone interview that happened in a brief break between flights. "For them to pretty much call up every C-17 squadron to put in work out here is really something."

She wasn't allowed to divulge just how many missions she's flow and hasn't had time to count the number of people that have been rescued. 

It's possible that some of the rescued people could end up in St. Louis, and Photinos said she hopes her hometown is ready. 

"It's just a really good time to remember how to be a human being and how to have compassion and empathy," she said. "So many of these passengers got on our plane with like one shoe and the clothes on their back."