Nonprofit helps bring home Americans escaping war in Middle East

Americans evacuated from Middle East come home

A group of nearly 100 Americans evacuated from the war in the Middle East have returned to the U.S., arriving at Dulles International Airport Sunday. Another flight is expected to return with more evacuees on Monday.

DULLES, Va. - Nearly 100 Americans evacuated from the Middle East arrived home in the United States on Sunday, thanks to the help of a nonprofit.

Americans return from Middle East

What we know:

In total, 88 people arrived at Dulles International Airport from Jordan on Sunday morning, many of them students on a school trip to Israel. 

What they're saying:

The evacuees called the process of getting out of the region "really scary," and were stressed about how or when they would get home.

"I was a little scared because I've never been to any of these places," one evacuee said after landing. "I was worried about my parents, what they were thinking. It was a really scary experience for them."

"Before the flight, we were stressing [about] if we were going to get on it or not, but once we got on it, we were excited," said another.

Nonprofit helping fly evacuees home

Dig deeper:

The Americans were brought home with the help of Grey Bull Rescue, a nonprofit that works to get Americans out of war zones and disaster areas.

Sunday morning's flight home was one of several the group has coordinated this week.

Gray Bull Founder Bryan Stern is on the ground in the Middle East coordinating the rescue efforts. He said that the group has completed more than 800 missions, rescuing more than 8,000 people. Yet, he said, this current conflict in the Middle East is one of the most complex.

"This conflict is very, very strange in comparison to other conflicts here in the Middle East," said Stern. "We've done ops in Israel and Gaza and Lebanon and Syria and Iran, but this one is very complicated. There's a lot of fear of the unknown with this particular conflict. Whole airports and major hubs are shut down with thousands of aircraft stuck on the ground."

Grey Bull was able to get the Americans from Israel to Jordan, then back to the U.S. The group works with the U.S. State Department.

Stern said that his organization still has hundreds of requests from people trying to get out. 

What's next:

At least one more flight of evacuees is expected to land at Dulles sometime overnight Sunday into Monday morning.