Last fall, President Donald Trump signed an executive order pledging to protect Qatar, which hosts not only key American military bases, but also a large population of Americans working overseas. However, that agreement didn’t protect Qatar from becoming a target for Iranian missiles when the American war machine began bombing Iranian nuclear and military facilities on February 28. Caught in the crosshairs were Dexter native Eric Kumbier and his wife Alexa, teachers at an embassy-affiliated American school in Qatar.
After increasingly tense days and negotiations, the couple managed to flee from the war with their three-year-old and nine-month-old daughters and four bags, not knowing when—or if—they would ever see their home, their classrooms, or their friends again.
On the first day of the war, February 28, the Kumbiers received shelter-in-place orders from the American embassy in Doha. Soon afterwards, they heard bombs start to fall and anti-aircraft fire responding. “Alexa and I ordered some groceries and stayed inside,” Eric says. “This might surprise a lot of people, but Qatar is a very safe country, so we weren’t really worried.”
The Kumbiers live and work in an embassy compound with a pool, gym, clubhouse, sauna, squash courts, and excellent schools in the capital city of Doha, located on the Persian Gulf. “It’s a great place,” Kumbier says. “Teachers’ families often gather in the streets for potlucks and beers, and when they’re old enough, children run freely up and down the streets unsupervised—much like the way my parents described growing up in the suburbs in the 1960s.”
February 28 wasn’t the first time the Kumbiers had heard bombing raids, so they weren’t overly concerned, he adds. Last June, when the United States attacked military facilities in Iran, the U.S. embassy also issued a shelter-in- place order.
Typically, the Kumbiers would have been back in the States at the time, visiting relatives during summer break, but they had stayed in Qatar for the birth of their daughter Mika. Days after the baby arrived, they heard a series of explosions. “I frantically scrolled through news sites to find out what was happening.”
However, after the initial scare, he says, “A couple things became apparent. One, the explosions were actually the Qatari air defenses intercepting the missiles. Two, it was clear that Iran specifically chose Qatar because it has a U.S. military base. This was widely seen as a de-escalatory move unlikely to lead to retaliation, and things quickly returned to normal.”
But that wouldn’t be the case this time around.
Why Choose to Live in Qatar?
“Alexa and I are teachers who have worked in international schools since 2014, both to seek adventure, but also because international schools provide generous benefits that afford more travel opportunities and savings potential,” Eric Kumbier says.
After assignments in China and Lebanon, the couple moved to Qatar in 2019, when Eric was hired to teach sixth-grade social studies, and Alexa was offered a second-grade position in an embassy-affiliated American school “with a strong reputation, solid benefits, and a strong community for raising kids.”
Qatar attracts working professionals from around the world, many from Western countries, but also immigrants from Africa and Asia, Kumbier points out. “Crime rates are much lower than in U.S. cities. Actually, Qatari citizens make up no more than 15 percent of the population. This country is very diverse and typically very safe. Women are expected to dress more modestly than in the U.S., but few women cover their faces.”
When the explosions stopped that night, the ex-pat families gathered outside to discuss the situation. “I know it sounds strange, but on a minute-by-minute basis, I felt safe.” At the time, they didn’t know that sixteen Qataris had been injured by shrapnel caused by the nation’s inceptors. But, still, the situation was “unsettling.”
After the first day of U.S. attacks on Iran, the sounds of explosions became less frequent. To be on the safe side, the Kumbiers’ school went online, although grocery stores and professional offices remained open. “People mostly hunkered down, but grocery stores and doctors’ offices remained open,” he says. “We could even get food delivered.”
However, safety became the couple’s top concern after the United States renewed attacks on Iran.
To Leave or Not to Leave?
“Qatari air space closed, and there were—and still are—questions about how quickly the stockpile of interceptors was being depleted. Additionally, Qatar relies on desalination plants for its water supply, so it was vulnerable. In short,” Kumbier says, “our fear stemmed more from uncertainty than from specific threats to our health or safety, and most of our colleagues felt similarly”—although some, he added, chose to remain in the compound.
But the Kumbiers decided to leave Qatar.
Frequent calls to the American embassy and more calls to the phone numbers Secretary of State Marco Rubio had posted were dead ends—”Americans received no warning, support, or guidance about how to evacuate the region.”
The Kumbiers applied for visas to Saudi Arabia and Eric explored various means of leaving Qatar. At first, he tried to hire a bus that could transport 49 people to the airport in Riyahd while reserving hotel rooms, booking flights, double-checking passports numbers, and answering calls and emails from worried family members, and friends—all the while deciding what to pack and saying goodbye to friends and colleagues.
When the bus idea fell through and the visas arrived, the couple hired a driver to transport them from Doha to Riyadh, a seven-hour journey across the desert. “We saw very few signs of war because very few missiles are actually hitting their targets. They’re intercepted,” he suggests. “The media here focuses on the missiles that do hit or the fires from falling shrapnel, but most people are going about their daily lives and taking cover when they are specifically notified to do so.”
To his surprise, their hotel in Riyadh hosted an outdoor iftar buffet dinner for Muslims breaking their fasts during Ramadan. “We opted for room service, but I considered the threat level quite low.” They had a restful sleep on Friday, March 6 and relaxed at the hotel the next day before arriving at the Riyadh airport on Saturday night for an early Sunday morning flight.
At that point, flights had become sporadic, since any threats to the nearby Saudi airbase shut down Riyadh airspace. As the Kumbiers’ family members in the U.S. waited anxiously, they learned that the original flight to Istanbul was delayed, then cancelled, when a threat to the airbase caused an eight-hour shutdown. They rebooked a flight for Istanbul the next day and returned to the hotel.
Back at the airport on Sunday, they waited. “Once again, this is an example of the odd normalcy throughout this entire experience,” Kumbier observes. “Everyone just accepted that we’d take off whenever it was safe.” When their plane took off for Istanbul, Eric watched the flight tracker nervously until the plane was well clear of Riyah’s air space and he realized they really were going to get out of the Middle East.
After a twenty-hour layover in Istanbul, the Kumbiers climbed on a plane bound for Los Angeles. There they were reunited with Alexa’s family.
“We’re grateful for my in-laws’ hospitality, but the situation here is challenging,” he admits. “We’re staying with Alexa’s family. There is an 11-hour time difference between California and Qatar, so we’re teaching online from 10 p.m. until 3 a.m., and the girls are up at 5 a.m., so we can’t say we’ve caught up on our sleep.” At some point they plan to return to Michigan—but they have no idea when.
And they wonder what the future holds—for them and the war.
What Happens Next?
“Qatar has the strongest record of defending itself, more than any other countries in the region,” he says. “Many of my colleagues are choosing to stay there. Lebanon, where we lived before Qatar, is a different story, though.”
He adds, “I have to say that I was incredibly lucky to have a relatively full bank account and a U.S. passport for us all. Many nationalities are not eligible for the easy Saudi E-visa, and they are quite literally trapped.”
Right now, he says his biggest fear is the uncertainty. “We don’t know when we will be able to go back. We don’t know where our daughter will go to school or when. We don’t know if we just said goodbye—or didn’t get a chance to say goodbye—to many friends for the last time.”
In response to a flood of emails and calls, Eric’s mother announced the family’s safe arrival on Facebook as soon as she heard the news, adding, “We are incredibly grateful for everyone who prayed, checked in, and supported them along the way. Please keep the many other families who are still trying to find their way home in your thoughts and prayers.”
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