Hadi is skinny with a scruffy beard and a wad of tobacco wedged in his lower lip. Two months ago, his quick action helped save the lives of Americans and Afghans. An Afghan national policeman had opened fire, killing two American Green Berets and two Afghans. Hadi ran to a nearby truck, grabbed a machine gun and shot him dead.
Hadi stops next to a river, just before the patrol crosses into the village.
He seems undisturbed about the U.S. leaving, noting that his men have the same weapons as the Americans.
"We are good in here," he says.
Hadi is among the most highly skilled Afghan soldiers. He serves on one of two-dozen Afghan special forces teams in eastern Afghanistan. The Americans want to train six more teams.
"I'm lucky because the guys I work with are doing the right thing, but there may be other areas that aren't as lucky as me, for sure," says the American Green Beret captain whose job it is to advise the Afghan forces.
For security reasons, we can't use his name.
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