THE GREEN BERET WHO RETURNED TO THE BATTLEFIELD WITH ONE LEG

A patrol together with special forces of the Afghan National Army was planned for that day. The ODA leaders had just finished their orders brief and were about to check the radios when an officer of the Afghan National Police climbed onto a truck, turned the mounted PKM machine gun on the American team and pulled the trigger. At the same moment 15–20 insurgents opened fire 200 meters north of the outpost.

“Nick” Lavery was standing next to another US soldier when the attacker opened fire on them, and he had only an instant to react. He shoved his comrade to the ground and put himself in front of him to shield him from the machine gun fire. A moment later several 7.62 mm rounds cut him down as well, tearing up his thigh and severing the artery. Lying on the ground, Lavery shouted at his comrades to get into cover and look after the men who were less badly wounded, convinced that he was going to die anyway. During the firefight the special forces did manage to pull him out of the line of fire and get him onto a MedEvac helicopter after 90 minutes, and on the way he went into cardiac arrest once and had to be resuscitated. The insider attack killed 2 US soldiers and 4 Afghans, and 17 more were wounded.

The wound was so severe that Lavery went through surgery almost every day, and he lost nearly his whole right leg. He wore a prosthesis from then on and was offered a discharge from the Army on full pay, but Nick fought his way back into active duty and, after 2 years of training, went on his 5th deployment with his team. He was also awarded the Silver Star for his selfless action during the insider attack. You can find him on Instagram at @machine.nc

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