After his son died fighting in Afghanistan, Phil Schmidt became a walking memorial. 

Jonathan Schmidt should have been coming home from Afghanistan that month.  Instead two Army officers arrived at Schmidt's home bearing the news that Jonathan had died in a firefight.

They didn't have many details, only that Jonathan had been shot in the back — and that didn't make sense to Phil Schmidt. As he set out to find out more, one of his son's teammates made a surprising suggestion.

"He said, 'Have you contacted AK?' " Schmidt recalls. "And I said, 'Who's AK?' " That's the nickname of the Afghan interpreter who worked with Jonathan through his whole deployment with a Special Forces team.

Schmidt reached out to AK on Facebook and they started talking. At first, Schmidt mostly wanted to know about his son's final moments in a remote Afghan village.

AK was just a baby in the late 1980s when his father was killed by a rocket during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.  When the American military came to Afghanistan years later, AK volunteered as an interpreter. Before long, AK was working exclusively with Special Forces, in the thick of the fighting.

"He's been shot at, blown up, wounds to his chest and legs, he's been doing this since he was 19," says Schmidt. "Putting himself in harm's way, to help us."

Afghans and Iraqis who worked with Americans during the wars in those countries were promised U.S. visas. A program called the Special Immigrant Visa was designed to reward Afghans and Iraqis just like AK.

Since 2007, the U.S. has provided more than 14,000 visas to Afghan and Iraqi workers, who are allowed to bring their family members as well. But at least 13,000 are still waiting.  When AK applied for the visa, he had a glowing reference letter from the commander of all U.S. Special Operations in Afghanistan. He was told to wait about 90 days. That was four years ago. - Read More at NPR

American Dad Fights For The Afghan Interpreter Who Aided His Fallen Son