In Afghanistan, NATO special-operations soldiers fought with tremendous courage and unwavering loyalty to their American counterparts. That commitment did not come without a cost, either. I stood on the tarmac in Bagram and Kandahar many times paying my final respects to soldiers from the U.K., Canada, Australia, France, Denmark, and Germany. Never have I seen such an outpouring of respect and admiration for their contribution to the fight. I also mourned the loss of the first Romanian soldier to have died in combat since World War II—just one of the 27 who fell in Afghanistan.