A number of years ago my younger brother went to study in Egypt. While there he decided to climb Mt. Sinai alone. My mother has been blessed with two nature-loving yet slightly imbalanced sons. Upon returning to the U.S. he told me that while on Sinai he got lost and took several of the wrong trails. Eventually he found himself trapped on a cliff in cold weather without a visible means to get back on to surer footing. He thought he was going to die and started yelling for help. Eventually, from out of nowhere came a shepherd and pulled him off the cliff. Months Two years later, back in Cairo, a stranger approached my brother on the street and hugged him. He wondered why a strange man would be hugging him until he realized it was the same shepherd.

Time magazine has an exclusive account of the heroics of a South Asian shepherd and his village, once again proving that sometimes the most modest of men/women are needed to guide the way:

A crackle in the brush. That’s the sound the Afghan herder recalls hearing as he walked alone through a pine forest last month. When he looked up, he saw an American commando, his legs and shoulder bloodied. The commando pointed his gun at the Afghan. “Maybe he thought I was a Taliban,” says the shepherd, Gulab. “I remembered hearing that if an American sticks up his thumb, it is a friendly gesture. So that’s what I did.” To make sure the message was clear, Gulab lifted his tunic to show the American he wasn’t hiding a weapon. He then propped up the wounded commando, and together the pair hobbled down the steep mountain trail to Sabari-Minah, a cluster of adobe-and-wood homes–crossing, for the time being, to safety.

What Gulab did not know is that the commando he encountered was part of a team of Navy SEALs that had been missing for four days after being ambushed by Taliban insurgents during a reconnaissance mission in northeastern Afghanistan.

After taking the SEAL to Sabari-Minah, Gulab called a village council and explained that the American needed protection from Taliban hunters. It was the SEAL’s good fortune that the villagers were Pashtun, who are honor-bound never to refuse sanctuary to a stranger. By then, said Gulab, “the American understood that we were trying to save him, and he relaxed a bit.”

The Taliban was not so agreeable. That night the fighters sent a message to the villagers: “We want this infidel.” A firm reply from the village chief, Shinah, shot back. “The American is our guest, and we won’t give him up as long as there’s a man or a woman left alive in our village.”

…Gulab now fears that his act of compassion may mean his death warrant. After returning the SEAL, he went back to grab his family and flee before the Taliban would come round seeking revenge. In the mountains of Kunar, fear is rising again.

Ironic isn’t it? The same Pashtun honor code that some believe allows Osama Bin Laden to evade capture, also saved the life of one of our NAVY SEALS.