Shegal district, Afghanistan, Feb. 22, 2012: First Lt. Andrew Ferrara, a 23-year-old platoon leader from Torrance, Calif., talks with locals during a patrol of the main bazaar in Shegal district, Kunar province.

Through meetings with insurgent leaders in the district, Ferrara and Capt. Michael Kolton, commander of Company B, 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, try to persuade them to defect and cooperate with them. “How do you reconcile someone that has a personal hatred against everything that you stand for?” Kolton said. It’s a question they not only ask about the insurgents, but also of themselves having lost friends - and in Ferrara’s case, his older brother - to insurgent attacks.

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