An Afghan translator who spent 9 years risking his life to assist U.S. forces in Afghanistan has just celebrated his first Fourth of July as a U.S. citizen.

Although his duties as a translator never required it, Janis Shinwari saved the lives of several U.S. soldiers—and one of them decided to return the favor, by offering to bring Janis and his family to the U.S.

If he would have stayed in Afghanistan, the translator “wouldn’t be alive today,” he told CNN Heroes in 2018.