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[As 2014 comes to a close, the ABC News Brian Ross Investigative Unit looks back on some major reports over the last year.]

A year ago, Jim Gant by outward appearances blended perfectly into Seattle's laid back coffee culture with his long hair, shaggy beard, baggy shirts and jeans, wandering the streets jobless and forlorn. Undoubtedly few if any who encountered him knew that he was in reality one of the most decorated and combat experienced Special Forces officers of his generation a man that two of America's most distinguished war commanders called "Lawrence of Afghanistan".

Gants distinguished career in U.S. Special Forces had all ended disastrously in March 2012 when, after an unheard of 22 straight months in combat leading a major program of adopting local attire and tactics to win Pashtun tribal leaders' loyalty against the Taliban and al Qaeda, other Special Forces officers swept into Gant's base in the most dangerous corner of the warzone and relieved him of command.

Courtesy of Ann Scott Tyson

PHOTO: Former Special Forces Maj. Jim Gant, center, insisted that his troops dress like locals in eastern Afghanistan to better win their trust.

Gant, a Silver Star Medal recipient, was accused of conduct unbecoming an officer, of going too native in helping local Afghans, of abusing prescription drugs and alcohol and for allowing his then-girlfriend, Washington Post war correspondent Ann Scott Tyson, to live with his team in Kunar province on the Pakistan border -- for almost a year. It was mostly true -- but he won't apologize for it, saying his unconventional methods produced results.

Gant was also winning, a rare circumstance in a counterinsurgency campaign that had gone off the rails not long after U.S. forces first arrived in 2001.

A months-long ABC News investigation broadcast in June found that Gant's PTSD-driven substance abuse was widespread in Special Forces in Afghanistan, who, like him, were still highly effective warriors.

"You cannot let violence go unanswered and you have to be prepared to be more violent than they are," Gant said. Otherwise, he said, "they'll kill you." When the Taliban did attack, tribal warriors helped the Americans fight back ferociously. They didn't fear Taliban retribution because Gant demanded any attack be met with ten times as much firepower in response.

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Investigative Unit 2014: Lawrence of Afghanistan