NASHVILLE – Landing with his family at Nashville International Airport on Thursday, Afghan refugee Wazir Zadran walked out of the terminal and into a new life in the U.S.

Zadran and his family were putting a long, daunting journey behind them. If it wasn’t for an airlift by American forces piloting a Chinook helicopter, Zadran and his family likely would not have made it out of Kabul, embroiled in bloody chaos after the Afghan capital fell to the Taliban.

“We are feeling very well because we left a bad area,” Zadran told the Daily News as he stepped out of the airport’s south terminal, his wife and six young children in tow. “We are lucky.”

Following the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, ending a 20-year presence there, the Taliban are dealing with domestic challenges to their rule and pursuing international legitimacy as the new governing power in the country.

Senior Taliban officials and U.S. representatives continue to hold talks about containing extremist groups in Afghanistan and easing the evacuation of foreign citizens and Afghans from the country, the Associated Press recently reported.

In the country, the Islamic State terrorist group continues to challenge the Taliban’s new grip on the country. In Kabul earlier this month, an Islamic State suicide bomber struck at a mosque packed with Shiite Muslim worshippers, killing 46 people and wounding dozens more, the AP reported.

Here in the U.S., most people want to see Afghans who worked with Americans in the Afghanistan war offered refuge here.

A recent survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 72% of Americans say they favor the U.S. granting refugee status to people who worked with U.S. or Afghan governments during the war, provided they pass security checks.

Zadran and his family are among roughly 200 Afghan refugees that are expected to arrive in Bowling Green in the coming weeks and months.

Arrivals are expected each week, International Center Executive Director Albert Mbanfu told the Daily News.

What comes next for Zadran and his family in America is uncertain. It was his family’s 37th day in the U.S., having flown in from Dallas-Fort Worth on Thursday evening.

Zadran said he hoped to go to Arizona, likely to link up with other family members already here in the U.S. For now, Bowling Green’s International Center is handling his family’s resettlement case. Although he was initially confused about flying to Nashville, Zadran said his family is happy “anywhere where we are safe.”

“The situation is very bad in Kabul,” Zadran said, adding that Americans “saved my life” there.

Without an airlift by U.S. forces via a Chinook helicopter, Zadran and his family would not have been able to get to Kabul’s airport and leave the country, he said.

“We are very appreciative for that,” Zadran said. After arriving at the airport in Kabul, Zadran and his family were spirited away from Afghanistan on a massive C-17 plane, hopping from Qatar to Italy and then finally, America.

Zadran described himself as one of the founders of the Khost Provincial Forces, a militia group that’s worked with the U.S. for counter-terrorism operations in Afghanistan.

Zadran said he’s worked with the U.S. since 2001 to oppose the Haqqani network – a group of insurgents fighting against U.S. and Afghan government forces in the country.

As for the future of his family, Zadran said he hopes to watch his “future, my babies,” grow up and study in the U.S., glancing at one of his young sons. Education is very important to his family, Zadran said, “We hope the U.S. supports us.”

When he thinks about his countrymen still trapped in Afghanistan, Zadran’s voice carries a pleading note: He hopes American forces can get as many Afghans out of the country as possible.

“We hope that America helps us to bring those people here,” he said.