Story highlights A Green Beret who confronted an Afghan police official will stay in Army service 
 
 Martland and another officer beat a local police official who they concluded had been raping a small boy 
 
 Washington (CNN) The U.S. Army has reversed a decision to discharge a Green Beret for kicking and body slamming an Afghan police commander accused of sexually assaulting a boy. As first reported by Fox News, while deployed to Kunduz Province, Afghanistan, Martland and his team leader confronted a local police commander in 2011 accused of raping an Afghan boy and beating his mother. An Army spokesman said Thursday that Martland's status has been changed, allowing him to stay in the Army in a statement to Fox News.
– The Army has decided not to discharge a Special Forces soldier who beat up an Afghan police official he believed had been raping a young boy, CNN reports. Sgt. Charles Martland and Capt. Daniel Quinn claimed in 2011 that Afghan police commander Abdul Rahman had been raping the boy repeatedly for more than a week. According to the New York Times, Rahman kept the boy chained to a bed as a "sex slave." Martland and Quinn went to their superiors, who refused to do anything, saying it was a matter for Afghan authorities. Nothing was done about Rahman, and Martland later told Army officials, "Morally we could no longer stand by." When Quinn and Martland confronted Rahman, he tried to laugh off the rape, Fox News reports. So they attacked him, kicking him and body slamming him multiple times. Martland and Quinn were sent home from Afghanistan. Quinn left the Army, while authorities delayed a decision to discharge Martland for years. Then on Thursday, in what Fox News calls a "stunning reversal," the Army announced it would not be discharging him. "I am real thankful for being able to continue to serve," Martland tells Fox News. Quinn says he thinks it was the smart move for the Army. "Charles makes every soldier he comes in contact with better, and the Army is undoubtedly a better organization with SFC Martland still in its ranks," he says. Martland, who served in Afghanistan twice and earned a Bronze Star, was supported by Rep. Duncan Hunter of California, the American Center for Law and Justice, and actor Harvey Keitel.