Tynes Base in the Arghandab Valley in Afghanistan, from 2/508 Airborne Infantry. This is the 2nd Platoon Company, Charlie Company. 2/508 PIR. 4BCT Brigade Combat Team. 82nd Airborne Division, were injured after two IED´s exploded, with a piece of artillery, which did not explode in Afghanistanâ??s Arghanab Valley
The days before this, were very hard for the 2nd Platoon, because had battles with the Taliban, almost all the days that had patrol. That day, the mission was partnered with two Afghan Police.The patrol leaves at half past five. After walking two miles are part of a broken mobile phone, with a thread, next to a house. The platoon is divided to ensure and record the perimeter. Is separated into two groups. I decide to go with the Hispanic sergeant to search the house. Inside, one of the two Afghan soldiers throw a stone on a mound of sand in case there is a IED. The sergeant tells him not to do that, because we are too close and we reach the IED. No one in the house. We went out and, at that time, there is a huge explosion. The sky darkens. Everything turns brown, mixed with a slight daze. Moments of confusion. At first I think of a Taliban attack. The soldiers took up positions behind a wall is not too high at one end of the house. When the smoke clears, I realize that it was a bomb. I see a soldier covered in blood, semiconscious. Another has lost some of the legs and has the skin of the back and waist torn, he writes with a pen in his blood group head. There are two more, and the translator, with no visible wounds but showing signs of concussion. And I see a dead soldier. For the direct impact of the mine. A sergeant and a specialist medical knowledge dealing with the most seriously injured. The rest remains the perimeter, serving others and call the Medevacs to come to their rescue. Someone launches a kind of flare and the sky is covered with a red cloud, the red smoke that indicates where the rescue helicopter. Comes the first helicopter and transported to the two seriously injured and the dead. Then comes another helicopter that takes the remaining three. The Hispanic sergeant tells me two mines were attached to a piece of artillery, the latter did not explode. I wonder what damage it had suffered the rest of the patrol if it had exploded artillery piece. He answered the look on his face.
photographer focused on conflict zones and humanitarian crises
Awards The Wall Street Journal presented his candidacy for the Pulitzer Prize in 2010 and has been awarded by organizations such as World Press Photo, ( 3 ) Pictures of the Year ( POY ), NPPA, ( 4 ) International Photography Awards ( IPA ), ( 7 ) PX3, Bayeux Calvados-Normandy Award, ( 3 ) Moscow International Foto Awards, Lens Culture, ( 2 ) Days Japan International,Mika Yamamoto International Journalist Award,and the International Press Club. As a videographer he has a Rory Peck prize.
