The Most Surprising Pictures of 2010
Kandahar Province, Afghanistan
Photograph by David Guttenfelder / AP
Air Force pararescuemen ride in the back of a medevac helicopter with the bodies of two U.S. soldiers killed in a roadside bomb attack in Kandahar Province, October 10, 2010. Photographer Guttenfelder describes the scene: "When the pararescue guys were covering the bodies, they only had two flags with them. The wind was shipping through the open window...and the wind caught it and it blew out the window and they lost it. So they only had one flag. (But) one of the pilots had a flag that he kept behind the plate of his flak jacket, one that he'd kept with him for every deployment he'd ever done: Iraq, Afghanistan. He flew over Washington DC with it, his children had kissed it. He took it out and passed it to the back of the helicopter and that was one of the flags they used to cover one of the guys. The family of the soldier who died, who was covered by the donated flag, has reached out to me to ask for a contact for the pilot. They are hoping to give the flag back to him."