• Saving Private Ryan: US soldier wounded by IED blast in Afghanistan

    GRAPHIC WARNING: This post contains graphic images which some viewers may find disturbing. 

    Munir Uz Zaman / AFP - Getty Images

    US Army soldiers attached to 2nd platoon, C troop, 1st Squadron (Airborne), 91st U.S Cavalry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team protect a wounded comrade, Private Ryan Thomas, from dust and smoke flares after an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blast during a patrol near Baraki Barak base in Logar Province, Afghanistan on October 13, 2012.

    Munir Uz Zaman / AFP - Getty Images

    Private Ryan Thomas receives medical assistance after he was injured.

    Munir Uz Zaman / AFP - Getty Images

    US Army soldiers carry Private Ryan Thomas to a waiting helicopter.

    Photographer Munir uz Zaman captured these photos on Saturday, October 13 after a U.S. soldier was injured by the blast from an Improvised Explosive Device during a patrol in eastern Afghanistan. The photos were made available to NBC News today.

    21-year-old Private Ryan Thomas, an Oklahoman with the 173rd Airborne, suffered soft tissue damage and was scheduled to be evacuated to Germany after surgery in Afghanistan. Watch a video of the operation to extract him after he was injured. 

    Slideshow — Afghanistan: Nation at a crossroads

    After 11 years of war, 2,135 U.S. soldiers dead, their Afghan colleagues turning on them, and widespread predictions the conflict will end in failure, coalition forces could be forgiven for suffering a dip in morale, Agence France Presse reports. But commanders and soldiers on the ground insist the challenges are bringing them closer together, even if the outcome of the war is uncertain and the perception of what constitutes success has changed. 

    Top Talkers: With the war in Afghanistan continuing and the U.S. Military abandoning hope of a peace deal in the region with the Taliban, what is expected for the region next? The Morning Joe panel – including fmr. Gov. Howard Dean, D-Vt., Morning Joe economic analyst Steve Rattner and Mike Barnicle – discusses and NBC News' Richard Engel reports from the region.

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  • Marine rescued in Afghanistan as medevac helicopter comes under fire

    Anja Niedringhaus / AP

    Left: Lance Cpl. Blas Trevino of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, left, holds onto the gunshot wound in his belly and gestures toward his troops as he runs to a medevac helicopter from the U.S. Army's Task Force Lift "Dust Off", Charlie Company 1-214 Aviation Regiment after he got shot in the stomach outside Sangin, in the Helmand Province of southern Afghanistan, Saturday, June 11. The Army's 'Dust Off' crew needed two attempts to get him out, as they were fired upon and took five rounds of bullets into the tail of their aircraft. Right: Lance Cpl. Blas Trevino of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, shouts out as he is rescued.

    Anja Niedringhaus / AP

    A large bullet hole is seen on the tail of a Black Hawk helicopter after the U.S. Army's Task Force Lift "Dust Off", Charlie Company 1-214 Aviation Regiment came under fire while rescuing injured Marine Lance Cpl. Blas Trevino after he was shot in the stomach outside Sangin, in the Helmand Province of southern Afghanistan, Saturday, June 11.

    Anja Niedringhaus / AP

    Lance Cpl. Blas Trevino of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, gives the thumbs-up to U.S. Army flight medic Sgt. Joe Campbell after arriving at a field hospital at camp Edi on a medevac helicopter.

    By Katie Cannon, Senior Multimedia Editor

    It takes special people to maintain a cool head in these circumstances. To learn more about the Dustoff unit, check out this piece that NPR did a ways back or take a peek at the Dustoff Association's site.

    Update: Photographer Anja Niedringhaus wrote a first-person account of the rescue of Lance Cpl. Blas Trevino. Read her dispatch: Lucky charms and bullet holes in Afghan helicopter.

  • Medevac team evacuates wounded US soldier in Afghanistan

    Peter Parks / AFP - Getty Images

    Two US army soldiers from Company C, 1st Battalion, 52nd Aviation Regiment, MEDEVAC team fall as they carry a wounded colleague, center, through a flooded field to a US Army Blackhawk helicopter in Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan on March 28.

    Peter Parks / AFP - Getty Images

    A US soldier looks back at his wounded colleaque as he lies inside a Blackhawk helicopter in Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan on March 28.

    Peter Parks / AFP - Getty Images

    US army flight crew chief Sgt Cory Rodgers, left, wipes the face of a wounded soldier on a Blackhawk helicopter over Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan on March 28.

     See more images from Afghanistan in our slideshow.

  • Tyler Hicks / The New York Times via Redux Pic

    An injured Afghan National Arm soldier is rushed to a waiting medevac helicopter from the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade which arrived on scene after a van packed with explosives detonated beside a small joint outpost near the village of Sangsar, southern Afghanistan, Dec. 12, 2010. Six American soldiers were killed and more than a dozen American and Afghan soldiers were wounded in the explosion which blasted a large hole in a thick wall, causing the roof to collapse on those inside.

    Soldiers rush the wounded to a medevac helicopter in southern Afghanistan where six U.S. soldiers were killed.

    By Phaedra Singelis, NBC News

    More photos from Afghanistan.

  • Peter Andrews / Reuters

    A father wipes a tear away from his child's face during a Medevac mission in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province November 13, 2010. The child was injured by an explosion.

    Love needs no translation

    By Katie Cannon, Senior Multimedia Editor

    I think this picture could have come from any corner of the world, and very little caption information would be needed. Some depictions of relationships and the emotions that come with them need few, if any, words.

  • Bob Strong / Reuters

    U.S. Marines carry a comrade wounded by an improvised explosive device (IED) to a waiting medevac helicopter, near the town of Marjah in Helmand Province, August 21, 2010.

    Bob Strong / Reuters

    U.S. Marines carry a wounded comrade to a medevac helicopter.

    Bob Strong / Reuters

    A U.S. Marine injured by an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) is transported to a military hospital.

    Bob Strong / Reuters

    U.S. Army medic Staff Sergeant Rahkeem Francis (R) and crew chief Staff Sergeant Christopher Meece with Charlie Company, 6-101 Combat Aviation Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, treat an Afghan boy with a broken leg onboard a medevac helicopter near the town of Marjah.

    Bob Strong / Reuters

    A tag identifies the injury on a wounded U.S. Marine as he is evacuated by an Army medevac helicopter.

    Bob Strong / Reuters

    A medevac helicopter prepares to land near a smoke grenade to pick up a badly wounded Marine.

    Helping the wounded

    Bob Strong has been working in Afghanistan for the past two months. During the last few days he's been photographing a compelling series on U.S. Medevac units helping NATO forces as well as Afghans.

  • Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

    U.S. Army Sgt. Grayson Colby holds the hand of a critically wounded U.S. Army soldier while aboard a MEDEVAC helicopter from Charlie Co. Sixth Battalion, 101st Airborne Combat Aviation Brigade, Task Force Shadow June 24, 2010 near Kandahar, Afghanistan. As combat operations begin to escalate near Kandahar, the 101st Airborne MEDEVAC unit transports casualties of war as well as sick and injured local residents.

    Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

    U.S. Army soldiers carry a critically wounded American soldier on a stretcher to an awaiting MEDEVAC helicopter.

    Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

    Blood and medical supplies litter the floor of a U.S. Army MEDEVAC helicopter.

    MEDEVAC crews busy in Kandahar

    Update 12:42 p.m. ET: Getty Images confirms to us that all three of these pictures tell the story of one badly wounded soldier. From the photographer: "All the same incident. He suffered life threatening wounds from a blast. Condition unknown but was awake when we dropped him off." Sullivan has been with a MEDEVAC unit for some time, and you can see much more of his work on Getty's site.

    Original post: The storm of news out of Washington around Gen. McChrystal's departure from command seems a long way from the pictures Justin Sullivan took today, which do still remind us of what is at stake for our troops in Afghanistan. For an in-depth look at medical operations in Afghanistan, see this picture story by freelance photojournalist Erin Trieb. Also worth a look is C.J. Chivers and Tyler Hicks' June 12 story from The New York Times, which describes in detail how busy chopper crews are in Marja.