As we end yet another year — a year of war or conflict for our military — it has become a bitter-sweet tradition to look at photographs capturing the most compelling moments our troops and their loved ones experienced throughout the year, ranging from “joint missions with Afghan forces to homecoming hugs, reflecting the service and sacrifice men and women in uniform make.”
These are just a few of the best photographs taken by military photographers, selected by the author. To see all of the “Year in Photos 2013,” please go here.
As we have followed our men and women of the U.S. military on these pages throughout 2013, at play and at war, in sports and during humanitarian missions, some of these images may have appeared before.
Please join me in wishing our troops and their families a good New Year and, most important, a safe return home.
(All the photos and captions are courtesy of the Department of Defense and will be published in two or three parts)
U.S. and Afghan soldiers cross the Tarnak River in the Panjwai district in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province, April 10, 2013. The soldiers are assigned to the 2nd Infantry Division’s Company C, 1st Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Kimberly Hackbarth
Leaders from coalition and Afghan security forces eat lunch together at the Afghan border police headquarters in Lashkar Gah in Afghanistan’s Helmand province, Oct. 8, 2013. U.S Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Walter L. Miller Jr., commanding general of Regional Command Southwest, and other staff members traveled to the police headquarters to attend a promotion ceremony. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Tammy K. Hineline
U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Bethany Bump conducts her preflight routine in a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter and checks with her crew chief before a mission on Jalalabad Airfield in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province, March 13, 2013. Bump, a helicopter pilot, is assigned to the 101st Airborne Division’s Company C, 3rd Battalion, 501st Combat Aviation Brigade, 1st Brigade Combat Team. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class John D. Brown
U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Sean Pabey, left, U.S. Army Sgt. James Carlberg and Army Staff Sgt. Abby, a military working dog, provide overwatch from the mountains of Maiden Shar in Afghanistan’s Wardak province, Sept. 1, 2013. Pabey, a truck commander, and Carlberg, a military working dog handler, are assigned to Company A, 3rd Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Rachel M. Copeland
A U.S. Marine fires a M777 howitzer during a battle drill on Arta Range, Djibouti, Nov. 3, 2013.The Marines are assigned to the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit Battalion Landing Team. A five-person gun crew can fire as many as five rounds per minute. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Staci Miller
U.S. Marines exit the back of a CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter while conducting a parachute operation during exercise Eagle Resolve 2013 over Qatar, April 26, 2013. The helicopter crew is assigned to Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 266. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Christopher Q. Stone
Air Force and civilian firefighters train together to remove simulated victims from a mock aircraft burning at 1,200 degrees on Francis S. Gabreski Air National Guard Base in Westhampton, New York, April 2, 2013. The airmen are assigned to the 106th Civil Engineering Squadron. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Christopher Muncy
U.S. Navy Seabees carry a mock casualty on an improvised stretcher through muddy water while running a six-hour endurance course at the Marine Corps Jungle Warfare Training Center in Okinawa, Japan, Sept. 22, 2013. More than 60 Seabees attended the eight-day course. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Chris Fahey
Lead Image: U.S. soldiers and Afghan border police hike from their landing zone to Observation Point 12 along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, Jan. 21, 2013. The soldiers are assigned to the 101st Airborne Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team. U.S. Army Photo by Sgt. Jon Heinrich
The author is a retired U.S. Air Force officer and a writer.