"I was sleeping when the explosion occurred in the mess tent at FOB Marez in Mosul. I only slept three hours the night before and I convinced the reporter to let me take a nap instead of going up to the mess tent for lunch.
"Our connex (living quarters) were about a quarter mile away from the blast and still it lifted me off my bed and the reporter off his chair. When a soldier came running down our row of connexes shouting "All combat lifesavers up to the DFAC now!", we knew something serious had happened.
"We ran up the hill to a chaotic scene of people running around, a triage area overflowing with the wounded and soldiers already carrying litters to any nearby available vehicles. I started shooting the wounded be carried off and within 15 seconds, a soldier came up to me and started dragging me away from the scene, telling me I couldn't take photos. He handed me to another soldier who continued pushing me away from the scene. It was only when I told him I would put my two digital SLR cameras in my bag did he agree to let me go.
"I walked back toward the mess tent, found some soldiers from the unit I was embedded with and broke out my small point and shoot digital camera, a Canon G5. I turned the monitor out so I could shoot from the hip and took the rest of the photos, including this one of the medevac helicopter landing, that way. Because I wasn't holding a camera up to my face, I was a little less conspicuous and was left alone for the rest of the time."