Kandahar Air Field, Afghanistan, June 15, 2011: Pfc. Kyle Hockenberry, of 4th Squadron, 4th Cavalry Infantry Regiment, 1st Heavy Combat Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, who was injured in an improvised explosive device attack near Haji Ramuddin, is treated by flight medic Cpl. Amanda Mosher while being transported by medevac helicopter to the Role 3 hospital. Throughout Hockenberry's multiple surgeries and skin grafts, doctors have worked around his tattoo and left it intact.

The photo — taken by Stars and Stripes reporter and photographer Laura Rauch as she embedded with the medevac unit — went around the world.

Read Rauch's 2011 story on the Dustoff crews from Company C, 1st Battalion, 52nd Aviation Regiment, 16th Aviation Brigade here.

related stories

• From the archives, 2011 | ‘It is a no-fail mission’: Calm in the midst of chaos is lifesaving protocol for medevac crew