Why Memorial Day is linked to photography for me

Low_Sky · May 22, 2014

DVIDS - Images - Artillery training [Image 2 of 7]

The photo above isn't mine, but it's my favorite from the public portfolio of Specialist Hilda Clayton. SPC Clayton was a combat camera attached to my unit in Afghanistan, and she was our unit's only fatality during our 2012/2013 deployment. She lost her life during a training accident that also killed three of the Afghan soldiers she was documenting. I know that Memorial Day means nothing more than a day off of work and a trip to the lake for a lot of people, but it should be a time to reflect on the sacrifice of all my brothers and sisters who didn't come home.

Being a combat camera gives a really unique perspective into the last weeks and months of SPC Clayton's life. You can browse her portfolio (https://www.dvidshub.net/search/?fi...153&filter[type]=image&sort=date#.U37TX_ldVzg) and see what she was working on up until just a few weeks before her death on July 2, 2013.

Steve5D · May 23, 2014

Well said...

USN (Ret.) 1981-2001

IzzieK · May 23, 2014

Thank you both for your service -- and so with you too, Steve.

Low_Sky · May 29, 2017

The Army and SPC Clayton's family agreed to release one of the photos she gave her life for, almost four years after the incident. There is no blood or gore in the images, but you will see some of the Afghan soldiers that Clayton was working with, and the explosion that killed them frozen in time. It's a powerful image, for sure.

You can see it in this article from Military Review:
Clayton-cover-3

Again, I never met SPC Clayton, but as she was my unit's only casualty in Afghanistan, I think about her and the incident that took her life often. To my American friends, please take time today to reflect on the sacrifices that others have made for you, and that for so many families every day is Memorial Day.