LAKE THARTHAR REGION, Iraq – Lance Cpl. Joseph Wheeler, a 20-year-old Squad Automatic Weapon gunner from Bumpass, Va. provides security for Marines with Task Force Hard. Wheeler kept post as Iraqi farm women and children wait in a group for them to finish searching their tents, June 20. The Marines searched for insurgent weapons caches for Operation Khanjar (Iraqi for dagger). The Task Force primarily involved Marines with 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment and lasted from June 17 through the 22nd.

Photo by: Sgt. Stephen D'Alessio

CAMP BLUE DIAMOND, AR RAMADI, Iraq

A photograph, a folded flag and a candle are presented as a memorial, June 27, to Cpl. Holly Charette, a 21-year-old from Cranston, R.I., who deployed here earlier this year with the 2nd Marine Division for Operation Iraqi Freedom. Charette was killed in a suicide car-bombing when her convoy was struck just a few days earlier.

Photo by: Sgt. Stephen D'Alessio

Air Force Capt. Matt Johnson (left) and Tech. Sgt. Ben Bloker (right) walk the flight line to a F-15 Eagle at Langley Air Force Base, Va.

Johnson and Bloker will conduct an aerial photography mission in support of Operation Noble Eagle.

DoD photo by:
Staff Sgt. Eric T. Sheler,
U.S. Air Force.

U.S. Army Soldiers from 2nd Brigade Combat Team, stack ordnance found in a small building in Hit, Iraq.

U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Kevin N. McCall