Our job as combat cameramen is to tell the story as it unfolds in front of us, while still being a soldier at the same time. You have to know when to pick up the camera or that rifle, if you hesitate you could lose that perfect photo opportunity or you could cost someone their life. There really aren’t a lot of those moments, but when it happens you don’t have time to think, you just have to react and that is when all that training kicks in and your body just takes over and you just do it.

We have one of the most awesome jobs in the Army. One day you are doing a mission with the infantry, then next the next day your are working with the military police and medics. So from day to day, you get to experience and see new things that most people never get to during their whole military career.

On the battlefield we are the commander's eyes and ears, we are the documenters of how an operation went, and we preserve it for historical documentation too. I know I have done the job when I get a reaction -- be it good or bad. To me we are more than just documenters, story tellers, intelligence gatherers or any other label people may want to put on us. We are artists and soldiers, too.

(Note: Master Sgt. Johancharles Van Boers sported a beard due to mission requirements.)