“It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.”
― Theodore Roosevelt
On Memorial Day 2016, the United States continues to send soldiers into harm’s way on many fronts. It seems like a cruel irony to fight for a more peaceful world, but it is no less of an honor and a duty to pay tribute to the soldiers who haven given their lives in wresting the world’s tyrannies from power.

Syrian refugees fight for clothes and other items being distributed by Kurdish people at the Kawrkos camp outside of Erbil, in Northern Iraq, August 20, 2013. Over 30,000 new Syrian refugees have crossed into Northern Iraq in the past five days, as Iraq opened its border to Kurdish civilians fleeing Syria’s civil war. (Credit: Lynsey Addario for The New York Times)
Embedded with our troops are intrepid reporters and photographers who bring these remote conflicts into focus for America. One of the rare female war photographers is Lynsey Addario, who made all the images you see here.

Soldiers with the Sudanese Liberation Army wait by their truck while stuck in the mud and hit by a sandstorm in North Darfur, Sudan, August 21, 2004. Photograph by Lynsey Addario (courtesy of the artist).
Last year, Addario published a memoir, “It’s What I Do: A Photographer’s Life of Love and War” (Penguin Press, 2015), in which she writes, “Trying to convey beauty in war was a technique to try to prevent the reader from looking away or turning the page in response to something horrible. I wanted them to linger, to ask questions.” Addario photographs features and breaking news focused on humanitarian and human rights issues across the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa for publications such as the New York Times, National Geographic and Time Magazine.
To those Americans who engage in conflicts around the globe, to the reporters and photojournalists who travel with them into harm’s way, and to those who support our troops and humanitarian causes both on the ground and back at home, a salute of deepest gratitude.

American soldiers with the 173rd battle company, on a battalion-wide mission in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan, after a Taliban ambush on October 23, 2007. Photograph by Lynsey Addario (courtesy of the artist).
Feature Image: Soldiers with the 173rd battle company carry the body of Staff Sgt. Larry Rougle, who was killed when insurgents ambushed their squad in the village of Yakachina, Korengal Valley, Afghanistan, 2008. Photograph by Lynsey Addario (courtesy of the artist).
“Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.” – Ernest Hemingway