text: It’s an instance of war that we’re not really meant to see, an unnerving blur of debris and fire before death. Nearly four years after a U.S. Army combat photographer was killed during a training exercise with Afghan forces, the military has released what is her final image taken in the moments before she died. 
   
   Spc. Hilda I. Clayton, a “visual information specialist” and a member of the 55th Signal Company, or Combat Camera, was photographing an Afghan National Army “mortar validation exercise” in the eastern Laghman Province on July 2, 2013, when a mortar tube accidentally exploded. Clayton, 22, of Augusta, Ga., was killed alongside an Afghan photographer she was training and several ANA soldiers. Her image was published with the Afghan photographer’s picture in the May-June issue of Military Review, a journal of the army. 
   
   An undated handout photograph of Spc. Hilda I. Clayton. U.S. Army/EPA 
   
   “At the critical juncture of the war, when it was necessary for the ANA to increasingly assume responsibility for military actions, the story was not in the fighting but in the partnership that was necessary between U.S. and Afghan forces to stabilize the Afghan nation. One of the Afghan soldiers killed was a photojournalist that Clayton had partnered with to train in photojournalism,” the journal article states. “Not only did Clayton help document activities aimed at shaping and strengthening the partnership but she also shared in the risk by participating in the effort.” 
   
   The article adds that Clayton’s death “symbolizes how female soldiers are increasingly exposed to hazardous situations in training and in combat on par with their male counterparts.” 
   
   Bill Darley, managing editor of Military Review, said in a phone call on Tuesday that the photos had been brought to the publication’s attention by a staff member who had served with Clayton. He said it felt a proper homage to Clayton and a fitting end for an edition that in part focused on gender equality. 
   
   Of the response to Clayton’s photo, which has been shared widely, Darley said she “was revered by her unit—they even named an annual contest in her honor—and she was a dedicated soldier, so we are gratified” that the public is interested in her story. 
   
   Contact sheet of pictures from LIFE photographer Paul Schutzer's last roll of film, 1967. Paul Schutzer—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images 
   
   As difficult it is to imagine that a photographer continued to shoot in their final moments, there is precedent. In the first hours of the Six-Day War in 1967, LIFE photographer Paul Schutzer was embedded in an armed convoy heading across the Negev Desert to Gaza when he was shot in the head. Schutzer’s camera was found near his remains; on the roll of 35-mm film was about two-dozen frames. In a special edition, LIFE honored his career and printed his final pictures. 
   
   Similarly, in the days after her death, Clayton’s spirit in the field was recalled. “She was always willing to take on any mission,” said Col. Bill Benson, the Augusta Chronicle reported, “and she pursued every opportunity to tell our story with her images. This week, in the hours after the image was released, a few new visitors signed an online guest book honoring her legacy. “I never knew you, but I just read about you in the news,” wrote Robert B. from Chico, Calif. “I am proud of you.” ||||| These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites. ||||| Spc. Hilda I. Clayton 
   
   May 21, 1991 to July 2, 2013 
   
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   Spc. Hilda I. Clayton, a visual information specialist assigned to the 55th Signal Company (Combat Camera), was killed while photographing a live-fire training exercise 2 July 2013 in Laghman Province, Afghanistan. Clayton and four Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers died when a mortar tube accidentally exploded during an ANA mortar validation exercise being supported by U.S. Army trainers. She was attached to the 4th Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, based at Forward Operating Base Gamberi in eastern Afghanistan. 
   
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   At the critical juncture of the war, when it was necessary for the ANA to increasingly assume responsibility for military actions, the story was not in the fighting but in the partnership that was necessary between U.S. and Afghan forces to stabilize the Afghan nation. One of the Afghan soldiers killed was a photojournalist that Clayton had partnered with to train in photojournalism. Not only did Clayton help document activities aimed at shaping and strengthening the partnership but she also shared in the risk by participating in the effort. 
   
   Combat Camera soldiers are trained to take still and video imagery in any environment. Their primary mission is to accompany combat soldiers wherever deployed to document the history of combat operations. Clayton’s death symbolizes how female soldiers are increasingly exposed to hazardous situations in training and in combat on par with their male counterparts. 
   
   Clayton’s service and sacrifice were recognized during memorial ceremonies at Forward Operating Base Gamberi on 8 July 2013 and at the Defense Information School (DINFOS), Fort Meade, Maryland, on 13 December 2013. At Fort Meade, Clayton’s name was added to the DINFOS Hall of Heroes. 
   
   Combat Camera further honored Clayton by naming the award for the winner of its annual best combat camera competition after her. The Spc. Hilda I. Clayton Best Combat Camera (COMCAM) Competition consists of five days of events to test joint service combat camera personnel on their physical and technical skills.
target: – It's a jarring image, and that's before learning that the Army photographer who captured it was killed moments later. The photo shows the first instant of a mortar tube explosion during a training exercise in Afghanistan in 2013, a blast that killed 22-year-old Army Spc. Hilda Clayton, reports Time. The explosion also killed the Afghan photographer she'd been training, along with three Afghan soldiers, reports the Army Times. The Army has published final images from both photographers in its journal Military Review. (The feature on Clayton is on the second last page, while an Army press release has the images here.) A staffer who served with Clayton brought the images to the journal's attention, and they were published with the consent of her family in Augusta, Ga., reports Stars and Stripes. "Not only did Clayton help document activities aimed at shaping and strengthening the (Afghan) partnership but she also shared in the risk by participating in the effort," says the story, adding that Clayton’s death "symbolizes how female soldiers are increasingly exposed to hazardous situations in training and in combat on par with their male counterparts." Clayton was the first "combat documentation and production specialist" killed in Afghanistan, the Army says. Her unit, known as Combat Camera, has created an annual contest in her honor.