When I last saw Freddie de los Santos, his mouth was ravaged ― his teeth had been blown away by the same blast that took his leg. And yet, he always smiled.

The year was 2009. We were both being treated at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center; I too had lost a leg in southern Afghanistan. We spent months together, the soldier and the photographer, and he would tell me of his exhaustion, his trauma and his nightmares.