Kirby Chambliss of the United States flies in formation with Matt Hall of Australia, Yoshihide Muroya of Japan and Nigel Lamb of Britain prior to the third stage of the Red Bull Air Race World Championship in front of the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on May 15, 2014. (Photo by Joerg Mitter/Red Bull via Reuters)

Runners gather at the start line for the annual “Santa Speedo Run”, a charity race through the streets of the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston. (Photo by Gretchen Ertl/Reuters)

Throughout the course of the long war in Afghanistan, Coalition troops have relied on thousands of military working dogs to help keep them safe, and make their jobs easier. The dogs are trained to detect explosives, to find illegal drugs, to search for missing comrades, or target enemy combatants. Not only are they active on the front lines, but behind the lines they serve as therapy dogs, service dogs, and loyal companions. They also share the same risks as the ground troops, suffering injuries and sometimes death on the battlefields. Gathered here are images of these dogs and their handlers in Afghanistan and back home, from over the past several years, part of the ongoing series here on Afghanistan.

A frog sits on a leaf and instead of seeing a reflection of itself in the water below, it sees a snail, attached to the bottom of the leaf, in a fish tank in Vietnam. (Photo by Duong Quoc Dinh/Solent Ne/SIPA Press)

Qiandao Lake (Chinese: 千島湖, lit. Thousand Island Lake), a man-made lake located in Chun'an County, Zhejiang, China, formed after the completion of the Xin'an River hydroelectric station in 1959. 1,078 large islands dot the lake and a few thousand smaller ones are scattered across it. The lake covers an area of 573 km² and has a storage capacity of 17.8 km³. The islands in the lake cover about 86 km²

“In 2009 a monumental underwater museum called “MUSA” (Museo Subacuático de Arte) was formed in the waters surrounding Cancun, Isla Mujeres and Punta Nizuc. The project founded by Jaime Gonzalez Cano of The National Marine Park, Roberto Diaz of The Cancun Nautical Association and Jason deCaires Taylor consists of over 450 permanent life-size sculptures and is one of the largest and most ambitious underwater artificial art attractions in the world”. – UnderwaterSculpture (Photos by Jason deCaires Taylor/Intrepidacious/Kozy and Dan Kitchens)

Throughout the course of the long war in Afghanistan, Coalition troops have relied on thousands of military working dogs to help keep them safe, and make their jobs easier. The dogs are trained to detect explosives, to find illegal drugs, to search for missing comrades, or target enemy combatants. Not only are they active on the front lines, but behind the lines they serve as therapy dogs, service dogs, and loyal companions. They also share the same risks as the ground troops, suffering injuries and sometimes death on the battlefields. Gathered here are images of these dogs and their handlers in Afghanistan and back home, from over the past several years, part of the ongoing series here on Afghanistan.