Zachary Boyd fights the Taliban in 'I love NY' boxer shorts after forgetting his combat trousers

Zachary Boyd from the US Army First Battalion, 26th Infantry takes a defensive position at firebase Restrepo after receiving fire from Taliban positions in the Korengal Valley of Afghanistan's Kunar Province Photograph: David Guttenfelder/AP

The world's best-equipped army has revealed one of the more closely guarded and, one must hope, private items in its armoury – pink underpants.

Scrambling to raise himself from sleep during a Taliban attack high in the Afghan hills, Zachary Boyd, a soldier with the First Brigade, grabbed his automatic gun, helmet and bulletproof jacket.

But in his haste he left behind his combat trousers – showing to the world that below the belt he was fighting in nothing more protective than "I love NY" boxer shorts.

Boyd, pictured looking through the sights of his automatic rifle, also has a red T-shirt peeking out from under his flakjacket, and sandals. Alongside him is a colleague in trainers who at least had the apparent foresight to sleep in an appropriately coloured T-shirt.

An embedded war photographer, David Guttenfelder, took the image in the hills above the Korengal Valley, Kunar, four days ago. Thanks to the power of the internet and front-page exposure in the New York Times, it is fast threatening to become an icon of conflict photography.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/15/pink-underpants-us-army

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