Sergeant Bee, immortalized in Afghanistan photo, reflects on war's legacy

William Olas Bee holds a photograph of himself as a U.S. Marine when he had a close call after Taliban fighters opened fire near Garmser in Helmand Province of Afghanistan in 2008, as he poses in his home in Jacksonville, North Carolina, U.S., May 22, 2021. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. (Reuters) - Today, on a leafy cul-de-sac in North Carolina, his hair is streaked with gray, and he wears his beard long. But on that day 13 years ago, as he sat tucked behind a mud wall in Afghanistan, his head was close-cropped, bare and vulnerable.

Retired U.S. Marine Sgt. Billy Bee is sharing a smoke with Reuters photographer Goran Tomasevic on the deck of Bee's home. The smoke hangs in the humid, still air, just as it did on May 18, 2008, when their lives were stitched together in a single moment of explosive violence and unlikely survival.