U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Janna Less, 23, smiles as she sits on the last Air Force flight out of Ali Air Base near Nasiriyah, en route to Kuwait Dec. 17, 2011.
Petty Officer 2nd Class Marissa Gaeta, left, kisses her girlfriend of two years, Petty Officer 3rd Class Citlalic Snell, at Little Creek, Virginia, Dec. 22, 2011. According to tradition, one lucky sailor is chosen to be first off the ship to kiss a loved one. Today, for the first time, the couple was gay.
The sun rises behind an alleyway lined with blast walls inside the near empty Camp Adder, the last U.S. base in Iraq, near Nasiriyah, Dec. 16, 2011.
A soldier from the 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, walks through the nearly deserted Camp Adder, now known as Imam Ali Base, near Nasiriyah, Iraq, Dec.16, 2011.
Private Scott Malley from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, laughs at a joke while waiting to pack weapons for shipment back to the U.S. at Camp Virginia, Kuwait, on Dec. 19, 2011.
Soldiers from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, stand in line to pack their weapons for shipment back to the U.S. at Camp Virginia, Kuwait, Dec.19, 2011.
Soldiers sit beneath a wall of graffiti as they check email in Leipzig, Germany, Dec. 21, 2011 during a layover while en route from Kuwait to Fort Hood, Texas.
Afghan National Army cadet graduates gather for a graduation ceremony near Mazar-i-Sharif on Dec.18, 2011. International troops in Afghanistan and all NATO-led combat forces are due to leave by the end of 2014.
Army Private First Class Bradley Manning, right, is escorted from a security vehicle to a courthouse in Fort Meade, Maryland, Dec. 22, 2011, for a military hearing regarding his alleged role in the WikiLeaks classified leaks case.
Kuwaiti and U.S. soldiers close the border gate after the last vehicle crossed into Kuwait during the U.S. military's withdrawal from Iraq Dec. 18, 2011. The last convoy of U.S. soldiers left Iraq on Sunday, ending nearly nine years of war.
