After being photographed fighting Tailban forces in his underwear, a U.S. soldier serving in Afghanistan has become a media spectacle.

Army Spc. Zachary Boyd, 19, was sleeping in his quarters at Firebase Restrepo in the Korengal Valley of Afghanistan's Kunar province when the Taliban attacked. He responded quickly, taking up a defensive position wearing only his helmet, a protective vest, a T-shirt and pink "I Love NY" boxers, the UPI reported.

A picture of the scene would up on the front page of The New York Times and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram after a wire photographer snapped the shot of Boyd rushing to action in his underwear.

His mother was surprised to spot her son on the front page of the Times, but she wasn't surprised by what he was wearing.

"It was typical," Sheree Boyd told the Star-Telegram. "He has always been an interesting little character."

Boyd's return flight to Afghanistan was delayed in New York City last March, and a friend's sister took him on a whirlwind tour of the city, where he bought the pink boxers.

When Boyd called his parents Monday to let them know he might be in the Times, he told them the red shirt he's wearing is from Woolley's Frozen Custard in Fort Worth, which is one of his favorite spots in his hometown, the Star-Telegram reported.

"He said, 'I hear the Times is what they put on the president's desk,'" his mom said. "Then he told us, 'I may not have a job anymore after the president has seen me out of uniform.'"