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Army, Navy, Air Force

97 images Created 27 Jan 2012

A loose theme of army, Navy and Air Force images sourced from personal projects and assignments.

On the nature of militarism: From Roman foot soldiers, Parachute regiment training and Gurkha recruitment to life below the surface on a Royal Navy submarine and at sea level on a US Navy carrier.

We pause to see war veterans and memorials to an anti-war protest and even paramilitary murals in Belfast; the ranks in a parade and the sometimes comedy of just being a serviceman - or a wannabe.

And don't miss the current Duke of Wellington standing on the fields of Waterloo.

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  • A boy soldier collapses on the ground suffering fatigue and dehydration on the rigorous 10-mile march conducted as a squad, over undulatiing terrain with each candidate carrying a bergen (back pack) weighing 35 pounds.(plus water) and a weapon. Three senior trainers help revive the lad with smelling salts who fell under the weight of his backpack and weapon carried on a hot day and without drinking enough fluids. The march must be completed in 1 hour and 50 minutes. This forms part of the 14-week long Pegasus (P) Company selection programme. Recruits wanting to join the British Army's Parachute Regiment held regularly at Catterick army barracks, Yorkshire need to pass this and other tests before earning the right to wear the esteemed maroon beret.
    RB-0070.jpg
  • An Officer Cadet at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst is loaded into the back of a British Army Land Rover ambulance to join the downfacing trainers of a collapsed colleague, after retiring  from an endurance race. Recruits run a 5 mile steeplechase around the Academy grounds to assess individual stamina and accumulate team points. Sandhurst is an institution which has bred staff officers since 1800. Today it trains future officers for the demands of leadership and military understanding of military understanding,. Students are tested for their command instincts, intellect, strength of character and physical endurance often under great psychological pressure - the demands asked of them in modern warfare. Failure in this test might not necessarily mean dismissal though perserverence or refusal to give up won't harm their prospects.
    army02-15-12-2007 .jpg
  • Four members of the Royal Gurkha Rifles are on tactical manoeuvres on heathland above Farnborough airfield, England. These Nepali-born boys belong to an elite Regiment of the British army. Every year 60,000 boys attend recruiting sessions in villages and towns in the Himalayan Kingdom but only 150 are selected each year to serve on active duty across the world. They fly to the UK for basic soldier training where they learn the skills required for infantry, transport, communications or clerical duties. Their reputation as a fierce but intensely loyal fighting force and many Victoria Crosses were won for bravery during World War 2. Here they are seen cradling modern SA-80 rifles while dressed in camouflaged helmets with oak leaves. The nearest to the camera points his weapon past the viewer with a yellow blank cover attached. .
    army04-15-12-2007 .jpg
  • Arranged on a hill with their barrels pointing upwards and lights glowing, weathered Challenger 1 tank crews of the 1st Batallion Royal Tank Regiment are stationary at Tidworth Barracks, England. Their turrets are all pointing to the viewer and the helmet heads of their commanders and drivers can be seen  protruding from their respective places. The Royal Tank Regiment is an armoured regiment of the British Army but tanks were first used at Flers in September 1916 during the Battle of the Somme in World War I. Challenger 1 was the main battle tank (MBT) of the British Army from 1983 until superseded by the Challenger 2 in the mid 1990s. Challenger 1 took part in Operation Desert Storm where the Iraqi forces failed to take a single vehicle out of combat while Challenger destroyed roughly 300 Iraqi tanks.
    army03-15-12-2007 .jpg
  • While visiting London's tourist sites, a young boy of about 5 years-old spends time at Horse Guards where a soldier from the Household Cavalry, also dressed in a deep red coat, stands motionless and at-ease. It is a bright day and the gray stonework amplifies the scarlett uniform tunics as the boy has his picture taken by family. The British Household Cavalry is classed as a corps in its own right, and consists of two regiments: Life Guards (British Army) and the Blues and Royals (Royal Horse Guards and 1st Dragoons). They are the senior regular regiments in the British Army, with traditions dating from 1660.
    RB_134-25-06-1989.jpg
  • While on ceremonial duties at the Queen's Buckingham Palace, members of the Welsh Guards prepare the finer details of uniform presentation at the Wellington barracks, opposite the Palace in central London, England. Buffing up their bearskin hats and brushing away any specks of dust from shoulders, they each help the other appear as near-perfect as they can before parading in front of thousands during the Changing of the Guard or at other times, during tropping of the Colour on the Queen's birthday occasion. Formed in 1915 by order of King George V,  have fought in every war since but are housed at the Wellington Barracks purely for ceremonial reasons, also serving on active duty in the world's trouble spots, where their professionalism is demanded by their British Ministry of Defence masters.
    army01-15-12-2007 .jpg
  • Marching grenadier bandsmen pass the war memorial in Horseguards Parade on the Queen's official Trooping the Colour ceremony
    grenadier_guards01-01-06-1996.jpg
  • A formal military dress uniform and a civilian jacket on display in a london's taylor's premises in Sackville Street, London. Jones Chalk & Dawson have well over a century of fine tailoring tradition. The company commenced trading in 1896 when William Jones broke away from Hawkes of Savile Row (later Gieves and Hawkes), where he was head military cutter. Joseph H Dawson and Arthur Chalk also worked at Hawkes. In 1902 the young company were soon a Royal appointment from HRH the Prince of Wales, later King George V. In 1940 they were appointed by King George VI and today, Jones Chalk & Dawson continue to hold a warrant to the Belgian Royal Family.
    military_tailor1-18-10-2011.jpg
  • A detail of a second world war Canadian veteran's chest, festooned with gleaming military campaign medals that symbolise an era of conflict, warfare and especially of survival. Seen as a close-up of polished silver, gold and zinc-alloy, we see only the upper body minus the face of this old soldier whose campaigns include the D-Day landings at Normandy in 1944 because at the bottom of his rack of fine insignia is a badge denoting the Normandy Veterans Association. Elsewhere, a medal is worn for service in Palestine. The unseen gentleman wears a Canadian pin at the top and the contribution of his fellow-countrymen as members of the British Commonwealth is recognised in battlefield cemeteries around the world. But on this day, the 11th November, old soldiers like him march past London's Cenotaph to remember friends who did not return from war.
    medals_veteran11-11-1989.jpg
  • A newly-recruited Nepali boy is about to leave his homeland for the UK, where the British army is to make him a fully-trained soldier in the Gurkha Regiment. Daubed with saffron and paint, the sign of good luck on a journey to come, he stands with absolute pride with garlands of fresh flowers draped around his neck by well-wishing relatives before they wave good bye to their son or brother for his two years absence away from home. Some 60,000 young Nepalese boys aged between 17 - 22 (or 25 for those educated enough to become clerks or communications specialists) report to designated recruiting stations in the hills each November, most living from altitudes ranging from 4,000 - 12,000 feet. After initial selection, 7,000 are accepted for further tests from which 700 are sent down here to Pokhara in the shadow of the Himalayas. Only 160 of the best boys succeed in the flight to the UK. The Gurkhas training wing in Nepal has been supplying youth for the British army since the Indian Mutiny of 1857.
    RB-0079.jpg
  • The rare Victoria Cross is worn on the chest of the celebrated Nepali war veteran Bhanu Bhagta Gurung (also written Bhanubhakta), an ex-soldier of the British Gurkha regiment who in the second world war, earned his medals from repeated bravery against Japanese positions in Burma. He sits here on the terrace of his home, above the misty valley of Gorkha, Central Nepal. He is one of the last survivors of the remarkably brave men  who helped defeat the enemy in the jungles of south-east Asia. Gurung is the name of his Nepalese tribe (like the Sherpas who also come from the high Himalayan Kingdom). His company commander described him as "a smiling, hard-swearing and indomitable soldier who in a battalion of brave men was one of the bravest". Born September 1921 - died March 1 2008.
    medals_gurkha01-16-1997.jpg
  • Standing near Hougemont Farm, Waterloo, Belgium, scene of some of the fiercest fighting on the battlefield on the day in 1815 when French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated by the (Iron) Duke of Wellington, we see the current Duke, Brigadier Arthur Valerian Wellesley, 8th Duke of Wellington, KG, LVO, OBE, MC, DL, FKC (born in Rome on 2nd July 1915). He is a British hereditory peer and a retired officer in the British Army. When he succeeded his father as Duke, he was known as Marquess Douro but is now styled His Grace The Duke of Wellington. Making an occasional visit to the battlefields, he stands on a raw winter's day on the very landscape where his ancestor's brave British men fought off a fierce French attack, the Duke gazes out over the rolling hills that proved the undoing of Napoleon and which changed the course of European history.
    duke_of_wellington02-30-01_2004.jpg
  • Deep below-decks, we peer through a striped window of the highly-classified Conflict Direction Center or War Room on the aircraft carrier US Navy USS Harry S Truman during its deployment patrol of the no-flyzone in the Persian Gulf, near the Kuwaiti coast. This top secret office is used for planning and executing sophisticated tactical electronic warfare that fighter jets and surveillance aircraft engage in from air operations mounted from the carrier. The Truman is the largest and newest of the US Navy's fleet of new generation carriers, a 97,000 ton floating city with a crew of 5,137, 650 are women. The Iraqi no-fly zones (NFZs) were proclaimed by the United States, United Kingdom and France after the Gulf War of 1991 to protect humanitarian operations in northern Iraq and Shiite Muslims in the south. Iraqi aircraft were forbidden from flying inside the zones. The policy was enforced by US, UK and French aircraft patrols until France withdrew in 1998.  .
    RB-0046.jpg
  • Red webbing inside a Lockheed Martin-built C-130J Hercules airlifter. Externally similar to the classic Hercules in general appearance, the J model sports considerably updated technology. These differences include new Rolls-Royce AE 2100 D3 turboprops with Dowty R391 composite scimitar propellers, digital avionics (including Head-Up Displays (HUDs) for each pilot). During more than 50 years of service the Hercules family has the longest continuous production run of any military aircraft in history. Strategic, automated low-level airdrops keep 60 road transport vehicles and up to 120 supple troops off hostile roads using only three flight crew.
    farnborough_airshow26-21-07-2010.jpg
  • Exercise Dogfish 2001, will take place in the Ionian Sea to the east of Sicily. Eight NATO surface ships from Standing Naval Force Mediterranean will join the exercise...P-3 Orion..Seven submarines from Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, Turkey and the United States are also scheduled to take part...Over 130 air missions are planned, and on average this will result in a crew briefing every two hours, day and night, throughout the 14-day exercise. ..Picture from the 'Plane Pictures' project, a celebration of aviation aesthetics and flying culture, 100 years after the Wright brothers first 12 seconds/120 feet powered flight at Kitty Hawk,1903. .
    aviation_corbis36-22-02-2001.jpg
  • Green light from the Head-Up Display (HUD) in the cockpit of a Lockheed Martin-built C-130J Hercules airlifter. Externally similar to the classic Hercules in general appearance, the J model sports considerably updated technology. These differences include new Rolls-Royce AE 2100 D3 turboprops with Dowty R391 composite scimitar propellers, digital avionics and HUDs for each pilot). During more than 50 years of service the Hercules family has the longest continuous production run of any military aircraft in history. Strategic, automated low-level airdrops keep 60 road transport vehicles and up to 120 supple troops off hostile roads using only three flight crew.
    farnborough_airshow24-21-07-2010.jpg
  • A C-17 Globemaster belonging to the 60th and 349th Air Mobility Wing of the US Air Force. Seen at the Farnborough Airshow in England, this airlifting jet transporter is manufactured by the Boeing Company. The C-17 is used for rapid strategic airlift of troops and cargo to main operating bases or forward operating bases  throughout the world. It has the ability to rapidly deploy a combat unit to a potential battle area and sustain it with on-going supplies. The C-17 is also capable of performing tactical airlift, medical evacuation and airdrop missions. The C-17 is operated by the US Air Force, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada,NATO and Qatar.
    farnborough_airshow01-21-07-2010.jpg
  • Former Chief of the Air Staff Sir Jock Stirrup toasts the achievements of the Wright Brothers at RAF Hendon...Air Chief Marshal Sir Graham Eric (Jock) Stirrup and guest RAF dignitaries chat and drink at the Royal Air Force Museum Hendon on the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers' first flight in 1903. Behind them, Icarus falls to earth on melted wings before the Red Arrows RAF aerobatic team flew over the North London museum in a perfect Diamond Nine formation.
    Red_Arrows418_RBA.jpg
  • Members of the Royal Marines band march under a giant backdrop of Nelson's flagship HMS Victory during the Royal Tournament.
    royal_tournament01-16-09-1992.jpg
  • Flight Lieutenants Steve Underwood and Anthony Parkinson and Wing Commander Bill Ramsey of the elite 'Red Arrows', Britain's prestigious Royal Air Force aerobatic team, discuss logistics beneath the emblems of long-disbanded fighter squadrons which decorate the squadron building at RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus. They sit in faded pink armchairs supplied by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) that are seen in many RAF stations and airfields with the same drab blue paint on the walls. Painted by hand are circular badges  with bold colours (colors) and illustrations of birds of prey, fighter-jets, swords and shields which all symbolise  warfare. The three pilots are relaxed wearing their red flying suits with their sunglasses dangling in the regulation loop, they are holding a bottle of mineral water and a coffee cup.
    Red_Arrows155_RBA.jpg
  • With hands in their pockets and walking in step, three friends pass along a street off the Shankhill Road in Belfast, Northern Ireland, have just passed beneath a Loyalist mural drawn by a paramilitary artist, whose handiwork is based on a well-known representation of a kneeling gunman shouldering a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) and aiming past the crest of the protestant Ulster Defence Association (UDA), the organisation behind many a sectarian action against neighbouring catholic supporters of the Irish republican Army (IRA). In loyalist areas, the red, white and blue of the British Union Jack is painted on kerbs, houses and railings to signify peoples' allegiance to the crown, having historically followed the 17th century activities of King William of Orange against Catholics.   .
    belfast_murals001-26-09-1996.jpg
  • The US aerospace manufacturer Lockheed-Martin's exhibition stand spells the words of warfare technology at Farnborough air show
    arms_exhibition-08-09-1998.jpg
  • Granite reliefs depicting suffering in First World War battles on the side of the Royal Artillery war memorial at Hyde Park.
    war_memorial02-02-12-2009 copy.jpg
  • Vintage hangar door of 'Red Arrows', Britain's Royal Air Force aerobatic team, but once to 617 Dambusters Squadron. The hangar dates to World War 2, housing Lancaster bombers of 617 Dambusters squadron who attacked the damns of the German Ruhr valley on 16th May 1943 using the Bouncing Bomb.
    Red_Arrows226_RBA.jpg
  • NASA Space Junk Auction.Atlas rocket.A 90ft US Air Force Atlas rocket lies on its transporter, its wafer-thin skin still intact after years of storage. Rocket scientist Charles Bell, paid $10 for it though it is estimated that it cost $10m to build. It had been standing at Patrick Air Force Base at Cape Canaveral until a storm blew a tree into it. It is estimated these rockets cost around $10m to build at the time though they were bought at auction for $10,000.
    Nasa05 RBA.jpg
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