Random Cool Photo Thread

[Smithy]

...I should add that if you haven't read Olds' memoir then you really should. It's right up for there for one of the best pilot memoirs ever written, easily as absorbing as "First Light" or "The Big Show".

 

[Micawber]

 

[Smithy]

...I should add that if you haven't read Olds' memoir then you really should. It's right up for there for one of the best pilot memoirs ever written, easily as absorbing as "First Light" or "The Big Show".

Following on from this, I just had to post this too. One of the best snaps of Olds.

Best mo in aviation? He's got to be in the running ;-)

 

[Micawber]

 

[Micawber]

 

[Smithy]

Yup confirmed, best mo in aviation

 

[Smithy]

Dropping off...

 

[Smithy]

"Puff the Magic Dragon." More mini-guns than you can shake a stick at.

 

[Smithy]

Small photo but amazing, troops dropping from a Huey under intense fire...

 

[ausreenactor]

To be honest I don't think it was any harder than any other war for any other soldier. At least most got out in 1 year instead of having to take it for the "duration".

The earlier Wars saw extended timeline for deployment and repatriation. There was a longer demobilisation for those soldiers. While the horrors were similar there was a distinct delineation between being 'over there' and home. Veterans of today can be home in under 24 hours. Farewelling a fallen comrade... mowing the lawn the next. The lines become blurred, the quicker we can enter and exit a battlespace. Turning on and off is just as hard. You blend the two.

 

[ausreenactor]

Door gunner with a pig...

A grunt...

Fighting for the citadel in Hue...

Thats our Marine gunner from the Life article.

 

[ausreenactor]

View attachment 92243

Gertrude Can!

 

[Micawber]

No words required.

 

[Lorenzo_l]

The legend himself, Robin Olds.

Famous photo of his return from his final combat mission, 23 September 1967...

And earlier during his Vietnam combat tour...

23 victories during WW2!

 

[Pa12]

No words required.

View attachment 92271

Wow. I can’t even imagine how you good snap that picture. The camera airplane would almost have to be going vertically as well. Or maybe telephoto lense as your heading towards it. Crazy shot.

 

[ES335]

Wow. I can’t even imagine how you good snap that picture. The camera airplane would almost have to be going vertically as well. Or maybe telephoto lense as your heading towards it. Crazy shot.

I love the gunfire residue on the wings too. Looks like that fighter was in the thick of it.

 

[Smithy]

F/A-18 breaking the sound barrier...

 

[FlakMagnet]

 

[FlakMagnet]

 

[Micawber]

82 years ago...

The night of 29/30th December 1940 was one of the worse of the London 'Blitz'. Of course many other cities, towns, villages in the UK were the recipients of Axis bombs, V1 & V2 weapons during the war but St Pauls Cathedral in the capital city on that night was destined to become one of the symbols of defiance of the country in 1940/1. Thanks to the actions of myriads of Firemen, fire watchers, Cathedral staff and countless others.

Image below C/O Fire Brigades Union..