Dgrin Mini-Challenge #273 – THE MILITARY

GSPeP

I was thinking it would take me a long time to get a theme, but today I received an e-mail with an invitation to attend the Miramar Airshow in San Diego. This event takes place on a military base, so I thought: “Why not go for the military?” (I won’t be able to go there this year.)
Any kind of military (army, navy, air force, marines, …) is OK. Even if the pictures were taken in a museum, historic site or at a monument.

Some examples:

This mini-challenge will run until Monday, October 8, 2018 at 8pm, CET

**OUR UN-OFFICIAL GENERAL RULES
1. Have fun sharing and seeing what others share!
2. The host supplies a topic and you post 1-3 images. The host judges the winners (1st, 2nd and 3rd) and is not eligible to enter.
The 1st place winner then chooses the next topic, judges the winner and then passes on the baton to the new champion.
3. Any photo you’ve taken is eligible, regardless of when taken or camera used.
4. Any amount of post-processing is allowed. However, it is helpful if you list your camera and lens along with your photo.
You may comment on other contestant's images. If you want someone to leave you some critique or criticism, just ask within your post.
5. The winner has up to three days (72 hours) to begin a new mini-challenge, or the honor goes to the #2 finisher and so forth.

Guidelines:
1. Enter 1-3 photos and put them in a single post.
2. Either embed your image in the thread or, if you must, supply a link to it. Keep in mind, however, most people don't want to click to open photos hosted elsewhere (i.e. on your website).
3. Also try and resize your photos prior to posting so they're sized appropriately for viewing without having to scroll (~800 pixels on the longest side works best.)
4. Give each image you enter a title.
5. Enjoy discussion with members about their images, don't let this just be an entry thread!
6. When quoting a post change the IMG urls to a 200x200 size picture so it is clear your post is feedback and not another entry. (see here for help)
7. Don't be hesitant, share'em and enter!

Mini-Challenge pointers:
1. Upon winning a mini-challenge round your first step is coming up with a new theme, and start a new thread using the same format as others have used.
2. Make sure to notify the admin of this thread to update the main thread links with your entry thread.
3. Feel free to watch the thread as it grows or wait to the end time and look at all the entries all at once.
4. After the time/date has passed, then officially close the thread with a single post notifying everyone of the fact.
5. After you're finished judging start a new thread (again use the prior formats) and post your Winner and runners-up, it is important to have runners up in case the winner does not show within the 72hr window.
6. PM the winner with this info above and let them know they have 72hrs.
7. After the 72hrs and the winner does not show up, notify the next runner-up and post a message on the Winner thread of the fact.
8. Remember, if you're the Winner, you run the show.

Cavalier

Good subject, Peter. Most of my military shots are from the Castle Air Force Museum in central California. WWII music plays in the background while you roam the open-air 'museum' grounds.

1) Republic F-105 Thunderchief fighter bomber. It first flew in 1955 and played a vital role in Vietnam. Nicknamed "Thud" or the "Lead Sled" - it was the heaviest single-seat fighter ever.

2) Boeing B-52D Stratofortress bomber

3) B-36 Peacemaker bomber. Largest bomber ever built - served as the US airborne nuclear deterrent in the 1950's. Carried the MK-17 Termonuclear bomb. The craft was also equipped with multiple cameras in the forward fuselage.

(As an aside - this is the bomb carried by the Peaceaker.) MK-17 Thermonuclear Bomb - first mass produced thermonuclear weapon by U.S. Capable of being carried only by the B-36 Peacemaker. A total of 200 were produced.

slpollett

Hmmmm....great topic, but not sure if I have much. I do live near one of the largest military installations in the country, but I don't have any pictures from there...

1. This is some of my Dad's ribbons and stuff. He retired from the AF in 1974. I used these items to put together a shadow box/memory box after he passed.
   

I'll have to search to see if I have more.

Sherry P.

sarasphotos

I don't have many pictures on the subject so I won't enter this mini, but in light of Jo's using photos from the Castle Air Museum I thought I'd share this pic. It was taken by a friend of my dad's in 1982.
One of the exhibits at the Castle Air Museum is the last B-47 that ever flew, and this is that plane just after they's pulled it out of a sand dune where it had been used as target practice for several years. My dad, who had been a B-47 mechanic in the 50's, played a key role in the restauration (that's him with his pickup under the plane), spending many, many hours at China Lake Naval Air Station until the plane was ready to make it's final flight to Castle.

Cavalier

Oh Sara - I love the fact that that you posted the back story and the resurrection of 0166! It literally made me whoop and jump out of my chair. Went back into my archives and found shots from Castle of the restored plane. Unfortunately, they aren't shots of the entire plane, but enough to identify it. You can see how much of the undercarriage and the signage were beautifully restored. The names of the Pilot, Crew Chief and Asst Crew Chief have been added as well - not sure if they were there back when.

Sorry for abducting the mini for our trip back in history, Peter!

As an aside - I saw a some military jets practicing out of Beale Air Force base one day as I was trolling for photos in the area. I so wanted to get some good pictures of them so drove up to the main gate, rolled down my window and naively asked if I could go in just to take some pictures of those beautiful planes. When the laughter stopped, they got real serious and said "No and you need to back up, turn around and leave NOW." About a year after that we were traveling down south and saw that the China Lake Naval Air Station was just a mile or two up the road. My husband said before I could ask, "No - We're not turning off and I'm not going to jail so that you can get shots of planes." Killjoy!

GSPeP

Some great pictures already. I visited the Castle Air Museum in 2009. Was very interesting. Have almost the same picture of the A-bomb.

sarasphotos

@Cavalier said:
Oh Sara - I love the fact that that you posted the back story and the resurrection of 0166! It literally made me whoop and jump out of my chair. Went back into my archives and found shots from Castle of the restored plane. Unfortunately, they aren't shots of the entire plane, but enough to identify it. You can see how much of the undercarriage and the signage were beautifully restored. The names of the Pilot, Crew Chief and Asst Crew Chief have been added as well - not sure if they were there back when.

Glad I made you whoop and jump, Jo! And thanks for posting the pics. Yes, indeed the three triangles with the Pilot, Crew Chief (my dad, our last name spelled wrong as usual...) and Asst Crew Chief have been there from day 1.
...and after thinking about it a bit, I realize that somewhere in my not-yet-digitized family picture archives are pictures of that very same B-36 in pieces and being put on a train at some AF Base in Ohio in preparation for being shipped to Castle for restoration. Another of my dad's "babies", but it wasn't quite so special for him as the B-47.

Sorry for abducting the mini for our trip back in history, Peter!

That goes for me too, Peter!

grandmaR

Bob was in the Navy for 20 years, and we have quite often visited museums connected with the military and military bases. So it will take me some time to select just 3 pictures.

Here are the entries
1. N3N seaplane in the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola. This was the first plane my husband flew while he was at USNA and it persuaded him to go into Navy Air instead of submarines

2. Peruvian army guarding the APEC conference in Lima Peru 2008

3. Flying over the Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor (helicopter tour)

These were the discards - My grandson's wedding

My husband's flight school graduation

Part of the Oklahoma memorial at Pearl Harbor

The Fat Man bomb dropped over Nagasaki in the Air Force Armament Museum in Eglin AFB FL

Dining table of a submarine (also at Pearl Harbor)

And a Coast Guard ship practicing Docking

BMW Kurt

I'll go ahead and enter these just to keep in the habit of entering. These are some old film shots from my time in the ASA (1975-1978)

1) APCs on Sheridan Kasern, Augsburg, Germany.

2) Field Station Augsburg in Gablingen, Germany.

3) Yours truly on Sheridan Kasern, Augsburg, Germany. Make special note of the cheesy mustache.

moose135

Great subject for a challenge. And it's been a challenge for me to just pick three photos, given all the air shows and such I've shot. Here goes...

1 - Legacy Flight: Similar to the Air Force Heritage Flight, this is comprised of a modern day Navy fighter and an historic warbird. Here, a Navy F/A-18F flies formation off a WWII-era F-4U Corsair. These are satisfying to capture, as you are panning along with a slower shutter speed to get prop blur, and the two aircraft are moving around in relationship to one another while in formation.

2 - Thunderbirds Overhead: Show closing break over the crowd at the end of the Jones Beach Air Show.

3 - Changing of the Guard: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery.

GSPeP

Thanks GrandmaR, BMW Kurt and moose135 for the pictures. I was beginning to think the subject was not interesting enough. Usually, people (especially in the US) are proud of their military.

DavidRGillespie

Wasn't sure I was going to be able to add anything to this mini - but Sherry's (@slpollett) montage of her father's ribbons prompted me to do something I have been meaning to do for a long time, which is to take a decent photo of my father's medals. And I threw in a couple from the archives.

Dad served in the Canadian military from 1939 to 1945.

A Cormorant from the CFB Comox Search and Rescue Squadron, on the ground on a rainy day at an event in Abbotsford, BC.

Changing of the guard at the National Cemetary, Santiago, Cuba

pegelli

Belgian Naval vessel

Remembrance

Gun

kurzvorzwoelf

Just in time (kurz vor zwoelf, you could say!) - I thought this challenge contains only contains "western" military items so far, so my entries are some pictures of former Soviet equipment.

1. An exhibited MiG-21 F-13, near a Russian Air Force base in Volgograd

2. A WW2-times Soviet rocket artillery launcher, code name "Katyusha" (in Germany formerly known as the "Stalinorgel" or "Stalin's organ"). The writing on the side reads "To Berlin" on Russian.

3. Not exactly military equipment, but in my humble opinion very related. A silhouette shot of the WW2 monumental statue Rodina-mat ("Motherland calls") which was erected on the Mamaev hill in Volgograd (formerly known as Stalingrad) as rememberance of the battle of Stalingrad and the victory over Nazi-Germany in WW2. People on the bottom for scale.

GSPeP

The challenge is closed. I will try to post the results later today, latest tomorrow.