Modern War Heroes

Sometimes a soldier just needs to take a moment off and find the good things in life to laugh at – especially when on tour. As any one who knows someone in the military knows, our soldiers are often stuck “hurrying up to wait”. This is how they fill that downtime.

Visit this website to view more humorous photos taken by our brave men in uniform.

We all know of the tragedy in 1941 that struck the U.S. Naval base located at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. But you haven’t seen it the way that the pictures show it.

Click here to see Pearl Harbor photos.

I found this page over at Good.is. It is a series of photos showing troops inhabiting Saddam’s palaces in Iraq. The contrast between the opulent surroundings and the working soldiers is certainly an interesting one.

The picture says it all. Former soldier Shaun Clark made a promise to tattoo the name of every soldier lost in Afghanistan, and he’s holding true to that promise. He now has 232 names permanently inked onto his back.

Mr Clark, who served with the 8th Battalion Light Infantry Regiment from 1989 to 1996, was waiting in the tattooist’s chair at 11am this morning to carry out his painful pledge.

The first name was etched on his body just as the traditional Armistice Day two-minute silence began.

He said: ‘I don’t mind suffering for a few days if I can let the lads know that people really care about what they’re doing out there, and raise some money for the guys coming home wounded as well.

‘The family thought I was mad to begin with, but they’ve come round to the idea now, and my wife is backing me all the way.’

The married father-of-two from Doncaster hopes his challenge will raise £500 for the charity Help for Heroes.

He plans on updating the sombre list every year on Remembrance Day if required.

Before his ordeal began, Mr Clark said: ‘It’s going to be painful business but it’s nothing compared to what the troops are going through every single day on the front line.’

He added: ‘I know it’s a bit extreme covering the top half of your body front and back with 223 names, but it’s my way of honouring all those men and women and it’ll be there as a memorial for as long as I live.’
Mr Clark

Mr Clark hopes to raise £500 for Help4Heroes through his ordeal

Mr Clark said: ‘I wanted to do something to raise money for the heroes who still need help and to honour the memory of the fallen.

‘I’ve still lots of friends from my days in the Army over in Afghanistan and there’s lots of Donny lads out there as well.

‘Lots of people do things to raise money but I wanted to do something different and something permanent.

‘It’s not just about raising money – it’s also about letting these lads know that people care about what they’re doing.’ (DailyMail.co.uk)

I found this site with some pretty spectacular photos from the front in Afghanistan. It helps give the sense of what the men and women in service are dealing with on a day to day basis. A window into their daily lives in service.

Scenes from Afghanistan: The Sacramento Bee

A young German soldier in pain being treated by American GI.

This photo is touching. The wounded soldier is just a kid, and this photo does nothing to soften that reality. He’s someone son, sent out onto the battlefield to fight for someone else’s ideals, here wounded, in pain, and obviously scared. An American soldier, the enemy, is reaching out and taking care of him, helping him bandage his wounds. It’s good to see that, in the midst of the horrors of the battlefield, someone could spare a moment of compassion and see the human being behind uniform.

At least you don’t have this guy’s job!

But seriously, this takes the term “talented” to whole new levels. According to the website where I found this incredible image, the pilot is in the Guard and flies EMS helicopters in his civilian time.

Amazing.

Chinoook helicopter touching down to receive Afghan Persons Under Control (APUC) captured by members of the U.S. 10th Mountain Division.

Thank you Washington Post for this list of our lost soldiers. We never want to forget the sacrifice they have made.

http://projects.washingtonpost.com/fallen/

I ran across this website this morning. It was created by a man named Steven Curtis who was employed as a photographer during the Vietnam War. His about page mentions that he mostly was commissioned to photograph war images, but he personally was interested in capturing the human element in the midst of such inhumanity. These images are a real reminder that history is alive and that people just like you and me had to endure such hardships.

Nineteenth birthday party

Click here to travel to Stephen’s webpage.

Old photographic plates were discovered and saved by two men, Bernard Gardin and Dominique Zanardi. The amount of plates equaled to over 300, and they were in good enough condition to develop. The developed photos offer a new glimpse of what it might have been like to be a soldier on the front in World War I. The photos appear to have been taken by a local person, supposed a farmer. These photos are unusual since most photos taken of soldiers were either taken right before they shipped out or, if they were extrememly lucky, sometime after returning home. The men in these recently discovered photos are in the field during the war, most likely right before the battle of the Somme.

These photos provide a parallel to the mass graves discovered near Fromelles. Perhaps even some of the individuals in the photos lie in those graves. Follow this link to read the article and learn more about this fabulous find. Or click here if you just want to see the photos. Truly incredible. It really makes these people’s lives come to light.