Jon Searles' photos with the keyword: soldier

Even today, a station is maintained at Calais. The last time I had ridden the Eurostar, I had noted a large amount of graffitti on the CTRL, which seemed completely unacceptable to me. It isn't just ugly, but on a high speed line, in the post-9/11, post-Madrid world (not to mention earlier attacks specifically on the LGV system), it indicates an unacceptably low level of security. I'm nowhere close to a security fanatic, but a high speed line, like an airport, must be secure. Apparently, the French government had noticed, too, and put soldiers on the ends of the platforms, complete with bullpup rifles of some kind (probably FAMAS rifles). It's surprising how much vandalism happens completely out in the open, with little sophistication. Often vandals damage stations right under the CCTV cameras, and get onto the lines not with wire cutters or any such commando-like tools or tactics, but simply walk off the ends of the platforms or through gaps in the sound walls. Speaking of that, I've never understood the point of building a wall or a fence if you're going to put gaps in it or make it low enough to step over. It seems like a tremendous waste of money. Ultimately, vandalism is much easier to deal with than we were lead to believe back in the 1980's. It just takes a will, as evidenced by the drastic cleanup of the New York City subway system in the 1990's.

The memorial service we attended for Jaroslav Hasek included a gun salute, which was meant to be ironic as much as anything else, as while a soldier for many years, Hasek still wasn't too hot on the idea of war or military service by the end of his life. He would have carried, probably, a Mauser 1898 while with the Austrians, but these are Mosin-Nagant rifles, used by the Russian army 1891-1945 (and really longer, if you count the secondary units like the Soviet National Gaurd), and therefore by both sides during the Russian Civil War. Even the U.S. Army carried them in that war, and after the war they remained in U.S. Army National Gaurd units as the M1916 rifle, although I don't know for how long. Most of the U.S. ones had originally been built by American companies like Remington during World War I for the Czar, but then left undelivered because of the Bolshevik revolution of 1917. Today, the only army which still carries Mosin-Nagants, at least that I know of, is the Finnish Army, who use a special, rare version of it called the M85.

The reenactors agreed to have their photo taken, but unfortunately I didn't get their names. I hope they don't mind the effects of my horrible light meter.

Here's a darker shot. I'm not sure if this is really all that great or not, but I figured I'd at least experiment with it.