Picture of the Day (Other eras)

[Rawhide]

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - Prince William prepares to shoot on the range at Holsworthy Army Barracks on the second day of his visit to Australia on January 20, 2010 in Sydney, Australia. HRH flew to Sydney today after spending three days in New Zealand earlier this week. This is the first official overseas visit for the second-in-line to the throne.

[Zrix]

A flyover performed with JAS 39 Gripens and F18 Hornets over Olkkajärvi, Finland flying in the Missing man formation, to honor the dead on the 70th anniversary of the (small)Swedish voluntary airforce that aided Finland in WW2.

[Rawhide]

SAPS, South African Police Service

[Tolga<3]

Nothin special

[Eat Uranium]

A German infantryman on sentry duty in a trench. He wears a set of body armour and has his gas mask container easily to hand.

[Invincible]

An Israeli soldier fires a tear gas canister during a protest against Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank village of Bilin, near Ramallah, Friday, Jan. 22, 2010. Israel says the barrier is necessary for security while Palestinians call it a land grab.

what ya gonna do?

Why use one if you can use 2?

[Eat Uranium]

I don't think hes just infantry. Body armour seems typical for those who have to clean up mines etc.

I doubt it was for mine clearing.  I suspect it was to give further protection against shrapnel and bomb splinters.

Edit:

An Australian chaplain wearing the "Large Box Respirator" also known as the "Respiratory Tower" during the First World War.  The man is probably Major Walter Dexter, DSO, DCM, in the Bois Grenier Sector on 5th June 1916.

[silian]

The remains of an Iraqi mechanized unit along a stretch of the road to Basrah, 1991. (Kudos to anyone who can ID four or more different AFV's - there are at least five.)

[hOMEr_jAy]

German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg (R) awards German army Bundeswehr first sergeant Daniel Seibert (C) the Honorary Cross for Bravery as staff sergeant Steffen Knoska (L) watches in Berlin January 22, 2010. Seibert was awarded the cross after helping rescuing comrades during a life threatening situation while on a tour of duty in Afghanistan.

And the whole story:
http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?172929-German-troops-awarded-for-bravery-in-Afghanistan

[Oddball]

^^ Good one! lol.. 

[VonMudra]

Yes, they started issuing that armour to machine gunners, and stormtroopers and the like, though I believe it was often discarded.

Yeah, the only thing that was kept was the helmet and the brow plate for sentries and snipers (as that actually COULD stop a bullet, but was incredibly heavy, so not useful at all for the attack).

[Torenico]

US Air Force dropping Supplies on Haiti.

[Eat Uranium]

German lancer.  All three participants wearing gasmasks.

[granpa_jo]

Bang.

[hOMEr_jAy]

International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) soldiers and Afghan police block an area to a bomb blast site in Kabul September 28, 2005. A suicide bomber dressed in an army uniform rammed his motorcycle into a fleet of buses carrying Afghan army officers in the capital Kabul on Wednesday, killing at least nine people and wounding 28, officials said. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood

Now THAT`S an international assistance force!