Arlington West, Santa Monica California

[RBSinTo]

Taken is 2015, while driving south along the Pacific Coastal highway from San Francisco to Los Angeles, we made a stop in Santa Monica and while I was about to walk onto the pier, saw this incredible scene to my right and grabbed this shot.
motorized Nikon FA
Vivitar 17~28 f4.0-4.5 AIS manual focus
Fuji 100 ISO colour slide
likely f22 @ 1/125th

[Hugh_3170]

Robert, I have looked at this image many many times. 

It has really made me think quite deeply about what it is saying to me and I doubt if I have really got to the bottom of my own emotions on this one. 

Certainly I am one person that does appreciate the sacrifices that American servicemen and servicewomen have made for well over the last hundred years that have helped secure the freedoms of both American and non-American peoples - freedoms that sometimes sadly we take for granted.  Likewise the efforts of other nations servicemen and servicewomen to this end. And as Arlington West indicates, these sacrifices are still ongoing.  My own family has not escaped such sacrifices (and lesser impacts), so maybe the image is more poignant for myself as I think of them - it kind of perosnalises the message for me.

[RBSinTo]

Robert, I have looked at this image many many times. 

It has really made me think quite deeply about what it is saying to me and I doubt if I have really got to the bottom of my own emotions on this one. 

Certainly I am one person that does appreciate the sacrifices that American servicemen and servicewomen have made for well over the last hundred years that have helped secure the freedoms of both American and non-American peoples - freedoms that sometimes sadly we take for granted.  Likewise the efforts of other nations servicemen and servicewomen to this end. And as Arlington West indicates, these sacrifices are still ongoing.  My own family has not escaped such sacrifices (and lesser impacts), so maybe the image is more poignant for myself as I think of them - it kind of perosnalises the message for me.

Hugh,
Thank you for commenting. I appreciate the difficulty you had in speaking about what the image represents to you.
I found the scene to be very emotional when I took the photo, and deliberated for a long time whether to post it or not, feeling that it might be construed as a personal political statement and quickly be removed.
Thus I posted it here and at five other sites without any specific comments.
Robert