"Where was that photo taken?"

There are a lot of photos on this blog.  Indeed, a blog without at least some photos, and there are some, is sort of like a ship on the ocean without sails.  It might float for its owner but most folks aren't going to want to get on board.  

I.e, want readers?  You need viewers.  And viewing means that if you are putting something up on the screen you need a few photographs.

Anyhow, we get questions and comments on photos from time to time, but the photograph below is unique as its been getting some unique attention recently, and it's not a recent arrival here on the site.

Indeed, this photo appears at the bottom of this website and has been incorporated into the site itself. When that was done, a quote from G. K. Chesteron was added to it. 

The photo also appears in several other locations on this blog in posts.  In its unaltered form, it looks like this:

It's one of my favorites, which is why I've used it more than once and in more than one place.

For those who might be wondering, the location is Camp Kearny, California.  It was taken in December, 1917. The written notation on the photo states:  "Captain Valentine in command of Remount Station, 100k head of stock."

Camp Kearny, which I've never seen or been to, is in San Diego County California.  I've never been to San Diego County either.  The Army started operating it in 1917, only shortly before this photograph was taken, and it served the country in the build up of the Army during World War One.

Camp Kearny, 1918.

The camp was closed following demobilization from the Great War in 1920, although the 15,000 acre facility was retained and the airfield was kept open for use by arrangement.  In 1932 the Navy took over the site as it was big enough for airships and it isn't really all that far inland, although it is inland.  In turn, they leased the facility to the Marine Corps, which is an odd thought as the Marines are part of the Department of the Navy and isn't crystal clear as to why the Marines would need to lease something from the Navy, or how one department of the Federal government leases anything from another department. During that time it was expanded to 26,000 acres.

Today its Naval Air Station Miramar, which is likely how most people who have heard of the location know of it.

So what's the deal with the photo here? Well, it fits the era the blog is focused on, and it fits a lot of the theme.  Were 100,000 horses really at Camp Kearny? That seems like an awful lot, but there were horses there and they were important. Even so, this is the modern era, a century removed.  There's just something about it.  A location and a scene in both worlds.

And then there's Chesteron's quote. . . which is quite true, no matter how much we moderns are afraid of it and what that means.  Radical free will includes the option of looking back.