Actually, it looks like the kid's packin heat. I think he's about to pull his gat outta his gansta flops and bust a cap, yo! GI Joe has the right idea about puttin the middle-man trace on tha periph. Knowwhatimean, G?

Aye, I was wondering about the 2nd soldier, and the fact that it looks like he's pointing his gun at the kid...

Does the army have some sort of "release process" for these photographs that make it through the various press outlets? IE: Wouldn't someone in charge screen this out, (as it looks like the soldier might have been in the process of turning around, and the photographer just happened to take the pic at that moment), to get rid of shots that accidently make the army look bad?

.. Or is this photographer just some reporter that just happened to be along for the ride, or in afghanistan, on assignment, and happened to see some soldiers? (IE: they aren't allowed to nicely ask him to please don't give that photo out?)

The pic is only 2-D. While you can get some idea of depth and angle off the gun's position, but you can't really be all that sure he's pointing directly at the kid or if his gun is really angled more out into the street...

He's looking directly at the kid, i'm pretty sure he's pointing it at him. Doesn't look too set up, the guy on the left doesn't look too happy about the kodak moment.

I thought the M4s they were using had forward handles standard?

I bet this wasn't an official Army photo ndetroit. They can't stop reporters from snapping photos.

I don't know about M4's, jaguar. Like I said, NG is a few years behind active duty; we still use M16A2's. I think we're supposed to get M4's in the next month or two though.

Anyone knwo waht the thing under the barrel is? I'm pretty sure the one above is just a laser sight but the one below has me stumped. IR lamp or something?

Not a lamp, but an IR targeting light. Like the red dots you see in movies before someone gets capped, but you can only see it through night vision goggles.

One of the things that really strikes me about this shot is the height difference among the men. It almost looks like a photoshop job.

High difference? What on earth do you mean?

Just going out on a limb, i think he means that either the one guy is exceptionally tall, or the two guys in front of him are exceptionally short. It is interesting, in terms of photgraphic composition, but I think that detail, in accordance with military tradition (and reasonably good tactical practice) arranged themselves alphabetically by height.

Is that where four comes between five and six? You do work for NASA?

Re: knee pads
 

Yep - Look at anyone doing CQB (Close Quaters battle) - you'll see elbow/knee pads, usually gloves and goggles

Common trick on BDU pants - the knees are double fabric - slice the stitching, and put 3/8" or so of foam rubber between the layers and restitch! Not great "On base", but in the field:D