A "USO Show" Type 38 Arisaka in the shipping crate

[chils123]

Picked this up last week, as I have a huge interest in crated World War II Pacific Theater rifles.

The Type 38 is a Tokyo made example, with the mum intact and put together from a couple different rifles. The dust cover and floor plate their own numbers, the bolt matches itself, the trigger guard and bottom tang match each other, and everything else matches the rifle's assembly number. Stock looks to have been stripped in many areas, but everything under the wood line is fine, and there is still a ton of grease in the rifle. Who knows why it was done.

The crate itself what is very interesting. It's addressed to a "Charles V. Krylowicz" of Millville, Massachusetts. Despite a couple hours of online searching, even before the crate arrived to me, I can't find a single article or mention of this gentleman online. The seller bought it from his son some years ago, and had no contact information or history of the set.

What's really interesting is the shipping tag. I've never come across a variant like this, and it appears to have some mention of the USO.

The "From" section appears to say:

Charles V. Krylowicz

U. S. O Camp Unit # 798

(Something I can't read as it's too lightly stamped)

Com Servpac, Box 12

San Francisco, California

I'm wondering if maybe this person who shipped the crate home might have been involved in the USO in some way. Searching online didn't reveal anything about what "USO Camp Unit 798" is. Seems the stamp was premade with the intent of writing whatever unit you were in. A Google search shows that Com Servpac is in reference to the support command of the US Pacific Fleet until 1973.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ComServPac

I'll keep trying to find out more, but right now I'm at a dead end.

 

 

[USCapturephotos]

Nice find and especially love the crate. I think I may have seen this one for sale a few months ago at the Allentown Gun Show as that crate and the address look familiar.

Thanks for sharing!

I really like your collecting focus.

Paul

[chils123]

Nice find and especially love the crate. I think I may have seen this one for sale a few months ago at the Allentown Gun Show as that crate and the address look familiar.

Thanks for sharing!

I really like your collecting focus.

Paul

 

Paul,

 

I know which crate you're talking about. This is actually a different one. The one you saw had a Type 99 with a sling, and a blue painted box. It was also a Massachusetts labeled example. I think it ended up selling at a show in Maryland as I saw it posted on another forum.

 

Do you go to that show alot? I did a display at the last May show with a focus on bring back pieces from the Pacific with provenance.