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A better scan of the previous picture along with another one from the yearbook with his family and a new one found online. We can see from his ribbons that he served in the European-African-Middle Easter Theater in World War II and had prior enlisted service.

Top aging and weathering of the gun so far, Manny! Lars

Greetings FlashandOvals As a Fl. & Oval collector ,i'm tired of just having everything in books, would it be possible for you to print a set of your display pages ?? Thanks A H R 727-698-7721 ahrichmondjr@yahoo.com

Signal Corps of the Statue Of Liberty Division.

My Dad shop made this buckles during the 80's "Aguilar & Sons Engraving Shop"

Did Remington make a MILLED stacking swivel (pre-A3) that instead of the usual rounded ends to the cut section had simply square cut ends? I received one recently, on a Rem upper band. It is not a cut standard swivel as it is the narrow width. It is full parkerised. See pic - its the exact item I received. The wear would seems to indicate they've been married a long time (now divorced, as I put it on an SA 18 restoration). Arstar in Canada also used to sell a similar one (sold out) Did Rem at the end simply not round over? Or is this a bogus stacking swivel made from something else? (accidentally posted it on the general firearms forum)

Marv, thanks again for sharing your knowledge about these Eickhorn Colt bayonets! I wanted to ask about the bayonet you show as an Eickhorn post #7 of this thread. Why do you think this particular bayonet was made by Eickhorn? Also wondering does it have the link/bar securing the crossguard under the grips? If I'm not mistaken, when you previously discussed this bayonet, you came to the conclusion that it was probably made by GenCut based on the US M7 stamp. The starburst peening also looks more American to me with the peened area left proud. From what I've seen, Eickhorn Colt M7 pommels look ground down or welded in comparison. Here is your most recent discussion about the Colt 90 M7 that I had saved:

Very interesting Marv, I was unaware that the chevron stamp was started on the Colt Milpar blades. It's interesting you bring that one up since I was blessed enough to get a Colt Milpar 90 for my collection recently after looking for years and never seeing one for sale. Been meaning to post about it in your old thread discussing those but haven't gotten around to it yet. Your example is definitely nicer than mine! Yes, you're probably right about finding a 68-69 Milpar M7 with the chevron. I was thinking there may be some out there assembled with an older chevron marked pommel but probably a long shot. Very surprised to learn about the potential of the curved runout Milpar M7 being used in the Vietnam conflict. The reason is previous to this thread, I thought the general consensus was that curved runout Milpars were either commercial pieces or assembled from Milpar parts by other M7 manufacturers because gov specifications didn't allow the curved runout until after the Vietnam War.

I have the medal group of Captain James H. Johnston USMC and am on the hunt for the two missing medals from his time with the Army during the Spanish-American War and the Philippine Insurrection. The medals in question are: Spanish War Service Medal number: 13703 Philippine Campaign Medal - US Army Medal No: 7973

Snagged this one on a BIN. As an ex-rotor head (even though it's Navy), I just went a head and pulled the trigger. Sea Wolf 40 , Harvey Caughey. Any info on this pilot would be appreciated.

Hello all! Hey Gear Fanatic, unfortunately this base is not scratchbuilt. It's an old Verlinden base for a Vietnam era SP howitzer. I am tweaking it to conform to my towed 105mm howitzer. I have put the branch and unit marking decals on the gun. I'm considering scratch building the ammo crates to conform with the era. Here are a couple of WIP pics. Semper Fi. Manny

I will not be going but would appreciate if anyone would be willing to keep an eye out for 5-6 better Armored Woolies, Airborne Ovals, and Jump Wings I need to round out my collections. If you're willing please send me a PM for specifics and thank you in advance!

Love it!!

I know a marine that was overseas in 03-04 in Iraq who I know was issued or acquired one and he went overseas with it an barely used it. But it was still brought. It was this same type marked “training” just an interesting note. To show these were technically used, but maybe not in the sense you expected.

Seeking Bronze Star with V to James E Holden KIA Nov 17 1965 LZ Albany

Sounds like a waste of time then, other than personal use for the rougher bayonets that i have. I didn't realize the pre WW2 type with the larger bottom were so easy to find. I figured the smooth Italian with the skinny bottom were made there, but it makes sense that they'd sand them down to fit! I've picked up mismatched plastic or bakelite of skinny later & early wider bottom that fit right in various conditions on the early SA and RIA bayonets that I've picked up. Some of the early have been cracked or pretty bad. For my stripped ones, this old barn wood should look decent on some. You can still see the saw marks, but I put raw linseed oil on the cut side to see how it looked.

I will have some!

Would like to have one in my collection.

A humble thank you for the kind words. It was honestly dumb luck that I learned of the medal. The credit goes to my work volunteer who asked to see a different medal in the numismatic collection and this one was brought out with it. We both went "what is THAT?!?!" I opted to write this article, while he is working on another Medal of Honor story that is even more amazing than this one. Stay tuned!

Marstar in Canada also sold these previously (sold out)

In this case the medal remains federal property. My understanding of the law is IF the medal is gifted and absolutely nothing is exchanged - and this is documented as a pure gift - then legally you can own the medal/ribbon/rosette/case. If, however, you acquire any aspect of the medal in exchange for something then you are in violation of federal law. I am not, however a lawyer, so take what I say with a salt mine!

Original wood panels are available ex-Greece and Italy, but they've all been sanded smooth and look...well...yeah. Cost is about $30 a pair, with escutcheon and screw. Original USGI plastic/phenolic grips are very easy to obtain currently, or Eickhorn Greek contract ones. I picked up 3 pair recently with screw for $25 a pair.

Did Remington make a MILLED stacking swivel (pre-A3) that instead of the usual rounded ends to the cut section had simply square cut ends? I received one recently, on a Rem upper band. It is not a cut standard swivel as it is the narrow width. It is full parkerised. See pic - its the exact item I received. The wear would seems to indicate they've been married a long time (now divorced, as I put it on an SA 18 restoration) Did Rem at the end simply not round over? Or is this a bogus stacking swivel made from something else?

Do any of you think there would be a market for smooth black walnut grips made for the early Springfield and Rock Islands? I have a number of scales made from black walnut, an unknown old, thick barn wood beam, some olive from Israel, and various exotic woods. Mostly planning just to use on later Greek or unmarked, suspected German, M1's that came bare, had pretty rough grips, or that I've used the internals from. It's just something that I've been working on to make them look nice, along with sharpening some of my extras.. Working on a few leather scabbards for those and for a few really rough M5A1s converted to more of a trench knife. Some with wood handles, some with stacked leather. (Stacked leather also looks nice on an M7, but they're still functional.) It would just be an occasional hobby and done with hand tools. No mass production, but I could maybe leave them a little thick for personal modification or possibly study an original set if I ever get one. I just wouldn't like to see anyone claiming something I made as an original to con somebody. Having a nice, properly sized smooth grip could also help avoid that possibly. Any decent looking & fitting early grips are hard to find in wood, Bakelite, or plastic repro.

I was quite excited to see this nylon ‘butt pack’ at a local yard sale, thinking it was an M67; imagine my disappointment when I discovered it was ‘only’ a “TRAINING” version; which leads to this post: Why, and to whom, were these “FIELD PACK, TRAINING” issued? They were quite common in the pawn shops and flea markets around Ft. Bragg in the 1990’s, though the ones I remember seeing mostly were of lightweight nylon and had no eyelets on the flap. This particular one is fairly heavy nylon, and is closer to the M67 than most I’ve encountered. I can’t recall ever seeing anyone wearing them on their LBE, nor have I heard of them being issued. By the time I joined in 1978, the “Butt Packs” were no longer issued (at least not at the CIF’s at Benning or Bragg), though I and many others purchased them from local surplus / pawn shops and attached them to our LBE when permitted (some commanders were adverse to customized Load Bearing Equipment, for some odd reason).