Sgt. Boghots Posted October 19, 2009 #1 Posted October 19, 2009 Last Thursday night, I posted in Edged Weapon reference section about a knife I've been hoping to acquire for several years. It is now in my collection, and today I spent some time taking pictures. - The 89 year old veteran I've obtained it from was an army staff sergeant, primarily working on and with early Sikorsky helicopters in the Pacific, aboard the SS General Russell. They wore navy working uniforms aboard ship, complete with white hats, but were still members of the USAAF. Here's a picture of him in the Pacific, just prior to operations in the Philippines: The veteran acquired the knife from an injured paratrooper brought to medical aid by one of their two Sikorsky's. His recollection is that the trooper was a member of the 503rd RCT. There is what appears to be an initial P 1322 on the back of the canvas belt loop. The knife and scabbard are depicted in the following pictures. Aside from lightly wiping the grime off of the blade with Hoppe's #9 and a soft rag, I'm going to do no further cleaning whatsoever. The blade appears to be an unmarked M3 style, which measures approx. 1/16th inch shorter than a standard M3, from crossguard to tip.
doyler Posted October 19, 2009 #7 Posted October 19, 2009 Thats a great looking modified knife.Congrats on adding it to the collection RON
Sgt. Boghots Posted October 19, 2009 Author #15 Posted October 19, 2009 Tang of blade appears to be sweated or soldered into the grip:
Sgt. Boghots Posted October 19, 2009 Author #21 Posted October 19, 2009 Shown alongside an equally well-used Imperial M3 for comparison. I've handled a couple of others over the years. Each of them had only one side of the handguard cut down, and both of them retained their original blades, and retaining nuts. This is the only one I've ever obtained directly from a veteran, though he himself was not the original owner, I trust his story about obtaining in from a paratrooper to be accurate. Thanks for looking, hope I didn't take up too much bandwidth with the photo's !! Comments encouraged and welcomed ! Best regards, Paul Walker Klamath Falls, Oregon
Sgt. Boghots Posted October 19, 2009 Author #22 Posted October 19, 2009 Oops !! Meant to add this one: Paul
Sgt. Boghots Posted October 23, 2009 Author #23 Posted October 23, 2009 Thats a great looking modified knife.Congrats on adding it to the collection RON Thanks, Ron. I appreciate the nice comment. Any new Force items come your way lately ? Best regards, Paul Walker Klamath Falls, Oregon
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