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A few Vet SPOILS from the Iraq Wars


mcmike
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Found this SPOILS OF WAR FORUM a few days ago and read all of it very quickly. This is, to me, a significant forum due to the personal nature of the souvenirs the servicemen (and possibly women) collected during a turbulent period of their lives. I have always collected relics because they have “been there”, and try my best to obtain and record the history of the item. Helmets are my focus.

 

The first grouping shown include an Iraqi M80 helmet from Desert Storm with a U.S. M60 bullet hole (non-fatal) in it, along with a canteen and rucksack.

post-8025-0-59300100-1366747760.jpg

 

 

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The rest of Steve's story in an email he sent to me:

 

"Yes, my M-60 gunner shot it [the helmet] thinking an Iraqi soldier was poking part of his head up from inside of a trench.

"As far as pictures go i was only able to go to the px (post exchange) once and bought one disposable camera( thats all i could afford at the time) I think it takes 24 pictures, i got back to fort bragg and had them develope nearly half of the pictures were blacked out ,I found out later that the military was screening pictures of the war from returning soldies, So the ones i have are not very interesting.

"Here's Some info about me ,I wasnt armoured or a cav soldier ,I was trained as an water purification specialist ,I was Head water purification Chief for the battalion under the commanding Officer ,my duties in the 528th SOSB SOF(Special Operations Support Battalion SOF(Special Operation Forces)was to get field showers set up where needed whether it was in the middle of the desert or in a building and near water sources where it would be purified for drinking ,mess halls,showers and in some cases water for toilets,sinks in partially Bombed out buildings or Mobile (like a small mobile home for the Officers to stay).My squad had six very determined and very professional and brave as hell.

"The Saudi's Provided so much water that our speacialty wasnt needed,My squad was getting restless,bored (and so was i)and they were tired of doing KP and pulling guard duty.I asked the CO if there were some missions that we could do ,He said to come to the operations briefing room the next morning ,after coming out of that briefing we had missions to for next three weeks and was assigned two duce and a half's with M-60 machine gun mounts and M-60's and one humvee with a 50 cal,two civilian tractor trailor trucks.With this equipment we were able to support our battalion's front line troops with small arms ammo,care packages,mail,you name it we hauled it.Mounted wheel vehicle patrols (with orders to use deadly force,we were in an active combat zone and on high alert status ,information coming down on the HQ radio suggested that hardcore bands of the Iraqi Guards might be planning an attack in the area).

The best mission was gathering up different Iraqi weapons for the battalion's HQ War Room from the highway of death north of the kuwaiti border, that was fun and dangerous because of unexploded ordance laying around every where.

"Regards

Steve"

It was very kind of Steve to go to all of this trouble to document these items and his service, and I really appreciate it. I will post other threads regarding other Iraqi Wars vet items.

 

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ww2relichunter

Very nice stories with the pieces love them they will be cherished in the future like nazi items are now !

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May I make a suggestion- take a photo of the item, or a few, and just print them out and staple them to the statment. Becasue if the worst happens, ther eis no real diretc link between the two except in your head. But if a third person come sin and can see the photo of the item, it is much more probable to stay together.

 

But GOOD FOR YOU of doing this. This will be the valuable stuff in the future.

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I have a similiar helmet.Also found on the HOD in the debris field after the initial attack.The vet I got mine from saod the vehicles were still smoldering there when they arrived.He has some graphic pictures as well.Thanks for posting

 

RD

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Jarhead8007

Hey, mcmike, I've got one of those helmet/canteen sets, too. My helmet is just plain (without the ventilation hole), but the canteen was something neat that I picked up near Al Wafrah about a week after the cease fire. As you can see, it's covered with oil from the well fires that Saddam set before he left Kuwait - the oil dripped from the sky like rain until the fires were put out.

 

 

post-106351-0-84839800-1366836057.jpg

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Scott: Yeah, the vent hole helps cool down the cranium significantly. I like the canteen cup, guess my guy just drank straight out of the canteen. How gauche. Thanks for being there!

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the helmet appears to have US made webbing inside? the Iraqis could have used surplus US replacement webbing, they also fit Iraqi helmets

 

the canteen set is interesting with the residue still on it from the oil fields that were set on fire

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