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Did service men bring home their guns?


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My dad was able to smuggle home much of his issue gear after he left Vietnam. He only turned in a handful of gear when he was discharged including his 1911, holster, helmet, rifle, boots, and any ammo, mags, and ordinance he had on him. Everything else over time he claimed got "lost" and thus he turned back in replacement gear in order to keep his originals. He made it through customs in San Francisco with a sea bag full of gear and an sks sticking through a hole on the bottom.He always said either the MPs were lazy and didn't check his bag or he got lucky. He told me he saw several men in his unit breaking down their 1911s and hiding them in their toiletrie bags. He wondered if maybe he should've done that too.

Let me redo my previous comment on this one. I checked with my dad and he told me there were no MPs that ever checked his bag, thus explains how he was able to bring home almost all of his small gear items and his captured sks without paperwork. He remembers how a couple of the guys who boarded the plane after him to get back stateside were relieved that their "trophies" weren't going to be confiscated.
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This is an interesting topic that I've often thought about. When I was in Afghanistan, I knew of a few guys in an aviation unit who tried to bring back some goodies, in which they stashed the items in the tail section of a Black Hawk. I don't know if they succeeded, but they were pretty brazen. As a collector I naturally wanted to keep my issue gear, minus weapons of course. When I got home, I went to a surplus store and cheaply bought everything on my issue list and turned all that stuff in to CIF, instead of my original equipment. By doing so I was able to keep my ACH and Kevlar vest, plus a lot of other stuff. The CIF people didn't care as long as they got the items on the list.

 

As for GI's bringing home their weapons from the "good old days", at the end of WWII, my grandfather brought back his Ithaca 1911, M1 Thompson, and 2 M1 Carbines. Since he was a captain, he said no one dared look in his footlocker when he got off the boat in San Francisco. He registered the Thompson in 1986, so it's legal to own and will stay in the family. My father brought back his 1911 from Vietnam by "hiding" it in plain sight. He said he wore it in a holster on his side and carried a briefcase with a lock. When questioned he told people he had "important" documents and no one messed with him. Haha. A fine example of the ingenuity and resourcefulness of the American fighting man!

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i've heard that in the interwar years, many items including guns were sold off as surplus. my grandad told me once that that the local woolworth's had barrels of M1 Garands for 25$

Heck, I worked at Woolworth in the 1970s and they had racks of Garands, carbines and 1903s for $50! German K98s too,

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I don't recall any garands in the my Woolworth when I was a kid but they had lots of different bolt actions in a barrel for $19 and I could never get my dad to bite. And to answer ATB in post 75. GO's as far as I know have been able to purchase their pistols since WWII. The current practice is managed by GOMO and TACOM (RIA). When a Colonel gets promoted to GO he gets all the belts, etc., and he is given an option of getting a pistol (currently M9). If he wants one a special serial number is issued and it is his on loan until he gets out then he has the option of buying it for around $500. Most GO's that I have known do it.

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A guy I worked with has 2 Japanese MG's his father(a lowly sgt who dared the officer on the dock to just try and take them!) brought back. The guy backed down and my friend still has them buried somewhere.

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This is an interesting topic that I've often thought about. When I was in Afghanistan, I knew of a few guys in an aviation unit who tried to bring back some goodies, in which they stashed the items in the tail section of a Black Hawk. I don't know if they succeeded, but they were pretty brazen. As a collector I naturally wanted to keep my issue gear, minus weapons of course. When I got home, I went to a surplus store and cheaply bought everything on my issue list and turned all that stuff in to CIF, instead of my original equipment. By doing so I was able to keep my ACH and Kevlar vest, plus a lot of other stuff. The CIF people didn't care as long as they got the items on the list.

 

As for GI's bringing home their weapons from the "good old days", at the end of WWII, my grandfather brought back his Ithaca 1911, M1 Thompson, and 2 M1 Carbines. Since he was a captain, he said no one dared look in his footlocker when he got off the boat in San Francisco. He registered the Thompson in 1986, so it's legal to own and will stay in the family. My father brought back his 1911 from Vietnam by "hiding" it in plain sight. He said he wore it in a holster on his side and carried a briefcase with a lock. When questioned he told people he had "important" documents and no one messed with him. Haha. A fine example of the ingenuity and resourcefulness of the American fighting man!

 

That's a pretty clever method your dad had!

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I too think Baltimore is a stretch, but it is no different than the current folks taking their helmets, protective gear, and other items of basic issue that they have pilfered from the service today. I think it was harder for Army officers in WWII to abscond with their weapons but most Army Air Corps officers must have been able to sign off on their own paperwork because I've seen several 1911a1's that were bring backs from pilots, etc.

 

 

It's interesting when one talks about guys bringing back their issue gear...

 

There are a few well known pics of General Ridgeway taken during WW2 showing him wearing his field gear with Mod 36 suspenders, 1st aid pouch and the ever present Mk2 Hand Grenade taped to the suspenders..

 

Whats really interesting is photo's taken of him during the Korean War show him wearing his old WW2 gear.. and guess what.. the Grenade is still taped on the suspenders ha ha.. Makes you wonder if his gear went into a foot locker when WW2 ended and that Grenade stayed on his gear until pulled out for Korea..

 

Kration

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My father-in-law was in the 106th ID and later an MP in Paris. Guys there were cutting canteens apart and putting the pistols inside, then reassembling them and mailing them home. He wanted to do the same for his, but didn't want to get caught. So instead he gave his pistol to his French girlfriend :)

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The various departments of the military issued a circular in 1943 prohibiting return of MGs to the US due to the 1934 National firearms Act requiring federal registration for legal possession of live MGs along with other types of weapons. The usual certification for a GI to keep his war trophies is quite common, but very few of these certifications have surfaced that have MGs authorized for possession by a GI. In theory an unregistered MG with "bring back" paperwork would be legally possessed by the GI or proof of legal possession by his family, but to date there is no record of an MG being accepted as 'register' due to bring back paperwork. Of course many, many MGs returned with the GIs and many were legally imported into the US by GIs under federal import paperwork. The import paperwork was effectively legal registration of the MG. In 1945, in connection with the IRS, the military instituted the Deactivated WAr Trophy program, a program to allow live MGs to be deactivated by a specific protocol and supervision by federal agents. Once legally DEWATed, the MG did not require registration and was just a relic. This was an effort to protect the GIs from legal hassles once they were stateside with their trophy MGs.

Although I have never researched it, I have never heard of a US MG of any type legally registered and in the possession of a private citizen being confiscated by the government. All types of US made, government contract and privately manufactured, issue MGs are represented in the ATF registry, so the government has a list of owners of such weaponry should they decide to retrieve them!

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There were orders involved if you claimed some kind of privelege or secret squirrel BS.

 

You had to have them and they were official as to dates, travel, etc.

 

I still have a set labelled "Classified Courier" From 5th SF.

They were good for getting around in country.

Nobody messed with us very much as we were out of most people's control.

As time went on-especially early 70s and drugs, they really got strict-checked your stuff leaving country and againentering U.S.

Getting caught with contraband was not good.

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Please forgive this old Vet, but I love telling this story: I was assigned to England AFB in the early '70s--and very early in my career--and lived in an off-base apartment. My neighbor was sick from the day I moved in. He passed in a few months. A few days later, his widow brought over an M1911 with two mags, two holsters and mag pouch, as a "gift" to me for helping her out. I told her I would sell it and give her the money. "Oh, no, that wouldn't be right--he stole that pistol! I would turn it in, but you know they don't have any record...." Trying to protect the deceased Vet's honor, I said that demob was confusing and hurried, and the firearm could have "mistakenly" ended up being shipped home. "Oh, NO, he was a doctor during WWII." Still trying, I said that even doctors sometimes ended up with "personal defense" weapons in extremely hot operational areas, although not strictly per regulation. She said, "Oh, NO, he was a Doctor in an Army hospital in Tuscon, AZ for the entire war, and when the war ended, he STOLE that pistol!" I kept it for many years, eventually passing it on a few years ago.

 

Taber

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My father in law told me that he acquired a beautiful 1911 in a trade while on Okinawa . On the ship coming home from the Pacific , a voice came over the intercom saying anyone caught with a unauthorized weapon was gonna be arrested and they were gonna search sea bags coming off the ship . My father in law (and a bunch of other guys) threw theyre illegal contraband into the drink . Of course they never searched anyone coming off the ship .

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  • 4 weeks later...

true story...US Marine arrived in PTO late in the war and did not rotate back to the states till 46...brought back many Japanese weapons including MG and pistols...he passed, his son still has them...no real searches in 46 he said and got away with it...

 

 

fast forward present day....in regards to aviation units...AMC crews for sure bring stuff back ALL the time....I've seen it....Customs comes up collects the forms, asks if there is anything to declare...resounding no is the response, customs leaves...and the booty is taken off the plane in helmet bags, kit bags whatever....

Once an entire pallet was filled with contraband, covered up with kit bags, cargo netted and delivered to the squadron by a aerial port fork lift...behind the squadron....

 

and IMO if Nixon turned in one or two communist gifts, he probably kept one or two also...

 

anyway nice reading through this thread reading all the comments and assumptions...

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