USMC hbt shirt

[rhill13]

This is my first hbt uniform and it's got a name stamped in at least three places. Is it good? I'm in Tokyo on vacation and was hoping to find some Japanese ww2 items, but instead I'm swimming in US uniforms.

 

 

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[rhill13]

 

 

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[doyler]

Looks fine

[No Quarter]

Looks good to me.

 

Jacob

[Bob Hudson]

He served with the 14th Marines in the Pacific and was wounded on Saipan D-Day:

 

 

[Catfishcraig]

Nice score!

[Blacksmith]

Wow, congrats - for a first HBT, you got a killer example. Laundry stamp and laundry number, easily researchable name (with the assist from Bob already ), and UNIS marked to the 4th Marine Division. Really really nice example. Thanks for sharing it.

[rhill13]

Thanks. I'm glad I got a good one. I've read another post touching on this and I've shared this with MCDUFF already but I'm on vacation in Tokyo and I'm finding crazy amounts of Vietnam and ww2 uniforms at the trendy hipster thrift shops. The problem is that the prices are for the most part way more than what we'd want to pay. There was HBT at about ten of the shops I went to. This was the most unique one I could find. I found a pair of brown jump boots that I posted in a different thread and a cheap Kamo duck hunter jacket. If the prices weren't so high I would've bought more of course. The sales person where I got the HBT said that the owner was currently in the Seattle area looking for more stuff to bring back. Coincidentally, that's where I'm taking this shirt back to now that I've got it.

 

 

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[turmanator]

Never thought about USMC stuff being over there. But I guess Okinawa and Iwakuni have had Jarheads on them for a long time!

[rhill13]

They're actually buying it up here and taking it back. I just went to a vintage shop here in the Seattle area and found some items and mentioned I was in Japan. The owner mentioned some of the stores there in Tokyo, one being the place I got this shirt. He said they buy stuff from them all the time. He mentioned that they are also paying high prices for new conditioned items for sale is some of their more expensive stores where they go for very high prices with the intention to be worn.

 

 

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[rhill13]

My take is that we have some real competition for collector items. We have the intent to preserve them, they have the intent to wear them. When I was over there in Japan they labeled the items pretty accurately as well. Both time period and branch of the military.

 

 

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[Bob Hudson]

My take is that we have some real competition for collector items.

 

 

 

It has been like that for a long time. Being in southern California I've had buyers from Japan walk into my flea market booth and buy tons of stuff I thought would take me forever to sell.

[doyler]

Its called the fashion market as its fashionable to wear this stuff.

 

There are buyers who come to the bigger cities a couple times a month to pick the shows, good will, rag stock, antique and vintage shops.Knowing what is the current trend can be tricky as things change quickly.

[rhill13]

Do these actual buyers/wearers in the stores care if these pieces are reproduction or the real deal? You'd think it would be easier to just sell reproduction uniform items that have been aged or not aged for the new stock look.

 

 

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[GMPETE]

The following from an oral history interview with John Graves of the 14th Marines, housed at the National Museum of the Pacific War:

 

“..One of them was a fellow named Kachadorian, and he was an Armenian from San Francisco, kind of squat little dark fellow. Bright as could be. And he was kind of an NCO you could trust not to take advantage of it. If you met him on liberty and had a few drinks and all that kind of thing. On Saipan he was I think under the intelligence officer, he was in headquarters like me. When that fracas started in which I got zapped later, he was lying beside me. The colonel had put me in charge of a skirmish line down along the edge of the woods. Kach had an M-1; I think he was getting some Japs. I just had a carbine, I think those bullets were just bouncing off of those Japanese helmets. Kach was always polite, he always observed formalites. All of a sudden he said, “ I’m hit Mr. Graves” I looked at him and he had his hand up here, and blood squirting all out. I got a bandage and slapped it on there, and hollered for a corpsman who came and by that time, Kach was out and the corpsman dragged him back among the trees. I just decided he was probably dead. It went in slanting in on the side of his head. He turned up later in that Long Beach hospital. He had bad headaches, he still had that bullet in there next to his brain, and the doctor was scared to fool with it…”

John Graves, 14th Marines.

 

Link to the interview below:

http://digitalarchive.pacificwarmuseum.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p16769coll1/id/1911/rec/1

 

 

 

[MCDUFF]

The following from an oral history interview with John Graves of the 14th Marines, housed at the National Museum of the Pacific War:

 

“..One of them was a fellow named Kachadorian, and he was an Armenian from San Francisco, kind of squat little dark fellow. Bright as could be. And he was kind of an NCO you could trust not to take advantage of it. If you met him on liberty and had a few drinks and all that kind of thing. On Saipan he was I think under the intelligence officer, he was in headquarters like me. When that fracas started in which I got zapped later, he was lying beside me. The colonel had put me in charge of a skirmish line down along the edge of the woods. Kach had an M-1; I think he was getting some Japs. I just had a carbine, I think those bullets were just bouncing off of those Japanese helmets. Kach was always polite, he always observed formalites. All of a sudden he said, “ I’m hit Mr. Graves” I looked at him and he had his hand up here, and blood squirting all out. I got a bandage and slapped it on there, and hollered for a corpsman who came and by that time, Kach was out and the corpsman dragged him back among the trees. I just decided he was probably dead. It went in slanting in on the side of his head. He turned up later in that Long Beach hospital. He had bad headaches, he still had that bullet in there next to his brain, and the doctor was scared to fool with it…”

John Graves, 14th Marines.

 

Link to the interview below:

http://digitalarchive.pacificwarmuseum.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p16769coll1/id/1911/rec/1

 

 

 

Great detective work as always! Absolutely superb to link a name to his history. All helps to keep the memory alive! I hope he survived his wounds.

 

[GMPETE]

According to Graves in the interview, Kachadorian survived the war to pass away in 1999. Earlier in the interview he describes the skirmish more completely, which resulted in his own wounding that cost him an eye. It is worth noting that the available transcription does not exactly match the oral interview so it is definitely worth a listen. Incidentally, Graves was a very highly regarded Texas author after war.

 

I just noticed that Kachadorian's UNIS markings place him with Headquarters & Service Battery, 2nd Battalion, whereas his casualty card info posted above puts him with E Battery, 2nd Battalion. Interesting, as Graves correctly places him in headquarters also. Graves himself started out in E Battery, so I am guessing this has something to do with some officers and personnel of the individual batteries being assigned to Headquarters because of their specific function in combat. Dunno...