Jump to content

My M1 Carbine Is A Mixmaster.....Here's Why


Charlie Flick
 Share

Recommended Posts

Charlie Flick

Gentlemen:

 

I ran across a thread on another site which featured these interesting LIFE magazine pics and thought they might be useful here. They were apparently taken at Lackland AFB in January, 1951, early in the Korean War.

 

Looks like these guys are pulling some Carbines out of storage and getting them cleaned up. Understandably none of these airmen appear terribly concerned about making certain all parts are matching and correct.

 

With apologies to Col. Kilgore, I love the smell of Cosmoline in the morning....smells like Victory! B)

 

USAF Carbine Cleaning at Lackland AFB 1951 a.JPG

 

USAF Carbine Cleaning at Lackland AFB 1951 b.JPG

 

USAF Carbine Cleaning at Lackland AFB 1951 c.JPG

 

USAF Carbine Cleaning at Lackland AFB 1951 d.JPG

 

Regards,

Charlie

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

McDermut99

Oh man that's hard to look at, assuming those carbines were most likely matching serials before then. You can almost hear carbine collectors wincing in pain!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Were there any captions with these photos?

 

These maybe mostly airmen, but notice they are not uniform.

 

Base gun club? Civilian Marksmanship Program?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Garandomatic

"I know, i know, Bill, but i just can't help thinking these will be worth a lot of money someday if we don't mix up all the parts..."

 

There's a caption!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Charlie Flick

Were there any captions with these photos?

 

 

 

Hi Gil:

 

Nope, there were no captions and nothing other than the location and date. These guys look like airmen to me given their ages and haircuts. Can't imagine why they are doing this work in civvy clothes, however. I am guessing that they are probably not raw recruits as they would not yet know how to break down and clean the carbine. So, a little bit of a mystery there.

 

Regards,

Charlie

Link to comment
Share on other sites

silverplate

Didn't see any M1A1s in the piles, and it looks like most of the barrels have bayonet lugs. Great photos!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sgt. BARney

And I bet all those crates went into the "warming fire"!!!

 

We used to get to wear PT gear for especially grubby working parties, such as washing jeeps at the motor pool, or to washing rubber boats at the SCUBA Locker, etc.

And I bet that NCO in the background of the 3rd photo told them "We'll secure for the weekend as soon as we get all these rifles cleaned".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dirt Detective

Great pics...looks like the rifles were already rebuilt and they are cleaning off the cosmo. Very cool.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The carbines look like they just came from long term storage.. cosmoline!. The "NCO" in the background is an Airman Third Class, E2, probably just finished basic training himself. I pulled 'cleaning' detail at the range at Sampson AFB in 1955. I can tell you there is no such thing as an original all matching GI carbine, unless never in the hands of the troops.... The only time we had 'civies' was prior to the issue of uniforms. Fatigues in a day or two, summer kakis in the first week and winter blues after four weeks. We were issued WWII one piece coveralls for fatigue use. (That's where the heringbone Ike jackets come from, top half of coveralls).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Niner Alpha

M1 Carbines were frequently "mixmasters" when they left the ten factories that were making them in WWII. The factories all shared parts and any rifle with one arsenal stamp on the receiver would likely have a different factories stamp on other pieces. http://www.uscarbinecal30.com/

 

After WWII rifles got parts during refurbs from foreign contries as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...