Charlie Flick Posted July 8, 2017 Share #1 Posted July 8, 2017 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! Regards, Charlie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McDermut99 Posted July 8, 2017 Share #2 Posted July 8, 2017 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 More sharing options...
gwb123 Posted July 8, 2017 Share #3 Posted July 8, 2017 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 More sharing options...
Ronnie Posted July 8, 2017 Share #4 Posted July 8, 2017 Yep I noticed that too.....not in uniform. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garandomatic Posted July 8, 2017 Share #5 Posted July 8, 2017 "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 More sharing options...
M24 Chaffee Posted July 8, 2017 Share #6 Posted July 8, 2017 Interesting photos. Hey......I think I see my carbine! Frank Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie Flick Posted July 8, 2017 Author Share #7 Posted July 8, 2017 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 More sharing options...
silverplate Posted July 8, 2017 Share #8 Posted July 8, 2017 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 More sharing options...
Sgt. BARney Posted July 8, 2017 Share #9 Posted July 8, 2017 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 More sharing options...
Dirt Detective Posted July 9, 2017 Share #10 Posted July 9, 2017 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 More sharing options...
tommatt3 Posted July 11, 2017 Share #11 Posted July 11, 2017 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 More sharing options...
mdk0911 Posted July 11, 2017 Share #12 Posted July 11, 2017 Looks like most of the barrels have bayonet lugs already on them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niner Alpha Posted July 15, 2017 Share #13 Posted July 15, 2017 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 More sharing options...
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