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War souvenirs...or items Brought Back


LIFER
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Does this count?

 

Our FOB had Ugandan mercenaries (IIRC employed by SOC USA) manning perimeter posts and towers. Turns out they had one set of weapons for both the day and night platoons, handing off during rotations. :blink:

 

So fast forward to the big drawdown and subsequent sell-off of dusty, uncleaned assets ( see https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2014/08/05/dpms-rifles-iraq-slightly-used/ and https://www.atlanticfirearms.com/products/contractor-wasr-10-ak47 ).

 

Really exterior worn Bushmaster XM15s with the SOC USA property sticker (and thus, possibly/probably on the very same FOB) were going for $450 w/ tax out the door.

 

Only problem would be when you tried to zero them, adjusted for elevation and started putting rounds anywhere but in the black.

 

Turns out the front sight post was bent. :dry:

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The steel helmet is likely a Polish WZ-53. They were used by Iraq from the 1980-88 war with Iran through OIF 1. I would need to see the liner to be certain. Looks like a great collection! Thanks for posting, Scott

 

Thanks - for compliment as well as the info on the helmet. I think you're probably right, in that it may be Iraqi. I had assumed it was a capture helmet, but doubt it now. Inside is rusted ... I literally pulled this out of a large pile of cow crap and dirt. Took some effort to clean it up when we got back to the FOB, but I love the aged look to it. I went through a lot of s**t to get this - I earned it!

 

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Does this count?

 

Our FOB had Ugandan mercenaries (IIRC employed by SOC USA) manning perimeter posts and towers. Turns out they had one set of weapons for both the day and night platoons, handing off during rotations. :blink:

 

So fast forward to the big drawdown and subsequent sell-off of dusty, uncleaned assets ( see https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2014/08/05/dpms-rifles-iraq-slightly-used/ and https://www.atlanticfirearms.com/products/contractor-wasr-10-ak47 ).

 

Really exterior worn Bushmaster XM15s with the SOC USA property sticker (and thus, possibly/probably on the very same FOB) were going for $450 w/ tax out the door.

 

Only problem would be when you tried to zero them, adjusted for elevation and started putting rounds anywhere but in the black.

 

Turns out the front sight post was bent. :dry:

 

 

I well remember the Kenyan/Ugandans. "Jambo!" I spent a lot of time deployed to Kenya back in the day, and so was very familiar with their greeting.

 

In fact I just picked up this Saber International Security top from Iraq. The Ugandans worked for Saber. The photo of one of them wearing similar top was one I found online, and isn't my photo.

 

 

post-152877-0-18416500-1568776030_thumb.jpg

post-152877-0-58438600-1568776042_thumb.jpg

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I brought home a bunch of stuff from Desert Storm, but a forum member informed me that it wasn't a real war so it doesn't count.

 

Allan

 

Funny how people who weren't there will sometimes spout that nonsense.

 

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I think there were a couple of Contracting Companies employing Ugandans (JAMBO!). For general edification

https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/2009/0306/p04s02-woaf.html

 

 

Our guys were diligent and took pride in their work. They also had pretty plain-Jane uniforms, like this PAO pic -

1000w_q95.jpg

 

 

I went out to check one of the wall towers one day, which overlooked farm fields. The tower guys would toss their food scraps out, which attracted wild dogs that stuck around. The dogs ensured that no one snuck up close to the towers.

 

Turns out the older guys were veterans of the Great African War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Congo_War

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