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How long items can stay in the military system.


Old Marine
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This is just a run of the mill 1918 GI canteen cup in pretty good condition. This cup is now relegated to being a pencil holder on my work table. The interesting thing about this cup is the stamp on the side. DRMO USMC

 

This cup was made in 1918 and most likely delivered to the Marines soon after that. At some point this cup was sent to the disposal service, DRMO (Defense Reutilization and Marketing Office) as obsolete or surplus gear. DRMO didn't exist with that name until 1985 when it was established by the DLA. So, based on the date of manufacture and the DRMO stamp this cup had been floating around in warehouses and sitting on supply room shelves for at least 67 years.

 

Nothing special just an example of a mundane piece with a story.

 

Dennis

post-2843-0-91890900-1586472563_thumb.jpg

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General Apathy

This is just a run of the mill 1918 GI canteen cup in pretty good condition. So, based on the date of manufacture and the DRMO stamp this cup had been floating around in warehouses and sitting on supply room shelves for at least 67 years.

 

Nothing special just an example of a mundane piece with a story.

 

Dennis

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Hi Dennis, interesting piece that it had possibly sat around for 67 years. Also like the background shot of your desk, I take it that this is where you make up your models, I like the watercolour of the pick-up as well.

 

I know you were really asking about US items, but a friend in the British army told me that in the mid 1980's the British army still had in store horseshoes and nails from the Crimean War. As everything was horse-drawn or cavalry back then, it's possible that they would have manufactured millions of shoes at that time.

 

regards lewis.

 

.

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When I entered the Army in Jan 1970, the Army Green 44 uniform coat and trousers I was issued had a contract date of 1957. The pile cap I received from CIF at Ft. Wainwright, Alaska in Jan 1972 was a M1951.

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Doctorofwar

When I reported to MCB Quantico in January 2007, I was issued a set of M-1967 H-suspenders (Army pattern not the rare USMC pattern). At least a third of my platoon had them, the others had the LC-2 Y-suspenders. The Army must have surplused them to the Marines as I was unfamiliar they were ever Marine issued prior to that. Not 67 years but could have been pushing 40 at the time.

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Kurt Barickman

Gunners Mate in the 1980s and all our small arms were for sure Vietnam; M-14s, M-79s, etc. But our 45s and M-2 50 calibers were WWII and the 50 caliber ammunition was produced by Twin Cities Ordnance again during WWII.

 

Kurt

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Fixbayonets!

I bought some lots through DRMO from 1998-2002 at Lakehurst & Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey. Never saw anything dating back to WWI but there was some WWII stuff mixed in here & there. I got a few pistol belts, mess kits and best of all M-1 helmets. There were both fixed and swivel bales, even a few with painted rank and one MP. The MP was a fixed bail with a post war paint job.

 

Rob

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I was issued a WWII era S&W Victory model when I was assigned to the Chinook battalion at Ft Campbell in 1985. It was not replaced until 1988 when our unit converted to M9s.

During the mid 90s another aviation unit I was assigned to was using WWII dated M2 tripods for the M60s.

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I was issued a 1918 dated canteen cup in 2004. This is while I was serving with the Air Guard. We also still had M1 helmets, which were worn by some of our folks during their 2003 deployment to Iraq. By 2004, we were all issued Kevlars.

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Kind of reminds me of some of dear old Dad's sayings... "Don't mess with a good thing", and "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

 

All great stories. Love to hear more!

 

Mikie

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I started in the Army Reserves in 1985, as a 20 year old and then spent another ten on active duty and the reserves. Additionally, I worked as a government contractor at FT Riley from 2013 to 2017. Here are some of the more interesting pieces that I encountered....

 

In the Reserves in 1985, our arms room had an M1911A1 pistol with a 1,400 serial number range. The pistol even had a Colt slide. It had been back through the arsenal where it had been converted from an M1911 to a M1911A1. I went back to the same unit at the end of my career where I was Company Commander. The pistol was still in the arms room. The .45 holsters dated from 1942 to 1969. The WWII ones had just been dyed black.

 

All of our M-60 tripods were WWII issue.

 

At basic training at Ft. Knox, we were issued shelter halves and OD wool blankets. When we went on our first field exercise, one of the guys in my platoon brought his shelter half to my drill sergeant because he couldn't get it snapped together with his tent mate's. His shelter half had buttons and was 1918 dated. The two wool blankets that I was issued at CIF- one was 1967 dated, the other was 1942 dated. They didn't match color wise. I traded the 1967 dated blanket to another guy in my platoon so the blankets on our bunks would match each other. His blanket was 1918 dated. The white square label was as bright as the day it was made. I was sad when I had to turn that WWI blanket back in at the end of Basic.

 

FT Riley CIF had PALLETS of WWII manufactured wooden tent pegs. Small ones for the pup tent and larger ones for the GP Medium and Large. These were all stone mint and the pup tent pegs hadn't been an issue item for at least thirty years. They also had more 1983 dated M1-C helmet liners (all mint, unissued) than you could imagine. There were still bundles of WWII vintage (many could have been older) that were still banded together, possibly since the time they came from the wool mill.

 

It was VERY common to find WWII dated tools in the engineer tool boxes and in the mechanics tool boxes.

 

The earliest date on a canteen cup that I recall was 1914.

 

Mess kits could be dated anywhere from around 1942 to the 1960's. One of the Alabama National Guard units that deployed to Saudi Arabia had WORLD WAR I mess kits that had been paired with a two section lid.

 

Our Army Band had leather carriers for music. They came with an adjustable leather shoulder strap and the flap was covered in OD wool. These were 1947 dated.

 

I'm sure I am missing some, but this is a start.

 

Allan

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Doctorofwar

I was issued a 1918 dated canteen cup in 2004. This is while I was serving with the Air Guard. We also still had M1 helmets, which were worn by some of our folks during their 2003 deployment to Iraq. By 2004, we were all issued Kevlars.

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Doctorofwar

Forgot to add this to the quote above before posting:

 

On one of my Brothers deployments to Iraq he mentioned some Air Guard guys showing up with M1 steel pots.

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In basic training in 2006 I was issued a 1967 dated two quart canteen that I was going to take home with me, but unfortunately someone stole it. Our blankets were a variety of shades of OD with the greenish brown ones all being WWII vintage. We found shell casings on Fort Wainwrights ranges dated 1942. The artillery shells we were shooting regularly dated to the 1950s but no later than 1970. While down at Fort Polk for training we had to have all of our squad weapons serviced, so I got to know the armorers the Army had brought in to do so. One day one of the armorers asked me if I wanted to see something cool, so of course I said yes. He took me over to a table where there was a .50 cal and told me to look at the serial number on it. When I looked at it, I was stunned to see that it had a three digit serial number. He told me that they stay in service forever unless the little 'nub' on the right side of the receiver breaks off. We had Westinghouse and General Electric 50's we used, but were all much newer than that three digit.

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When we deployed to Saudi Arabia we were issued 1960's dated flak vests and M1 steel pots. We eventually got kevlar helmets, but used the Vietnam era flak vests throughout Desert Storm.

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When I was in the Navy in the early 90s, anything less than 20 years old was brand new still!

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1963, Lackland BMT... my flight had some guys outfitted with gray fatigues and a truly mixed bag of colors or shapes even, a few blue USAF blankets and duffels among the army green kind, surplus M1 carbines for the range. Our caps, brogans and jackets were all the same though.

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  • 1 month later...

In 2001 at Fort Lewis I had a GM Hydra-Matic produced M16 that had been converted to an M16A2. Probably produced in 1969 or 1970.

My unit received some sort of radio remote from 1951 as a substitute item for a different piece of kit around 2012. It was all new in the package, I unpacked it and was astounded that it been in storage for that long just waiting to be sent to us. It was clearly the wrong item, but had been marked as a substitute for a different NSN somewhere along the way. I wish I had taken some pictures. 

 

I always like this story. https://www.wearethemighty.com/articles/this-50-cal-fought-for-90-years-without-needing-repair

The 324th M2 produced was sent in to the depot about 94 year after it came off the line. A 94 year old M2 machine gun still in service is a testament to superior engineering. 

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