Curious about WWII Items brought back

[manayunkman]

I haven’t been to Gettysburg in over 15 years.

 

The collection was kept on display in a humid basement and was starting to look fairly tired.

 

Has Spiros done anything to clean it up?

[BILL THE PATCH]

My uncle joe of the 357 info regt 90th div, brought back a Hitler youth armband, found it an envelope in his belongings after he passed away. I asked my father once when I was young, how come he didn't bring back any souvenirs, he said i just wanted to bring myself home, I guess Lot of guys felt that way.

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[bryang]

Much different conflict:  First Gulf War

 

Those of us from our unit who had actually gone into Kuwait during the ground war (I was 2nd Bn, 5th SF Group) brought back a lot of cool Iraqi swag.  shortly after the ceasefire, we were recalled back to our FOB in northern Saudi Arabia, and the 101st Airborne had a charter commercial flight returning to Ft Campbell the following day with a few vacant seats.  Several of our guys were told that they'd be returning home the very next day.

 

Took them to the airfield and as the returning troops were filing aboard the plane the 'customs' MPs were going through their bags and equipment.  We noticed that several of the returning troops were being told that they couldn't bring back innocuous items, such as soft-padded tanker helmets, scopes and sights.  Guys with several empty AK magazines were told that they could only bring one back, etc ...  This was total BS, and they guys had no choice but to put their war trophies in the 'amnesty' box. 

 

After all, guys had been in the desert for months ... and this was their ride home.  We knew well and good that these MPs were keeping what the guys left behind.  We came to feel that this might have been a case of rear-echelon troops who wanted to snag some cool swag to take home.

 

The rest of us learned our lesson and boxed all of our stuff up and shipped home through the Army Post Office (APO).  We had to bring our packages home to the APO open and unsealed, so that postal personnel could go through and look for weapons or other contraband.  I had four large boxes full of Iraqi stuff.  A young female Army Specialist was digging through my boxes, when going through the second box - which was full of Iraqi uniforms and berets - she paused and asked me "none of this stuff came off dead people did it?"  I replied "not all of it."  She yanked her hands out of the box and looked at me with wide eyes!  I smirked and told her I was only kidding (I wasn't, actually).  She simply glanced at the remaining two boxes and stamped them 'approved.'

 

Sent the boxes home with no problem.  Mail system today is a far cry from how it was 70 years ago.

 

 

There was also an issue with AK bayonets.  We had gotten word that CENTCOM guidance prohibited troops bringing back captured AK bayonets - no idea why.  So while mailing our souvenirs home we asked the APO folks if we were authorized to send bayonets home via mail.  Reply was that so long as they were declared on the customs form, technically there was nothing stopping us!  So we simply mailed them back.

[bryang]

All this being said - not ALL MPs nor rear echelon people were thieves nor cheats.  The majority did their jobs extremely well.  In my opinion, it was merely a small number of folks doing it.

[opus5150]

@bryangYour post reminds me of my return trip after my first tour in the Gulf back in '91.  When it was announced that we were finally going home, we had numerous inspections to make sure we weren't bringing home any contraband.  (Explosives, weapons, etc).  We'd set out the contents of our seabags and have a staff NCO poke through it.  Then we stuffed everything back in and hurried up and waited.  Luckily, myself and a few others had gotten the word and had already mailed everything home a few days earlier.  We knew that these BS inspections would lead to us to losing something, so anything questionable was wrapped in a poncho liner and boxed up.  I had a couple bayonets, (the folding type), some various small parts and pieces from a T55, uniform bits, flags, the usual stuff that could be picked up in Kuwait after the Iraqis headed north.  

At the airport, there were wooden amnesty boxes overflowing with hastily discarded items.  Rumor was that if you were caught with something, the whole company would be held back and miss their flight.  There was no way anyone wanted to be that guy.  MPs and some EOD techs were sorting through them, and probably made off with some good stuff.  But there were a few scares as live grenades were found, as well as other things that could go boom.  Not sure why someone thought it was a good idea to bring a live grenade on a plane heading home, but that was the mindset of a few guys.  

[manayunkman]

I’ve been talking to WW2 veterans since the 1960s and it’s amazing how many had their stuff stolen or confiscated.

[Kurt Barickman]

Just now, manayunkman said:

I’ve been talking to WW2 veterans since the 1960s and it’s amazing how many had their stuff stolen or confiscated.

 

Yes, I agree that it was a very common experience and I too talked with many WWII vets who had them either stolen when in the mail, told to throw them overboard as their ships neared the coasts of the US as they returned. Also, I am not saying anything either way about MPs during WWII but I bought I trove of items from a MP veteran  in my hometown and I bought all the guns and daggers from the widow after he had sold a literal trunkload of German items to a motel buyer; there was a VG-1 in that buy!

 

Just my two cents,

 

Kurt

[917601]

On 2/12/2021 at 8:03 AM, opus5150 said:

@bryangYour post reminds me of my return trip after my first tour in the Gulf back in '91.  When it was announced that we were finally going home, we had numerous inspections to make sure we weren't bringing home any contraband.  (Explosives, weapons, etc).  We'd set out the contents of our seabags and have a staff NCO poke through it.  Then we stuffed everything back in and hurried up and waited.  Luckily, myself and a few others had gotten the word and had already mailed everything home a few days earlier.  We knew that these BS inspections would lead to us to losing something, so anything questionable was wrapped in a poncho liner and boxed up.  I had a couple bayonets, (the folding type), some various small parts and pieces from a T55, uniform bits, flags, the usual stuff that could be picked up in Kuwait after the Iraqis headed north.  

At the airport, there were wooden amnesty boxes overflowing with hastily discarded items.  Rumor was that if you were caught with something, the whole company would be held back and miss their flight.  There was no way anyone wanted to be that guy.  MPs and some EOD techs were sorting through them, and probably made off with some good stuff.  But there were a few scares as live grenades were found, as well as other things that could go boom.  Not sure why someone thought it was a good idea to bring a live grenade on a plane heading home, but that was the mindset of a few guys.  

Not WW2 but complimenting your Gulf War 1 story. I spent some time as a Colombian Army advisor and hand carried on a commercial airliner a few 40mm and 105mm C130 gunship casings. Long story short, FARC was outside our perimeter, Guaviarre district Amazon, a returning gunship from Iraq was redirected from around Elgin AFB to Colombia over our FOL and dispersed the rag tag force ( the incident never happened). Rotating out thru Tolemeida a day after, I saw a gunship, found it was grounded for maintenance ( radome bolts stripped)...I repaired it, the Gunship CO was thankful and rewarded me with a personal tour of the interior...turned out it was the gunship that saved our butts, and the crew chief gave me some empties. As an ordnance guy, it took a few years but I was able to find the correct inert projectiles (40mm HEI, loading dummy linked 25mm, and a 105 HE w/PD fuze.) This gunship ordnance display is of course my dearest display.

[Spathologist]

On 2/21/2021 at 7:47 PM, 917601 said:

Guaviarre district Amazon

San Jose?  I used to work a bit with the 19th Infantry there.

[917601]

Spathologist, I was with DOS Airwing as a Colombian Army advisor 2006-2009. We had a small group that went around Colombia supporting their gunships. We did two weeks at various FOL’s, Tolemeida, Tumaco, San Jose, Caucasia, Saravena.....we occasionally ran into small US SF groups in remote areas I can’t even remember. We usually followed the ERAD crews that were spraying the coke fields supplying them with gunships. The last year I was there we went on a few missions all over the Amazon trying to locate the three US hostages that the FARC had taken prisoner, held hostage for three years. The US used a lot of assets in trying to find them, but in the end ( 2009) the Colombian Army recovered them through a deceptive intelligence operation.

[Blacksmith]

Just getting caught up on this topic, and it reminded me of another story from a local WWII veteran (I think I've shared this in an old similar topic). 

 

His unit went into Aachen the morning after heavy aerial bombardment.  Right on the edge of town, he pulled a Luger out of the holster of a German officer who had been killed in the previous night's bombing.  He carried that through the rest of his time in the war.

 

Eventually, he was with his unit in Le Harve, getting ready to board the ship home.  They were getting the pre-boarding speech from some junior NCO, telling them what they could / could not bring on board, and threatening any offenders with two more weeks before they could leave.  Part of that instruction included their being limited to bringing ONE sidearm on-board the ship.  He was carrying his 1911 holstered on his hip, and had his Luger in his bag.  He pulled both out, contemplated each, and tossed his 1911 in the trash can he was standing near.  He stuffed the Luger in the 1911 holster, and came home.

 

He is gone now, but as of the last time I was at his house, that Luger still hung by the trigger guard on a hook by his fireplace.

 

 

[Spathologist]

11 hours ago, 917601 said:

Spathologist, I was with DOS Airwing as a Colombian Army advisor 2006-2009. We had a small group that went around Colombia supporting their gunships. We did two weeks at various FOL’s, Tolemeida, Tumaco, San Jose, Caucasia, Saravena.....we occasionally ran into small US SF groups in remote areas I can’t even remember. We usually followed the ERAD crews that were spraying the coke fields supplying them with gunships. The last year I was there we went on a few missions all over the Amazon trying to locate the three US hostages that the FARC had taken prisoner, held hostage for three years. The US used a lot of assets in trying to find them, but in the end ( 2009) the Colombian Army recovered them through a deceptive intelligence operation.

 

Cool.  I was there from 2001-2009 on active duty with Plan Colombia, embedded with the Aviation Brigade at Tolemaida as the Senior Standardization Advisor.  Flew UH-60Ls. 

 

I happened to be sitting at Larandia getting refuel after doing air assault training when the contractors' C-208 went down.  Got spun up, to be told to shut down..rescue was a Colombian op.  It was impressive the amount of resources the US dedicated over the years trying to get them back.  The COLAR brought the FARC commander they captured during Jaque to my office for processing (it was large, secure, and empty).  He had a *lot* of money on him.  The COLAR commander gave me the guy's watch strap compass as a souvenir since I had helped a (very) little with the planning.  I was fortunate to be on the ramp when the contractors were transferred from Colombian to American custody at Tolemaida.  Don't think I've ever seen happier guys.

 

Good times.