Best Finds of 2021

[Salvage Sailor]

Holy Cats Bruce,

 

How has that ribbon survived intact all these years with that heavy hardware hanging on it.  Beautiful piece sir.

[Brig]

Any last minute holdouts?

[Salvage Sailor]

I picked up a shipboard collection of USS NEW JERSEY memorabilia circa 1969, her only Vietnam gunline cruise from a fireman (E-3) snipe in 'M' Division.  He was sent directly from boot camp in San Diego to the NJ as a nucleus crewman (pre-commissioning crew) and spent his whole enlistment aboard her.

 

Photos of the Panama Canal transit, Vietnam gunline, Family grams, Bob Hope VN show aboard NJ, 1969 unbuilt ship model from the ships' store, Beta Royal patches, Operation Sea Dragon plan of the day, Shellback/Pollywog Equator line crossing instructions/invitations/documents and more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Salvage Sailor]

....plus a ton of Hawaiian Department, Division & Interwar photos and ephemera which I'll post sooner or later in the Interwar section.

[Brig]

I don't know much about Navy stuff, but line-crossing ceremonies and traditions have always fascinated me and I love seeing the ephemera in groups

[USMCR79]

Not acquired this year but researched this year!!

 

I picked this medal up at a Flea Market in South Georgia years ago and finally got around to researching it a few months ago.

 

S/Sgt William O. Wood was from Tifton Georgia and joined the Air Corps in June 1941. On "Black Sunday" August 1, 1943 he was serving as Tail Gunner on B-24D #42-40994 "Hell's Wench".

 

Leaving Libya as part of Operation Tidal Wave his plane attacked the oil refineries in Polesti Romania. The Command Pilot was the 93rd Bomb Group Commander LTC Addison E. Baker, Co-Pilot was Major John L. Jerstad.

 

At approximately 3 miles before the target the "Wench" was hit by flak that destroyed the nose and killed the Bombardier. Pressing the attack forward while the "Wench" was on fire they dropped their bombs on target and since the plane was going to crash due to fire and extensive damage, Baker aimed the "Wench" at the twin smokestacks of the Columbia Aguila Refinery and crashed the plane to cause the most damage to the enemy.

 

Baker and Jerstad were both awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor (Posthumously)

Wood was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal and Purple Heart (along with his Good Conduct Medal).

 

I am proud to have this medal in my collection

 

Bill

[Jake the Collector]

Winter service coat of a H/2/8 machine gun crewman who landed with Colonel Shoup’s Combat Team 2 on Betio. He was with G/2/8 when Japanese shrapnel wounded him in the chest on Saipan, though he recovered in time for the Tinian invasion on July 24, 1944.

     He died at 92. 
 

 

 

[Your local M1 Garand]

I have been collecting for a few months maybe a year, but my best find would of been this Callaway Mills 1945 dated 8-stitch canteen cover that I got for 20 dollars on eBay. 

[manayunkman]

On 12/31/2021 at 1:04 PM, Dogsbody said:

The best? I dont know.........but it's certainly the most evocative (to me at least). Who put it there I unfortunately dont know.

 

 

 

Flanders Fields is one of my favorite poems!!

[Nkomo]

  For me, this modified jungle jacket was the best US find of 2021.  Belonged to the a gentleman (Pararescue) who helped establish 24th STS at JSOC (Joint Special Operations Command) in the 1980s.