HALLOWEEN Warning order 2022!!

[easterneagle87]

The wife wanted to run to town today, so I made her stop by my local GW as I hadn't been in there yet. 

 

Picked up a nice 1981 RDF ERDL, Large Long jacket. It appears to have had AF chevrons that have been removed. They had a few uniforms hanging up. A couple of 1969 USMC Alpha jackets. I could tell they were older as the LncCpl chevrons were felt. A 1981 OG-107 field jacket Small/Short and a misc assortment of stuff. Most jackets were at 9.99. 

[easterneagle87]

Went back to GW today while I was in town for a meeting. Picked up the OG-107 in the picture above. And since it was Wednesday, I got the "senior" discount! Then I hit my local surplus store for some patches. While there I got 2 PASGT helmet cover with 3rd ID patches on both sides. Not always home runs, but I'll take base hits any day. 

[mvmhm]

Our Goodwills are putting out their Halloween stuff now..Tuesday I found a nice boon along with this LTC's combat aircrew shirt....

[mvmhm]

His dress greens were there too, but at the time I decided not to get them...but after thinking about it I decided it was a good restoration candidate...even though the jacket and pants were priced separately, the clerk gave them to me for the price of the jacket ($9.99). There's a tone of (mostly) stripped ACUs and DCUs along with 2 or 3 Marine MARPATs...nothing too sexy. 

 

When I went back to get this, someone had stolen the winged props from the lapels...the loose insignia was found in the lower pockets. The DIs on his shoulders are from the 10th Combat Aviation Brigade.)

 

I'm assuming his combat patch is from  Operation UPHOLD DEMOCRACY.  

 

(NOTE: the darkness on the lower left is from my shadow, the uniform is nearly mint)

 

Mark sends

[Bodes]

Have not seen anything noteworthy in terms of military items at goodwill stores.....Picked up a couple peak visors at a Christian second hand store.....US Army 1948 dated w/o insignia and a 1970's USAF EM's with insignia....Both have laundry numbers stamped inside that start with an 'M', but have different last four digits....Brothers or father and son?.....One hundred pennies each....Bodes

[KommandoPost]

Got this USAAF Mackinaw earlier this week from the same store the Navy Specialist A uniform was found in. 

Unfortunately the moths got to the patches and the lining long before I did, but otherwise it's in good condition.

 

 

Less than a month left to go, so hopefully something else shows up in the sea of polyester costumes.

 

[mvmhm]

Goodwill had this for $6.99....I'm sure I can figure out the name and replace the tape...surprisingly, that was all that had been removed:

 

 

Mark sends

[zk4298militaria]

 

67 dated tropical tunic. 4.99 from Goodwill. Not on the costume rack oddly enough, not had too much success with the costume selection.

[mvmhm]

Great jacket at a great price! I got one with 11ACR and tapes a couple hears ago...mine wasn't on the Halloween rack either......hmmmm

 

Mark sends

[MinorInHistory]

Picked this up last weekend at the local thrift store for $3.49. Named and in pretty good condition!

[Thrifter_01]

Found this survival vest at a local thrift store that was hanging with a couple other vests for $10. Even found an extra pouch on the top rack.

[KommandoPost]

Got an enlisted WAC's cap this week.  This one is named to Genevieve Mendenhall who served with the WAC 6669th Headquarters Platoon which supported the Fifth Army in North Africa and Italy.  

She was quoted pretty extensively in this Master's thesis on the unit: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4116&context=etd

And here is a photo I found of her in the Sparanise area of Italy:

(from https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/photograph-records/2014-3281)

Unfortunately, the store I found it at never recieved the rest of her uniform. 

 

I also found a December 29, 1944 dated wool shirt with a Western Pacific patch and Meritous Unit Citation.  Other than that it had no useful ID's.  

[KommandoPost]

Another user (vmi88) PM'd me about Mendenhall's dog tags.  Unfortunately, the service number on my hat does not seem to match the number on the dog tag here: 

If you plug in the cap's number into NARA, you get another Genevieve with the last name McConnell, who I found a link to a marriage record for that indicates her maiden name is also Mendenhall and that she married a McConnell in 1945 (https://www.myheritage.com/names/genevieve_mendenhall, "California, County Marriages, 1850-1952" section).  

The dogtags are probably the same Genevieve in the 6669th, meanwhile the hat is probably McConnell's, so I might have to retract what I wrote in the post above.  This discussion is probably better split off into another thread since this is the Halloween thread.  

 

I still found stuff in the final stretch.  First of all, this mysterious shirt.  Does anyone know anything more about it?

The contract number is DA-92-557-FEC-14297, which is similar to other US military contracts awarded to Japanese organizations in the 60's (https://books.google.com/books?id=_Tg2AQAAIAAJ&pg=PA171&lpg=PA171&dq=DA-92-557-FEC&source=bl&ots=_5QKiUq4PB&sig=ACfU3U3ytBAf383HnlSc4UtRvwRiQVDBEQ&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage).  The stamp also says "OD7" but it's more brown to me.  

It's pretty well made, except for this manufacturing error on the bottom hem:

Incidentally, the shirt came from the same store as that South Vietnamese jacket I posted earlier in the thread, not that I can prove they are related.  

 

I also found this Bancroft Black beret with a yellow liner at a different store:

Unfortunately, no insignia or ID info.

Hope you all have been finding nice things to close out the season too.  

[easterneagle87]

I'll close out this page for the year! Great finds people! All your efforts are appreciated and the preservation of items will continue. Be well and we will see you next year!!!