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Cpl. Punishment
Posted

Hello all,

 

I posted this briefly in the latest finds thread, but thought I should have a more long term post. 
 

I am by no means a GWOT collector, but when I saw this group in an estate sale advertisements, I knew I had to help save this hero’s history from being torn apart. The estate sale manager was very kind and included scans of several hundred photos from various deployments, documents, and even some videos from a 2004 or 2005 deployment to Iraq. This man was tragically killed in a car accident after he returned home from Afghanistan. 

 

In his eulogy, the captain of Attack Company, 2nd Ranger Bn detailed his service and tells that this man served 4 tours to Afghanistan and 3 tours to Iraq and though he was not (to my knowledge) in any popularly known operations, his commanding officer notes he participated in several “ranger famous” operations.

 

Someone else managed to get the other set of modified DCU’s - there was a lot at the sale and I could not get it all. I was fortunate enough to get his beret flash which the estate threw in. They also told me a museum had bought a bunch of this gentleman’s things to keep together. It really is an honor to be the caretaker of this man’s artifacts. 
 

Again, I know very little about GWOT items, but I find it interesting that the modified DCU’s have velcro pockets and the modified BDU’s used the original button pockets. I should add, the DCU modification is done very neatly whereas the BDU’s were done crudely. Both sets of modified fatigues display combat wear as do the desert boots: wear, stains, repairs, etc. The double patched BDU’s are still starched and look to have been worn stateside.
 

Amongst his photos, I found a picture of him wearing this exact set of DCU’s in Iraq. 
 

Thank you for looking!  
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Cpl. Punishment
Posted
9 hours ago, mvmhm said:

Wow.

 

Mark sends

 

Thanks Mark. Wow is what I thought too! I don’t see too many GWOT Ranger groups like this popping up.

Posted

Fantastic save!

 

I have, on occasion, been able to work with estate sale managers, who understood what I was trying to do when I tried to gather as much of a serviceman's items to stay together.  I hate seeing these groupings split up, especially knowing that the guys buying are simply going to resell for profit (not that there's anything wrong with this - we live in a free society).

 

I collect GWOT items (I served in Iraq and Afghanistan myself), and love seeing these.  I was fortunate enough to have picked up a uniform grouping to a (sort of) famous 3/75 Ranger, and very proud to be its custodian. 

 

Bryan

Cpl. Punishment
Posted

Thank you for the kind words, Bryan - thank you for your service as well! 
 

I am very familiar with your 3/75th group and have used it for reference to this group; I love that group! 
 

Being a GWOT collector yourself, you may be able to speak to this better, but I feel like these sort of groups are not common to find. It seems to me that there is a certain degree of rarity in such groups not only due to the small community that the rangers are, but in the era of velcro, things are harder to ID to the vet. I use the term “rare” cautiously as there are undoubtedly many groups such as this out there. I believe due to the group being solidly ID’d, 75th Ranger, and ranger modified tops, this is where the “hard to find” characteristics begin to come together.

 

I wonder how many ranger modified fatigues are out there stripped of their veteran attribution. 

  • 2 weeks later...
Cpl. Punishment
Posted

Recently, I watched the documentary Ranger which interviews 2/75th veteran David Waterhouse. This man served during roughly the same time as the man who’s uniforms are here.

 

I assumed that the modified BDU would have been used in Afghanistan, though, the documentary showed several shots of 2/75 in Iraq wearing these for night raids. 

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