ASN of O-259739.

Col. Andrew D. Chaffin, commanding officer of the 34th Engineer Group (Construction) when it was at Fort Lewis wearing the 6th Army SSI. He had a distinguished career in the Pacific during WWII with the 808th Engineer Battalion and the Engineer Section, Southwest Pacific Theatre.  Following his time with the 34th Engineer Group, he was in charge of the Mediterranean Division, Corps of Engineers. (This was an unselected proof for a formal portrait in an envelope I recently purchased).  

Good afternoon. After receiving the grouping in hand, it appears he graduated from the Officer Training Course at Craft Hall, Harvard. His name is Egedius Phillip Knudsen Jr. (quite the name), and I haven't been able to find anything in-country but have found few morning reports stateside. Questioning the various souvenirs that he got and where he got them. It also came with 2 cloth AAF maps about French Indo China (1944).   Thanks, Hayden

Bringing this old thread up from the grave lol! Just got this ike in with this exact patch from the vets daughter this weekend .    

It is remotely possible that this might be one of the very first 1219C2s sent to the Marines in December 1942.  The early Kabar 1219C2s had screw on pommels and red spacers.   The fact that this knife has a screw-on pommel and red spacers is not proof that this is one of those early 1219C2s, only that these are hints/clues that it might be such a unicorn.   That first Union Cutlery batch of 1219C2s had screw on pommels.  Just like the first batch of Camillus 1219C2s shipped out late Jan/early Feb 1943.   The problem with the pommels coming loose/breaking off was quickly identified.    This resulted in the first change order for construction of the 1219C2 - for the pommel to be welded / peened tight.  Supposedly, all the Kabar versions were either scrapped or were sent back to Union Cutlery to be "fixed".    The change was initiated BEFORE Camillus made and shipped their first order but was approved/promulgated  AFTER Camillus' shipment went out the door.  The Camillus screw pommels never got "company fixed" which is why a number of them still exist.

There were two styles of sheaths that came with the W31 - "decorated" as shown in the above picture and plain.      Western simply shipped the knives with the type of sheaths they were making at the time, utilitarian.    The plain sheaths came with the "official" paramarine knives that were used in training and then the "fancy" ones, which came with the versions sold through the PX at the training facility.   I learned that little detail back in 1978 or 1979, from an old Marine who was running a pawn shop in San Diego who had been a paramarine (one of the few) back in WW2.   I had gone into the pawn shop on one of my many forays into looking for old knives and bayonets while stationed in San Diego.  When I asked if he had any old WW2 knives, especially any Westerns, he showed me his W31 that he had on his hip.  It was the first W31 I had ever seen, well, TBH, I didn't even know they had made them.  The KMWWW had only recently been published and I didn't know it existed either.  He explained to me about there being different sheaths for the "training use" and PX versions.

Hello everyone, I wanted to start this off by saying I am new to the forum and if there is a better place to post this then please let me know. Recently I acquired three Molle II large rucksacks in OCP. While looking them over I noticed a few differences between the three and I was wanting to get more information on the differences. Rucksack number one which I will refer to as laundry, due to it smelling like it came out of a washing machine, is a standard large sized OCP rucksack frame came without a frame. The tag is located in the center of the main compartment and has the NSN# 8465-01-524-5285 W911QY-06-D-0003-0001 the pack is manufactured by specialty defense.   Rucksack number 2 that I will call new stock ,as it appears completely unissued, is also a large size molle II Rucksack in OCP however the tag is to the left of the main compartment opening and has the NSN# 8465-01-524-5285 SPM1C1-08-D-1080-0001 This pack is manufactured by the specialty group.    The new stock pack has a couple of very noticeable differences than the laundry rucksack. The most notable is a small expandable collar around the large compartment opening. This pack also has a zipper to allow easier access into the main compartment. The interior of the pack feels more rubberized than the laundry pack and has more of an amber color to the interior. The main lid to the rucksack also has a snap on each side and so the actual sewn seam for the main pack lid is much smaller than on the laundry pack.    The third pack that I will label as the Underwood pack ,due to the fact that it came with a tag that said Underwood, is pretty much identical to the laundry bag with the exception of the tag. Just like the laundry bag, its tag is located in the center of the main department opening but it is labeled:  SDS LARGE RUCK SACK STYLE 4180 SPECIALTY DEFENSE SYSTEMS    The tag does not have an NSN number. This rucksack lawsuit appears to have a water resistant coating that is completely clear on the inside of the pack.   My main question in regards to these rucksacks is why are does it appear that there is two different styles of pack? I suspect it has something to do with military contracts and possibly one being a newer model than than the other but I was hoping to get a more concrete answer. I attempted doing research online but of course I got nowhere. I know the Molle system has had many upgrades over the years and I'm curious if this is part of that. I have an original Molle rucksack from 1996 in woodland camo and a Molle 2 version from 1998 and both of them have the expandable collar as I can see that being a very useful addition to any military rucksack, So I find it weird if they removed it for the standard Molle 2 rucksack that we are all familiar with. I went on cie hub as they have a fantastic archive of the Molle use and care manuals and all of the manuals I found in regards to the rucksack have images of them without the collar. If anybody has any additional information on them I would be highly appreciative.    On an unrelated note, I do have a question about the inside of these rucksacks. On the inside of these rucksacks there are four squares of loop velcro that I'm trying to find the use for. Also there are two lines of grommets going across the bottom that I'm not sure of the use of as the rucksacks have a zipper to make a top and bottom compartment. I'm not sure if those grommets are there for people to dummy cord their gear or if they're meant to have some sort of lace through them. Again, any additional information would be greatly appreciated.    I have included photos of the rucksacks and the tags.

I think I understand, Manny. It´s for sure a challenge at a 1/72 plane. Probably it looks better without any washes. I´m curious about it because a (silver) Lockheed P-38 is awaiting it´s assembly and painting over here.   Lars

Amazing history you’ve managed to capture.   I love this sort of thing.