I was also going to reference this thread, thank you brig.

Don’t get me wrong I see your point. But I don’t believe that is the case on this one. For one on the wear of the paint. The paint is fairly bright on the front and faded on the back, there are a ton of folds on it where you can see it was sitting for a long time and it was bleached on these folds and the folded parts retained color. This is also visible on the paint and you can see on the third MarDiv logo has folds where the paint is wearing off. Second, this was not bought from another collector or any sort of person who had much knowledge on this kind of thing. It was sitting in my friends grandmas neighbors garage and they are moving so she is cleaning out the garage and asked him if he knew anyone who liked military stuff. So he called me. I drove out about an hour to go get it from the home. I also posted the pictures that the neighbor took of it in the garage (they aren’t focused because they were selling the drill press in the corner) and third, with this being painted so late in this marines wartime service it would also make sense that there is not as much wear since it probably was used just on his way back stateside and then discarded. Also, if someone was going to fake a raider item why wouldn’t they paint the raider emblem instead of the 3rdmardiv. Emblem? That would garner more attention and be more appealing right? I am fully willing to entertain that viewpoint. But in my opinion I don’t believe that this is a humped up piece. I apologize for the long winded response, just want to clearly represent my stance. Thank you both for your comments.

Lots of painted seabags survived in great shape. Seabag values are almost entirely based on the artwork. Sure, the Marine being from a desirable unit doesn't hurt, but it doesn't add a lot of value if the artwork isn't of significant interest or quality. The artwork on this is pretty typical and plain, and honestly I don't think the fact it belonged to a wounded Raider would raise the value significantly...seabags were garrison items that stayed on the ship during invasions and don't command nearly the prices of field gear.   The most likely situation this would be faked is if a Raider's name was added to a period unnamed seabag to try to squeeze a few extra bucks from the sale. In such a case, the wear to the paint would be inconsistent with the rest of the bag. The fact that a lot of paint remains doesn't mean a lot, plenty of awesome bags survived intact as the veterans who painted them often kept them inside a footlocker or chest rather than tossed into the garage.    

Hey Lars! Good luck with that P-38. I'll be looking forward to seeing the building process. Well, I just want to say that I took your suggestion regarding the panel lines and ran with it, but I didn't use a wash. I did take a very sharpened dark silver/grey pencil and outlined the panel lines. But I only did the wing flaps and ailerons and the rear vertical and horizontal stabilizers. I like how it came out. I hope you like it too. I took a couple of photos with a background to give it some depth. Enjoy the pics and all comments and critiques are greatly appreciated. BTW, I'll be away for a while as I'm going to the 23rd century to build the USS Enterprise NCC-1701A. But I do have one more diorama in the works. Who knows, maybe more. 🙂😉I'm starting to run out of space. Thank goodness, that except for 2 aircraft in 1/48 scale, I do my aircraft in 1/72.    Semper Fi.   Manny  

Thank you so much Dan. You'll never know how much I appreciate this.

Glad I wasn't the only one. Un-fortunately I don't get a warm fuzzy about this piece. The sea bag is one of the most heavily used pieces of gear that remains with a Sailor, Soldier or Marine. It gets thrown, tossed, sit on, wrinkled, folded up, lived out of, rained on, kicked etc. It sets in the sun, rain, wind etc. If it happens to make it home with servicemember, it gets thrown in the garage, basement, attic, shed or barn. It holds his uniform for 50-70 plus years, or the family tent, or the tarps for his cars or his duck decoys for his forays into to the wood or lake. Every Navy or Marine unis painted bag that I have had, and I could count that on one hand, was water stained, faded, paint worn with wrinkles and folds, mouse chewed etc. This one looks like it was painted a couple months ago.  Anything Raider associated I would immediately suspect, unless I dug it out of the barn or attic myself. No wear to the paint whatsoever. Just my opinion. To be honest: there are far too many UNIS marked objects that are surfacing of late on ebay or else well. Such items have always been seldom encountered and unfortunately are easy to fake and now that collectors understand the significance they have become very hotly pursued. 

I would imagine this was painted after he was wounded on Guam. Probably in his time recuperating in a hospital as I would imagine he would have a lot of free time. That or on his way back stateside. That is what I would think. I don’t see any other time he could’ve done it. It’s finitely been around for a long time. There was cobwebs all up in it. There was bunch of sheets all stuffed in it as well. 

@jsand - My goof but yeah that offer threw me for a loop.  WWII era USMC, USCG, and Airborne are all tough ones to find that I've been on the hunt for during the past 5 years.  The USMC buckle that @PhilippineBuckles picked up is the only 1946 dated one I know of and I've only seen pics of 3 EA 1945 dated.  They're definitely super rare!

One more photo.  I'll leave it there.  I'll just say that I am very proud to have known Joe.  He was a very private man but was family to us.  Not all the wounds of war are visible and I think he carried many with him.

I am curious, when do you imagine this was painted?