Its a darn shame AZNATION is not on the forum anymore. The forum needs another Matt. And you are correct about it taking years sometimes. Sometimes you can even find the vet still living, and they dont want to talk to you. This guy here in the link. Robert Lopez Flynn... took  a year to get a hold of. A year before I finally found a valid email and he wrote me back... There is some speculation here but I feel its sound.... So did Mr Flynn....   Keep digging. Be patient.          

It’s just frustrating because I have the name and the time period, and all the other surrounding info, and yet I can’t find some of the easiest stuff. All because I can’t pay for resources. Being broke stinks…

Hi, would anyone out there be able to give me any info as to whether these are original WWII scrolls or reproductions ?  These are in my collection, but I've heard there are a lot of repros out there!  Thanks Barry  

Sometimes it takes me months or years to research an item. Research is not a sprint, It’s a marathon.

Welcome to the forum. My dad fired a shortened Springfield M1903 for many years in competition, starting in high school in 1927 and ending in 1948, winning hundreds of shooting medals with it. He was only 5'0" tall. He's the guy on the left. He was the #1 rifle marksman in the entire National Guard for 1935-36 with that same shortened Springfield.   When dad was in Vietnam, my older brother took the Springfield and sporterized the stock for lighter carry while hunting. I thought my dad was going to kill him when he came home. Years after my dad passed away, I gave the rifle to a friend for elk hunting.

Checked the roster, there is no Harjo in the whole entire unit history in Vietnam.

Also checking the whole entire 11th ACR roster, as I found a full roster for the whole entire unit online.

Next of kin also isn’t in there, I checked the name and individual years and could not find him. This is seeming hopeless…

Will do

I picked up this pair of (what I believe) to be 356th Fighter Squadron patches (AKA The Red Asses!... someone had a sense of humor). They are painted on leather and never sewn on a jacket. According to the dealer, they came out of the estate of a WWII pilot, but no other information on him was available.     I am not a collector of squadron patches, but I will buy them when they are cheap enough (and these were pretty cheap).  They are about 4 inches across and on a rather thick bit of leather (~1/8th inch thick).  Most of my leather squadron patches are on thinner leather, but Ron Burkey had a nearly identical one on his site.   Like I said, I don't know much, but they seem nice.   Thank you Patrick