This may have been common during WWII, but I recently came upon a pair of Paramarine Marine Corps service Alpha trousers that have elastic sewn into the bottom cuff for a "bloused" effect.   I have seen period photos of this USMC practice but assumed the pants were tucked in Army-style, not actually modified so they couldn't be worn with shoes.   Has anyone else handled a pair such as these?  I'd be curious...   regards, Robert

The patches are proper, original WW2 period. They are so common and cheap that making repros would be unprofitable. Even greenback or ribbed weave variations aren't that expensive. My guess: detergent/phosphate and high temperature-ironing. 

I am curious, wasn’t the Carbine pouch next to your first aid pouch USMC style? Like the late war BOYT 44 45 ones? I may be mistaken, but I noticed the distinct flap shape.

Yeah I was going to rebuild it as that anyways. USN parts are way too expensive or difficult to find anyways. And the helmet that came with it I'll probably be putting the ERDL film on it as either F-4 helmet or A-10. The Rubber was the easiest to clean with hot water and a scrub pad. I had to use a paint stripper for plastic models from Testors called ELO to get the paint off of the plastic hard shell.

I've got a spoon with a similar finish but it is non-magnetic and marked 'SILCO'.

I have always had a strong like for the CIC and all things related.   Thank you for posting this piece of history.   I just want to mention Judge Dale Schughart who was a CIC agent in Norway, Finland and Germany tracking down bad guys during WW2.   I did a one hour taped interview with him.

Hell yeah, I really love you guys 😍   Completition date 9/42 - I think that was before the aluminium was released by the War Production Board and production of aluminium Sets was begun

eaglerunner88, that was a great find on an obscure bit of information. With that, I went into Alphabetical Listing of Major WAR SUPPLY CONTRACTS VOL. - 3, WAR PRODUCTION BOARD, STATISTICS DIVISION,  APRIL 29, 1943.  Found an entry for...   MOORE ENAMELING MFG CO W LAFAYETTE OHIO Army contract for CANS MEAT,  $127,000.00 AWARD DATE  7/42 COMPLETION DATE  9/42

Few more newspaper articles about him that I found. 

. Private plates.   It is possible to buy plates in the UK but they have to be officially issued ones,  such as many years ago I saw a Volvo estate with ' LEW 1S ' which the owner had pushed the lettering and numbers together and hiding the spacing so it was shown as ' LEWIS ' now officially that is breaking the law as the gap should be maintained.   The plate licensing authority also keep back anything that they feel can be sold at auction, again about twenty years ago the government had an auction and star of the auction was  ' G1 JOE ' which sold for thousands and ended up on a Land Rover in Kent.  Before I moved to France I had ' G1 NDL '  ( Norman D. Landing )  perfectly legal in the UK but illegal in France, I tried to re-register the US Ford truck in France but it didn't meet French build laws, and so I had to return it to the UK and sell it, and this was all while the UK was part of the European Union.  Apparently private plates are not allowed in France so everyone has the plate thats issued with the car and no-one exceeds anyone else's sense of equality, poor and rich supposedly seen to be treated the same. A number of old vintage plates were recalled by the licensing authority in the UK as in the case of ' PEN 1S ' which a younger owner bought privately and pushed the lettering together closing the gap. It also worked by widening lettering as in ' GOK 1D' the enterprising owner moved the K towards the 1D and it became ' GO KID ' again illegal spacing !!!!!    Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent,   May 23  2024.   ...