Hello and welcome to the forum! Wish you a nice time here.

Thats a great photo of him!   Kurt

Good for you. A smart purchase. I was able to get a box like that with the spam can it came in several years ago.

The two blue stripes are the ordnance department container markings for rifle grenade blank cartridges. There was a standardized list of colored  markings used during WWII on small arms ammunition boxes and crates, to allow for quick identification. 

Hello and welcome! Great you work at the steps of your grandfather.

Great write-up !   IMHO though, this is how radio was built in 1943, if it was post war rebuilt it would also be updated to post war specification - both internal and external like spring latches etc.  Case would have to be sandblasted with insane precision. Hoping to see some other low serial numbered radios to collaborate my theories :)

. Recycling left overs from the war . . . ..    The militaria store at the Collins museum has a post war dog kennel for sale made from 105mm wooden cases , he also has about six US Army dust-bin / trash can lids.           Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, May 15 2O25.    ….    

I've already covered my enlistment in the US Army in 1960 but I'll add some info about my father. Dad was born in 1913 in a small community near Weston, WV. Both of his parents were tailors. After high school the Great Depression had begun so Dad joined the CCC and served in rural areas of KY with them. He became a CCC officer and transferred to the Army reserve in the late 1930s. in the she summer of 1941 he joined the regular army and was at the San Francisco Port of Embarkation when Pearl Harbor was attacked. At SFPOE, he was part of a small group that planned convoys sailing into the Pacific. By then he had achieved the rank of CPT and went on the serve in many posts during the war and afterwards was assigned to General MacArthur's staff. At that time, a newly created "Transportation Corps" was created and Dad transferred from QC to TC. Many other assignments were served and his final one was as Commanding Officer of the huge Army Aviation Depot Maintenance Center (ARADMAC) in Corpus Christi, TX. The Depression was the thing that determined his joining the military but he found a career that extended for 30 years.

As I recall, there are 100 of them? And most were awarded to more notable officers, whose medals are less likely to be sold into the collecting world.   So yes, one of these is a white whale.  

Does anyone know where I can find a repro Cavalry Officer plume?  Preferably yak hair, but definitely long.   Would take horsehair, if it's long enough.   I'm using a shorter, enlisted plume and it just doesn't look right.