You're right! I wish I had been snatching these up back in the 70's and 80's. I had no clue.

dang that's a steal! I meant as cheap as they used to be, like finding a named airborne helmet for 5 bucks in a surplus store kind of thing.also bad wording on my part. good for you. I am much younger collector compared to most on here, so I haven't had the oppurtunity to experience out in the wild finds yet, All I've been told is to keep looking and trying because you just never know!

Next set is a private purchase with the top and white cap being named but no manufacturer tags in the pants or top.   Henry Earl Hundley joined in 1918 based on a comment "release to the Navy" on his draft card from June 1918.      

Bought these two lots from an online auction thinking they were from the same guy, A.P. Hundley. Received them today and lol and behold turns out to be father and son.   A.P. is up first.  His appear to be standard issue with pants and top having a tag from the manufacturer. Not sure why the pics are coming out so gray in some of the pics.     Arthur P. Hundley enlisted in 1943 (at 17) and is documented in landing craft school in 44.  His brief obit info says he served in the Pacific in WW2.                    

"the days of finding named untouched front seams was a long time ago" Oh I dont know about that. I got this on ebay last August under $700.00. There are still deals to be found online. But it involves a lot of searching and some luck.  

Do you know when this Ssilor served aboard Iowa?  My dad was aboard, 1952-1954.   As far as the paint goes, Navy helmets were not issued to individuals. They went to Battle Stations, ( referred to as GQ or General Quarters Stations).  We would find one in good shape, make sure it had all the parts and put our names on them, after sizing them.   They generally got repainted every 6 months to a year, ( or so). Got painted with what ever paint was closest to the paint locker door 🤣. They got recycled routinely. They could go from station to station. When ships decommissioned, they were, available to other ships, or went back into the supply system, for reissue to other ships. In 26 years, I saw CS New helmets, once. The rest were just reused, rebuilds from scrapped ships.   In 1973, I was finding fixed bale helmets with the big bulky (Firestone?) liners. 

Anybody know what kind of dog tag this is.came from estate glenside area Pennsylvania. Think it's homemade tag.thanks for looking

In the 1990's when Pope AFB, NC was under command of the 23d Wing (with lineage dating back to the 23d Fighter Group in China), they not only adorned their A-10s and F-16s with with sharkmouth, but also their C-130s!

I am interested in possibly bidding on this, can you send me the eBay auction info. 

hey ya'll, Decided to pull out this uniform a while back and check it with a black light and what do you know I found a name!, it has been positively ID'd to Clarence Franklin Raymond who was part of the 318th and was a gas engineer and part of E Co. 318th Engineers. the guy was originally from michigan, but enlisted in oregon, an interesting thing was he was about 40 when he enlisted having been born in either 1879, or 1875. so he was about 40 ish give or take. haven't found a picture of him in uniform yet, but Stratasfan has generously found a decent amount of info on him.