Interesting and helpful. The guy in the picture might not be who we thought, then. It's in the collection of a guy called Frank 'Lee' Rettinger, who served in Troop C of the 24th Cav Recon from the get-go. He was a Tec 5. He wasn't a replacement and there's no record of him transferring. Frank's granddaughter had her doubts that this was him, so you might have confirmed that her instincts were right. 

Thank you Marv! This is very helpful 😀🤝

Hello everyone,   This is my first post on this great forum. I'm mainly a german helmet collector but this helmet did wake my interest in US helmets.  This helmet was bought in the early 80s in Arlon (Ardenne Belgium). It's in a bit salty condition but I very much like the looks of it.   What I notice on the helmet is that the rank is lateral on the sides of the helmet witch what I was told is only used by the 11th Armoured Division. There is a laundry nr. Inside the helmet and inner helmet.  A unknown sign on the back of the helmet. What looks like medic tape on the inner helmet.   We already did an intense search to find the soldier of this helmet but as of now without a 100% match.  I hope that people here can help me with this one. How to understand the signs and hopefully find the right person who wore this helmet.    thank you for all possible help.  Best regards Nick

Is there a good CORRECT imitation of the M1905 wood grips available out there? I seem to recall an excellent US based wood-worker making them along with 1903 handguards at one point. The Sarco ones look absolute trash (and would take more work than its worth making look right). For now I will use GI WW2 plastic/phenolic ones on my project, but even though legit, still aren't really right.  

This is the one that sold most recently, this one was actually sold once before but relisted again.    I’m glad you also agree that it looks period done, it’s what it appears to be but having a second opinion is always good.   I was thinking that a possible explanation for this mod could have been to the poor performance of the Hawley liner? Another idea I considered was if some found the Kelly liner to be more comfortable than the m1 liners.    I’m very glad to have purchased this, like you said it’s a great oddball to add to my m1s!

Will do, thanks for the info

Do an Etsy Ebay search..... WW2 HBT Frog Skin Camo Coveralls Or google it.... You will find a lot of these where the suspenders are cut out. I saw a set the the other day that had a Talon Brand zipper... which I think was a replacement  or maybe the whole thing was a repro?

If that's all the real deal....good night. Impressive lot!

Little Big Horn. The demise of Custer's Cav outfit. Adding 7th Cav to anything old has been a sales ploy since that unfortunate battle.

Was telling a co-worker about my ACU patch colllection. Comes back a day or so later and told me home out my hand. Nice 704th MI BDE patch from the time he was in. Makes me appreciate it even more.