Here the pee coat.same name on knife 

Iam not sure where he was stationed. Let me ask grandson he might know.he joined the navy in 1941 asked that .still cool knife even not government issued. Time period correct. Don't see alot of western knives around.or there to expensive to buy .this was local bought 10 minutes away 

Good afternoon,  I have been working on trying to piece together a display impression of my grandfather in the Pacific in 1943/44.   Today I stumbled across a great surplus store, the ones you unfortunately don’t see many of anymore and found a USN summer flight suit M-426A, Contract No. NXs-5138.  Any info on the suit and other equipment I would need to complete the display would be appreciated.   thank you     

Sorry about my mix up, got more focused on the knife.  It's not about were the G.I. was from, but where they were stationed.  Many of the Western knives like yours were bought by G.I.s from distributors near the based they were stationed at.  Western's market place was almost exclusively west of the Mississippi river during the war and earlier.  Some Western knives were bought by contractors that were supplying survival kits for air crews and life boats. Those kits arrived in the different theaters of operation.  A lot of Navy and Army pilots bought Western knives while in flight school in training bases out west.  

More than likely Thai or Viet Nam made.  I was in VMA (AW) 225 and we were part of Marine Air Group 11 (MAG 11).  H&MS 11 was the Headquarter & Maintenance Squadron for the Group.  They were an intermediate level of maintenance for the squadrons in the group.  We call H&MS 11 a HAMS unit and their people Hamsters.  All of us rotated back to the States in about May/June of 1971.

To add to this, while white numbers weren't factory-applied till February 1945 indeed, in the field these were often applied from quite early in the war. A wide variety of stencils and fonts were used, and the results would depend on the skills and motivation of the appointed volunteer and whatever tools he had available for the job. Sometimes the blue number was covered in OD first, sometimes the white number was just slapped over it.

I would call the first patch a "Fantasy Patch".  However, it sure was appropriate for that time frame.  Was back there about a year ago and it sure has changed!  I was in and out of  MCAS Cherry Point from 1970-1991, some deployments and some PCS moves.  

"US Army vehicles in WWII were marked with blue drab lustreless enamel for identification numbers and other stenciled markings from late 1940 to February 1945, according to the Army Regulation AR-850-5. This color was chosen because it was difficult for enemy intelligence to distinguish from the standard olive drab (OD) vehicle color in black and white photographs.  The numbers were painted on the vehicles using stencils. The size of the numbers varied depending on the vehicle type:  1 inch high: Motorcycles 2 inches high: Trailers and US registration plates 4 inches high and 2 inches wide: All other vehicles  From 1943 onward, the blue drab color was replaced by white as it proved to be too difficult to see. The 1945 regulations specified the use of white lacklustre, stenciling, enamel paint for vehicle numbers. "   "Army regulation AR-850-5 issued August 1942 ordered a plain white five pointed star, as the national symbol, it was seen in all theatres from 1943 and by 1944 was the most common national identification sign.[4] The star point was supposed to be facing rearwards on flat surfaces, upwards on a glacis.[1]: 54–5 "   It was used on helmets too. As evidenced by this ID on a Kelly Helmet painted mid 1941

@General Apathy  @Johan Willaert   I have a question for the jeep experts. I think this has been mentioned before but my search skills are dismal.  What is the history of the blue numbers on jeeps? When were they used? When was it switched to white numbers?   Thank you for you help, Kat 

Very cool stuff, and rarely seen by most of us.  Thanks for the posts.   Charlie