Here is his buddy Private First Sergeant. The shops in theater would make anything you would pay for.

the truck is all packed. See you all at 4:00 this afternoon.

It was actually very common for petty officers and chief petty officers to be promoted to warrant or chief warrant in the mid 1942 months especially if in some particular specialty, such as aviation branch (including NAPs), medical corps, paymaster, etc., indeed just about anyone from any branch with potential was upped if they accepted the appointment to warrant or commission to officer. Most of the 1942-1943 era warrants were later, within about 6 months, commissioned as LTJGs, skipping ENS all together. Importantly, no one was required to accept any of these bumps, if a man wanted to remain enlisted, no problem, so be it.  Look at the 1943 and 1944 USN registers and there are whole columns of ENS, LTJG, and even LT whose previous status is noted as enlisted.  Knew a few of them myself.  The Navy had to get officers from somewhere; better someone who already knew what he was doing and only needed the officer charm school than having to start a zero.  If you look hard enough with the right name you can find a formerly enlisted, say a MACH warrant in the 1942 USN register, then as a CMACH in the 1943, and a LT in the 1944.  Enlisted to warrant to officer or even directly to officer was not at all unusual.   And any officer of former enlisted status was oft referred to as a Mustang, but during the war there were just too many to make a differentiation.  Usually something they called themselves. not without a certain amount of pride.  The term was not a disparagement.     Don't need no stinkin' AI.

Lately I haven't been buying militaria often, but when I came across this M42 meat can for a decent price I couldn't resist. I already have a bunch of meat cans, but this one was made in France for the US military in 1945. I know meat cans, canteens and cups were made in France and Belgium before the end of the war, but this is the first time I came across one myself. I think it's an uncommon piece, perhaps even rare.          

Got the boxes packed for the show. Setting up with my friend Rick. Looking forward to a good show tomorrow-hope to see you there.    

Thank you very much for the information solved another piece of the puzzle, I have seen photo's of these pistols being carried by Helicopter pilots in Vietnam they even have US marked shoulder holsters that were made for the 2 inch barrels and I have seen photo's of them carrying the old Victory models as well like the ones they also carried in WW II. Be interesting to see where Colt sent this pistol after the re-work to the 2 inch barrel again thank you.

Looks totally legit- no reason to think it’s put-together.  Matching bullion- sleeve braid, shoulder straps and cap.  And ribbons properly reflect the era it would have been worn (mid 1950’s).  

Nicolaus,   Here is a video we often referenced. This gent talks about the same practice of sewing together shorter puttees that I explained above:     Best Regards, -J.D.

Nicolaus,   This is just my two cents, but what I think you have is a reenactor pair of puttees that were stiched together length wise with smaller, semi modern surplus English military puttees to simulate the length of WWI leggings.   I used to reenact WWI, and this is one of those things that was recommended by several people within the community. Reproduction full-length puttees are very often made with just blanket wool, so they look crappy, but you also would want to avoid wearing original WWI wraps in the fear of damaging them. Sewing together surplus English puttees was a good middle ground between those two extremes since you wouldn't be damaging 100 year old wraps nor using cheap-o wool.   Hope that makes sense! I personally have never seen original puttees sewn together end-to-end like this, but you never know. Figured I would throw in my input!   Best Regards, -J.D.