Six hours. I decided the " look" was right. All loose, dusty rust dissolved. The surface were paint is not present still has that dark lightly rusted appearance. Next step: Put out in the direct, hot sun at least one day, maybe two, Make sure it is absolutely dry.   Final step will be to coat with Renaissance Wax while it is hot after sitting in the sun.   Note: according to references, these shells were painted a dark grey. This one is Black, ( denoting inert I believe), with remains of a white stripe. To my surprise, under the Black paint appears to be a dark grey color. My next challenge is to decode tge markings on tge driving band. Can anyone help? There is very little internet info on pre and WW1 Naval markings.    

Rooster, I find the NWU-I uniforms rather interesting, as with most utility types there are a few variations and of course a full selection of insignia.  The same can be said for the others in this series, NWU-II and the current NWU-III.  As for the Sea Bees insignia, for the five uniforms in my foto the pocket is an after production addition or exchange.  The pockets are sold from dealers such as Vanguard and sewn on by the sailor or local sew shop.  I do not currently have an OG-507, but I believe they were done the same, I can not speak to uniforms before that period.  As noted the Sea Bee is on the right side with this series due to the Navy crest now on the left.  In previous iterations it was on the left.  Also of note is all of my Bees are facing to the center of the coat, yours faces outward?  My guess is because your coat is 2008 (perhaps early production), the producer had not realized the pocket would be on the right.  My series coats are all 2010, BDU is 2007 last year made I think, and the DCU is about 1999 its very hard to read. Link for the Vanguard example:  https://www.vanguardmil.com/products/navy-embroidered-seabee-pocket-replacement-desert-digital  Cheers, Armygas 

Nice sterling WW2 DUI.  I wouldn’t repair it.  A repaired DUI will always look like a repaired DUI.  I’d prefer it all original, as-is. 

Can you show some pics? I have a few that are knee up. I mounted them on flanges with pipe to a base and they look fine if you don't need footwear. Actually, I have tucked flight suits, etc. into boots or even let trousers hang open over a base with shoes and it looks fine to me.  Dave  

I wish Owen or Bob would chime in here. I don't know the subject so I see misspelling and think "must be in-country real", then again, I think, "...what a great way to fake an item - intentionally misspell things..."  Dave 

This picture is a printing block from a WW1 MC Lilley catalog showing their button toggles. New to me. Thought I'd post it.  

Unlike us, many people just don't care about military items related to their family.  Way back when, I bought a KIA Purple Heart/AM pair from a lady at a garage sale who was the widow of the B17 KIA crewman.  No doubt she liked the fact that I would appreciate the medals, but she said she had no use for them (interesting footnote - she married the brother of the KIA crewman.   I guess he didn't care about his brother's medals either).  Anyway, I would guess many of the items I have in my collection came from family members of the vets who had no interest in them.  Which is kind of good people like that are out there, otherwise we wouldn't  have much in our collections.  When I find an old Army issue  canteen cover at the flea market with an old faded name stenciled on it, I do not feel it is my duty to go to the ends of the earth to reunite this long lost item with the family.   Most people just get rid of stuff they don't care about.   

T308   Thanks for that, that might be it,   Most out of the ordinary for a ADC to take over a Regiment by default like that, must of been real critical that he would be sent down to take immediate command, like intense enemy pressure with the men's morale flagging, things of that nature, normally its either the next senior who takes over, usually the Regimental Exec, or in some cases a senior ranking staff officer from division.

Early twentieth century American ribbon bars were commonly hand sewn directly onto military attire or the ribbon cloth was first sewn over a base bar and then the ribbon assembly was pinned to clothing.  Ribbons directly sewn on clothing usually had an internal support made out of thick fabric, cardboard, plastic, or stiff lightweight synthetic material to keep the the ribbon cloth rigid and free of wrinkles.  Pin back and clutch back base bars with sewn on ribbon cloth were used into the WW2 period.    An early pre 1900's ribbon bar design ( US Patent 135387 ) was developed to improve the mounting, removing, and displaying of single ribbons on military and civilian garments ( see pictures ).  The four components of this ribbon bar were a metal backing plate to secure the ribbon, clamps or slides to hold the ribbon cloth in place on the backing plate, a pin to attach the ribbon to clothing, and a tension plate to ensure the ribbons stayed flat.  Pictured below is the attachment pin of this patent on an early ribbon holder.  The ribbon bar deviates significantly from the original patent description.  Therefore I am unsure if the ribbon holder and pin back attachment represent an upgrade to the original patent design or just happened to be joined together - perhaps by a WW1 veteran.  For this ribbon combination the ribbon cloth is covered by a clear plastic covering.  The ends of the cloth and plastic are crimped under a metal support base.  The pin attachment is inserted or slide on top of the folded support base anchoring the pin in place.  Noteworthy, this assembled bar represents an early forerunner of the slide on ribbons that were widely used in WW2 and post WW2.   Another early ribbon bar construction featured plastic covered ribbons folded around a base with small protruding posts.  These posts had holes to accept a common safety pin for attaching the ribbon to clothing (see pictures).        After WW1 and into the early 1950's the Army and Navy/Marine Corps branches wore different size ribbons.  Military regulations specified Army ribbons to be 3/8 ( 6/16 ) inches wide and Navy/Marine Corps 1/2 (8/16) inches wide.  In the late 1940's and early 1950's the Navy/Marine Corps transitioned to the Army size ribbons.  Interestingly,  period photographs show that some service personnel failed to follow the branch of service ribbon size requirements and instead wore ribbon bars of various widths.  An informative thread "Marine Wide Ribbons " discusses ribbon sizes and can be found in this Sub Forum.   At times variation in ribbon bar width may be encountered.  I have observed the width of some Army ribbons of the pre WW2 and WW2 era closer to 7/16 and 5/15 inches than the specified 6/16 (3/8) inches.  Larger ribbon bar size discrepancies were likely due to domestic and foreign tailors and service personnel failing to closely follow the American ribbon bar specifications and/or the use of improperly size base bars to sew on ribbon cloth.    Figs. 1,2.  Types of base bars used for sewing on ribbon cloth.  Note the rectangular spaces through the base bars that allow appentures to be attached. Figs. 3,4.  Early types of ribbon bars and clothing  attachments.  Patent 135387 pin attachment on an early slide on ribbon holder is the third one down from the top.  The protruding posts bar is is the fourth one down from the top. Figs.  5,6. Close up of the early slide on ribbon bar with the patented pin attachment. Fig. 7.  Drawn out components of the early pre 1900 ribbon bar design.   Figs. 8 through 13.  Examples of ribbons sewn onto base bars. Figs.  14,15,16,17. Ribbons sewn directly onto clothing.  Figs. 18,19.  Studley Ribbon Bars.   The top bar uses screw posts. Figs.  20,21.  Grouping from Army Colonel J. Lorne, American Expeditionary Force, showing his ribbons sewn onto pin back and clutch back base bars.  

He received it for guerilla actions on Mindanao.