I agree Japanese.

Speaking of Fort Ord.    

I feel kind of dopey that I didn’t see this until just a moment ago.   The two names found in the group.  

Here is the table of contents to FM 21-105, Engineer Soldiers Handbook.      

And speaking of the handbook here is a name on the back cover.   Thank you for your comment.

Look what I found yard sailing today for $8.   This could be the first time I have posted something on this thread that might actually interest people.   Sorry no F on the bottom.

look for a bad pair of boots, there out there, drill a hole in the sole, Problem solved. I dressed a lot of maniquiens at a few musuems, I would look for the maniquiens that had the rod higher up the calf.  "Yanks" makes the best maniquiens and there smaller sizes that fit these depression era uniforms, not many fat kids back then. 

Hey everybody.   Been working on a late Vietnam War USMC impression. I heard a few places that some soldiers used those purple felt Crown Royal bags to hold personal items.    Does anyone have any insight on this? How common was it? Did it even happen? Does anyone have any photos?   Thanks!   Wade

The rod goes straight in 1 foot so i think it wont be possible 😬

Thanks for your thoughtful response John.  I don't know where the "Imperial buyout" idea originated.  From memory, which could be faulty, I thought it was mentioned in the Wings of Gold book.  Regardless, I've never seen any period documentation (catalog, newspaper advert, etc) supporting this.  I fully agree and myself also surmise, from a numismatics perspective plus many years of looking at attributed examples of submarine insignia, that a lot of the insignia marked H-H imperial were likely produced during the WWII years and shortly thereafter.     In some ways I wish the submarine, wing, and other branch insignia somehow had better conversational and research overlaps. There are a lot of parallels and strong arguments (ex date ranges, assigning manufacturers to unmarked pieces, etc) that can be made via careful comparisons across manufacturers and time periods.     Best, Josh