Greetings,   Initial enlisted promotions during WWI often came down to who arrived at a particular duty station first, those who already possessed a particular trade skill, or frankly, those who were deemed as having leadership potential. In Sam's case,  he was assigned to the 59th Infantry Regiment when the 4th Division was being formed. Likely, he saw an opportunity to join/volunteer for the 4th Ammunition Train and possessed the skill set to work with horses as a Wagoneer. Or he at least convinced those looking to fill slots in that new unit he was at least game to try. Below is a August 1919 4th Ammunition Train's Morning report where as the unit is broken up (read: deactivated) personnel are being reassigned or demobilized. It is from this document I keep referring to Sam as a Wagoneer due to the abbreviation "Wag." My assumption, is once he saw he was on orders to go to Mississippi, he decided to be demobilized in lieu of taking that assignment. Getting out of the U.S. Army in 1919 after having successfully served overseas in France was not a hard thing to do.       Lastly, I have attached two images of WWI Transport Manifests (one departing for France & one returning from France). They list his Father as "Bernard," who has a NY address. That may assist in determining if we in fact have the right Samuel.   Best,   V/r Lance  

Hi All, I’m pretty sure this is a repro UNPFK patch but can anyone confirm.  It does have some slight glow on the back but it’s actually a fairly well made patch which is why I’m not certain. Much appreciated!  

If you look closely at the borescope photo of my M1 Garand, you can see heat checking pretty bad. Is this safe? Looks like some of the fractures are deep and could scale off when firing. Not sure if this is normal or not. Anyone know?   Thanks,

j'ai lu que les m19 ont été fournies au tireurs d'élite au Vietnam et mise en service en 73 officiellement et livrées a partir de 74/75 donc très peu ou pas utilisées au Vietnam

. ' Ghosted or Not ' . . . . . . . . .  I make this post here as the topic is a closed topic and no posts can be added.    I just read the comment below about allowing 24 hours to pass before jumping to the conclusion that someone has ghosted you or not honouring a deal either as a seller or a buyer.   It was why I made a suggestion a year or two ago that members should at least show a country of residence below their avatar,  this then shows the possible time zones or language barriers that come into play.   When I am posting from my location France ( Normandy )  most Americans are in the land of Nod and hitting the zzzzzzzz's so I know there will be no response to my post for at least 24 maybe 48 hours, and we still have a language problem I spell it tyres / not tires, I spell it aluminium / not aluminum, I use centre / not center and many other spellings.   So I would again suggest that the forum asks that members show the country of residence as the minimum requirement, no one wants to or needs to give their actual address.    The USMF Admins would like to just remind people to allow at least a minimum of 24 hours before assuming that you have been ghosted by another member. Whether it is in a conversation, sellers waiting to hear from buyers, buyers waiting to hear from sellers, members working on a trade, or any other conversation happening between one member and another. The members on USMF are all over the world and across many time-changes and in many walks of life. Just because someone does not instantly reply to you does not mean that they won't. Whether they went to bed, are driving, eating, at an event, doing something away from the internet, had a power outage or any of the innumerable reasons that can be put forward . . . please grant them the courtesy of waiting a minimum of 24 hours before assuming the worst. While it sometimes happens (sadly) the majority of members on here are going to answer you and are going to finish whatever discussion or deal you are conversing about.     Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, June 03   2O25.    ….

Being somewhat of a Mexican War enthusiast I am very much enjoying your posts.  Please continue posting them.

In our hobby “knowledge is power”.

Yeah... I see the wisdom in such a decision but not going to happen I'm afraid 😄 It's all too interesting.  And the storage and moving excuse is the same one I use(d) for my medal collection    Apropo and not really by accident of course   What happened is (sounds a bit silly now but kind of made sense at the time.. to me at least) I kept the boat at bay collecting patches by saying: "study up first, you don't know what you're doing if you don't have a good reference work".  Then after I got hold of Mr. De Bree's work, almost by accident, I said "If you're going to collect patches, don't rush in, start with quality items (In my mind that means greenbacks and/or OD border) and with infantry division patches starting with n° 1.  So when finally I stumbled across a 1st Div. greenback in Carentan I had ran out of excuses and I overpaid to start the collection 🙃 . But hey, still very happy with both the patch and the start of the collection and of course now looking for a 2nd Div greenback.  Think I'm going to stick with the "going by number" collecting regime. I see ads online for a whole "collection" all in one (whitebacks) but where's the fun in that?  I want to enjoy the ride, no rushing things. While I'm waiting for the next patch I'm reading up on patches in general and the unit(s) collected in particular.

The ONLY river rats of the US Army in Vietnam. 458th transport Company 560th  Military Police 18th brigade Vung Tau Harbor Otherwise, known as the SEA TIGERS. Served possible 68-69.   *Cover of Sp4 Michael G. Popielski*who recently passed away Jan of this year. The cover was sold by the family through a dealer friend on EBay. I currently trying to get his other items. His name wasn’t listed when it was posted and i was in contact with the seller and he gave me his last name and said he was with the 560th River Patrol. (The family has his patch). I found his obituary online and when I asked the seller, if this was the guy, he confirmed his first name which was Michael Popielski  I believe the cover was owned by a Gervasio before Popielski got it due to the name on the flap and the word Arizona on the cover. I have not been able to find any information on this guy. Popielski was Polish and the phrase Polak Phop written on the side means Polish Shop.  The other phrases seem cliché but its looks good in hand and there’s an old spill on the cover over the some of the letters. They seem cliché because the fake ones had to be taken from an original. There’s a symbol on top which I believe to be his initials M and G. I found a photo online of his PBR and it gives his name on picture.  On his obituary, you can see the 18th MP brigade pin   on his hat.  The patch that is in the pictures that I have listed was from an online listing. I hope to get his patch soon. His patch also has the word unit 70  MP is on the front of the cover with two slits. I’m not sure of the purpose of the slits but they do line up with your eyes. I’ve never seen this before.

. Hi mikie,   yes some suppliers are copying both original carton designs. and some copying the post war civilian cartons to give the parts ' authenticity '.  Post war with so many original surplus parts available someone designed a patriotic looking carton to give the parts the ' Made in America ' quality assurance.  Sadly newer vehicle owners have a lesser knowledge of what original parts look like, and as I have said before there are now canvas covers made for Jeep shovels.  There was NO such part during WWII, and I would challenge anyone to find a wartime photo of a Jeep with a shovel cover, it's a re-enactor enhancement.     Years ago on a trip to the US I bought a novelty can of gun-oil, it was original WWII stock that a surplus store had covered over with a label featuring a wisened old cavalry Sgt and labelled ' OLD SARGE ' gun oil, I didn't need the oil I only bought it to show UK friends the humorous novelty label.    Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, June 03   2O25.    ….