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I was just going through my junk that I collected during my service and a couple of things stood out..

The first was a firing pin for the 90mm on an M47 - I removed it from an ex-bundewehr M47 on Hohne ranges.

A Chieftain APDS slug that I recovered from a Centurion on the ranges at Suffield. The Sqn had one round for 'demonstration purposes' and an untouched Centurion as the target. Of course the Sqn Ldr delegated his tank as the one to fire it. At Dot 4 (1600m) it went through the lower mantlet, breech-ring, firewall, engine and gearbox and came to rest against the hull rear armour. The engine and gearbox were smashed to bits literally! The slug, incidentally, is about half the size its supposed to be but weighs nearly the correct weight....

Lastly is a russian 76mm shell case - now that is an interesting story I must tell sometime.. in about 12 years by my calculations

Anyone else have anything interesting that wasn't actually presented to them?

i recovered two 6pdr cannon balls and two 3" ordnance rifle bolts this july.

Early kinetic energy round extracted from the crotch of a tree downrange at McFarland-Oliver Special Operations Tank Gunnery Range over three decades ago. I sprayed some clear lacquer over it to stop any more rusting..what you see here had happened over the time it had stayed there.

The tip is still very pointy and as you see there is no deformation, so I'm left to conclude that it either traversed through a berm and slowed a LOT before the tree caught it...or it ricocheted way up and came down into the tree. I can't account for how a tree could have stopped it, otherwise. MFO is just over 1,800 meters long and this was near the extreme end. It was pointed downrange.

I fetched this back under the seat of my jeep and transferred to my car back at the Board (on pain of death if caught). It's been a bookend ever since.

It's really heavy.

A nice 90mm brass case would be so cool, but I don't have one.

pretty cool doug. so you are admitting that you stole this? as master chief always said, we dont steal, we appropriate! LOL
and i like this question jim, very intersting.
i would say that what many have things they wont admit to having in their possession or they just dont have anything out of the ordinary...

Borrowed, Shawn, borrowed. I meant to return it back in May, but with security and excess baggage on the airlines these days.....

Besides, Don said it was bad ju-ju to wander down range these days.

I like to think I was acting in the best interests of a tree.

Hi Folks!

I was a good guy. No really I was.

Something that I just remember was this book. I picked it up while working in the Battalion S-2 shop. During the 1970's, there was very little unclassified info available about the Warsaw Pact military forces. From what I remember, what there was, wasn't very detailed.


Book was printed by Carl Ueberreter, Vienna in 1977.
A lot of the information in that book was in classified reports in my safes. We used these books to conduct a lot of briffings to groups who didn't have secruity clearances

Sgt, Scouts out!

Well, I didn't serve, but I am sort of the historian of my family, so some of those who did serve in my family have given me some of their precious items over the years.

My most prized of them is a Japanese admiral's battle flag. An uncle served in the Pacific and he was also involved in the occupation early on. Many Japanese worked in conjunction with Americans in clearing debris and whatnot. A former Japanese sailor presented my uncle with the flag when they parted company and commented, only half kiddingly, "Thank you for not killing me." Anyway, this flag is about 10' x 12' so it is impossible to display. Someday I hope to properly mount it and hang it in an appropriate room.

I also had another uncle in the Seabees at Iwo Jima. He gave me a Japanese rifle he "recovered." Think about someone doing something similar today.

A friend of mine who used to be a tanker has a virtual museum in his "I love me" room.He has the firing pin from an Abrams after he got some unbelieveably difficult score at the firing range (I forget the proper term - something with "table" in it?).

I have personally been presented with Saddam Stock. Yes, I am a shareholder in Saddam, so I have a stake in his trial! I'm not holding my breath. People in Iraq could actually buy stock in Saddam. I wonder if the Green Bay Packers got their idea from him. Great gimmick; a way to get money off of people for nothing in return.

- Burik

Great gimmick; a way to get money off of people for nothing in return.

I'm given to understand that he had more compelling ways than just the sale of stock.

burik, that is what makes even the smallest items very valuable, that they have sentimental value. the things that i have gotten from my dad in vietnam are on the top of my keep sake list. the items and photos i also got while my grandmother miller was in vietnam i cherish. my grandma rorah gave me quite a few WW1 sourvenirs, including a trench knife that had belonged to her finance that was killed over there. my grandfather rorah worked at RIA during WW1 and i have some of the munitions that he made. my granddad miller was an all american and i have his jump wings and chin strap (those will go to the grave with me!). i have my uncle harry's EGA (uncle was one of the few that i have known that gave meaning to being a MARINE).
i have my uncle bill's personal effects that he was carrying when he was killed in the phillippines. they were everyday items, but they mean something to the family. when i first got them and looked thru them, it was very spooky to find pics of my aunt in his wallet and a lock of her hair. the shaving kit and various lighters are anitques now.
i am very fortunate to have a little something from every person in our family, basically all the way back to the civil war. nothing uncommon for many, many american families...

Big chunk of the Berlin Wall I knocked out on my 26th birthday in Feb 1990.

that is cool RobG, what a birthday. the berlin wall-- talking about remembering your location for historical events, i was sitting in a college history class, the morning they announced the wall coming down.

My only memorable birthday in the army was my 21st which I spent being chased around the woods by half a battalion of french paras on an escape & evasion exercise...

- JimWeb

My only memorable birthday in the army was my 21st which I spent being chased around the woods by half a battalion of french paras on an escape & evasion exercise...

Roy was there for mine (whether he knew it or not) at an NDP in Hau Nghia or Tay Ninh province. Those weren't French paras in the woods, though.

I don't know if he got any cake, I put it out on the table at the Mess Trailer after I'd gotten mine....

Well I didn't serve but the photos and 8MM footage I was able to talk my father into giving me mean a great deal. Kind of a history of his service.

There was a rifle he brought back from VN, either chinese or russian, that he gave to his brother, who gave it to his boss

And there is a Japanese rifle in my Grandfathers garage that I'm thinking on trying to get along with some of his diaries and photos (at least copies)from WWII. I seem to be the only Grandchild that is interested in trying to preserve my families Military history.