"I swear, Sarge, this little Italian kid..."

[OperationCoffee]

I assume this isn't that uncommon.
Heck, when I left active duty, they were NOT getting my Kevlar helmet back. I'd been through too much wearing the thing and I'm pretty sure it saved my life once. Also, it was a XL sized one, so rare that many people will tell you they never were made them that size. I won some bar bets over that.
Anyway, I went down to the local surplus places and bought the cheapest complete k-pot I could find and ripped the sweatband out of it. It was a medium and I was worried about if they'd take that one back The Korean GS lady at the CIF desk looked at the code on my sheet, looked at me said in a thick accent, "Extra rarge? That not right!"
I gave a full innocent act. "Extra large? Do they even make them that big?" I asked. I should have gotten an award for that acting.
"Oh no," she said, and scribbled over it with the medium code. Inside I was doing my happy dance. I would have paid the full amount for the replacement cost if I'd had to. They were not getting it back, full stop, thanks for playing.
It now sits atop my book case in the room with my model railroad, fittingly right underneath a helmet worn in the movie, "Saving Private Ryan". Note is still has the NVG strap which I also saved.
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Yeah, several years ago I bought an AR-15 which was configured exactly like my issued M-16A2. I even got a basic GI issued web sling for it. I've even been looking for a old school label maker so I can put the buttstock number of 153 on it to match my issued one.
And yes, I still remember it's serial #. Now that the army has transitioned to M4s, I assume it has since been ground up into slag at Anniston...
The funny thing is that we had .50 caliber MGs that had WW2 production serial #s on them (my armorer CWO looked them up). Two of our tripods had WW2 dates stamped on them!

You should check out "Warhats.com" . This guy does perfectly aged repros of WW2 helmets, caps etc. with an emphasis on U-boat caps and badges.

 

[MauldinFan]

You should check out "Warhats.com" . This guy does perfectly aged repros of WW2 helmets, caps etc. with an emphasis on U-boat caps and badges.

I've been into WW2 living history since before any of these companies existed. I can make most of this stuff myself and certainly do all the weathering for them.