"what is the coolest military artifact you have?" Topic

M1 Garand from 1944, still gets shot several times a year.

A lot of my dads stuff from when he drove a tank in WWII: purple heart, papers (including where to sit in a B-17 on the way home), a lot of pictures from his time in the war, mostly in Italy, and a 9mm pistol he brought back with him, including the paperwork.

Oh yeah, I got a 37mm AT rd.[inert ?] from my Uncle who was a Weapons Instructor at Ft. Bragg, NC during WWII …

Most interesting are a series of photos and Phillipine newspapers brought back from the Spanish- American War. One of my wife's relatives rode acrpss the Sierra Nevadas to Sacramento to volunteer; sold his horse and tack in the city before taking the train to San Francisco to enlist. He served with Battery H, 3rd U.S. Artillery 1897- 98 before being discharged.

From my Great-Grandfather who was in the Canterbury Mounted Rifles from late 1915-1918 I have his Gallipoli diary, photos of Palestine and various souvenirs including a strip of used Turkish rifle cartridges with spent bullets crammed into them and a Turkish belt with buckle covered with various Allied regimental cap badges. I've also got his medals too, including the Gallipoli medallion.

My maternal grandfather closed his business and enlisted to "make the world safe for democracy". He missed the war but was in the Army of Occupation. He brought back a Kar 98a. My grandparents were "snowbirds", i.e. people who go to Florida for the winter. There, the humid atmosphere corroded the bore so badly that I will not try to fire it. As a family heirloom it is a "hanger" not a "shooter". My nephew has his uniform.
My father's uniform seems to have disappeared. He was a rear-seater, VMSB-133 Bougainville, SBD's. After the war he went to school with my neighbor, another "radioman-gunner" from "Bombing Eight" VB-8 of the old Hornet (CV-8), he flew at Midway. His daughter has his flight helmet and goggles. They survived a war and 77 years of peace. After he died, the cats knocked it off the shelf and broke the goggles. I found her replacement lenses but I don't think that she has used them.

Used to have some hats,and caps from two maternal uncles who served in WW2,and a WW1 style tin hat I'd bought at a surplus store as a kid. Brother's got our dad's old US Navy dog tags.

Now that I think of it, we had/have a pic of my one Uncle, my Father's Brother, who was with a US Horse Cav unit @ 1928. I have to see if I can find it …

a) My grandfathers WW1 medals plus the good luck letter that went down the line from his general on 1st July 1916, before he went over the top at the Somme.

b) My father's WW2 medals.

c) A nice pic of my dad arriving in Iraq in 1941 wearing pressed shorts and a pith helmet!

DB

Got some coins that were hidden from Vikings.

Also have a repro artillery officer's sword. Yeah,it's a repro,but still pretty cool looking.

Family history:A pay chit for my Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great Grandfather from the American Revolution.

History in general: a piece of wood decking from the USS Missouri from the surrender of Japan after WWII.

A piece of shrapnel that missed my dad during WWII. He was taking cover under a tank at the time.

This is a piece of shrapnel from what appears to be a Russian 122mm artillery round.

My son brought it back from overseas last year. An IED went off about 75 yards in front of him and knocked him on his back. When he looked down at his chest this was sticking out of his body armor chest plate. The chest plate was cracked and ruined and he had to get a new one. Fortunately, he is 6'5" tall. I hate to think what would have happened if he was average height.

I sometimes call him "Flak Magnet". His other nickname is "Meat Shield" but that's another story.

Wolfhag

Dang Wolf. Crazy story.

I've got a couple. One is a 1943 IBM .30 carbine. And a Minie ball from Gettysburg. Or the Nazi flag liberated by my gasoline tanker truck driving Grandfather from WW2.

Borderguy,
The body armor the US is using is fantastic. There would be many more KIA if we had the old VN era flak jacket as I had. I've talked to a number of military personnel that felt the armor made them feel invincible. For modern man-man games giving them a positive morale modifier may not be a bad idea. I'm sure there are some vets on TMP that can testify to that.

In another incident, my son was the first one into a room (actually pushed by the team leader) that turned out to have bad guys in it despite two frags being thrown into the room. He exchanged fire from the other side of the room just 10-12 feet away. Fortunately, the tactics of going in as a close "stick" he had support behind him and the bad guys went down almost right away after initially spraying them with AK rounds.

After the engagement was over and he had interrogated some detainees, he sat down and felt short of breath and felt and wetness in his crotch area.

Thinking he pissed himself, he checked it out and his hand had blood on it. He couldn't see an entrance wound anywhere so he stripped off his body armor and found he had a sucking chest wound just under his right armpit, that explained the shortness of breath. He said it was probably from the first guy in the room.

He said the AK round struck the side edge of his SAPI plate and fragmented. Just a few millimeters to one side and he'd have taken the entire round through his chest cavity.

While he was waiting the be medivacked, he asked the team leader about using him as a meat shield by pushing him in first through doors and alleyways playing "whack a mole" as bad guys popped up shooting at them. The team lead (Force Recon Sgt) said since my son was the new guy and not part of his team (he was SigInt) and his job is to get "his guys" back alive my son was basically expendable. Semper Fi Mac. He did say the team leader was watching out for him and dropped a bad guy that almost fell on top of him that had snuck up on him.

In Germany, they cleaned out the wound, super glued him back together and sent him back to Camp Pendleton with his unit. You really need those side plates because he took shrapnel on another occasion through his right side that shredded part of his kidney and was pretty serious. A side plate would have stopped it. He said he still has some pieces embedded in his ribs. His story is not unusual.

I've got to get an M1 Carbine, my favorite WWII rifle. Right now I only have a Garand.

Wolfhag

An ECW cannon ball from a Culverin which my grandparents dug up in their front garden whilst installing a pond, along with a ball from a Demi-Culverin which was later stolen, both of which date back to the seige of Bolingbroke Castle 1643.This spot would be about 200 yards away from the castle walls. Having spoken with Sealed Knot members their common thought is they were left behind by the beseigers, although I've wondered whether that would be the case since powder and shotte wouldn't have been in such abundance that they could be profligate with its use? I veer towards the idea that these were fired from inside the castle and with it being October and the ground somewhat soft they buried themselves on impact especially as they would be fired from a higher trajectory up on the castle or over the walls, which is why they were discovered so far down in the ground.

Check out the souvenirs this guy brought back from overseas: YouTube link

Wolfhag

Very interesting story Wolf. I'm glad it ended well for your son. And not so well for the bad guys …

A track link from an Iraqi BMP from Desert Storm.

And I don't know if these count as military artifacts but I still think they're cool:

A chunk of the damaged wall of the Pentagon from 9/11.

A US flag I flew over COP Shurandam(Kandahar Province)on the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

A jar of Omaha beach sand from Normandy.