What's your favorite item in your collection?

[C5M1]

My favorite is the most useful. Spend a lot of time out doors and can't imagine doing it without a canteen cup. Making coffee to purifying water over a campfire, would be lost without it.



regards. dennis

[RobUSMC]

My Great Grandfathers Canadian Expeditionary Force lapel pin from his service in WWI. Followed by the Sgt. Chevrons that were used when I was promoted to that rank in 1988. One of the backing pins was lodged into my collar bone and had to be removed at the BAS afterword. However the rank did "stick" as was intended.......those wonderful days in the Old Corps

Semper Fi, Rob

[Guamsst]

I don't even know if I could answer that if I had a year to think about it. I have so many Jap items I am proud of.

Field accordian
Type 30 NLF bayonet with cloth cover and blood spatter
Bamboo wrapped Baton ( I refer to it as the POW beating stick)

Oddly enough my favorite is probably the....... OH MY GOD!!! MY HUNGARIAN GIRLFRIEND JUST TOOK HER FIRST DOSE OF "GREEN DEATH" FLAVOR NYQUIL. Wish I had video of her reaction. She said it tastes like Christmas trees....LOL

Anyways, it is a silk waist wrap for a kimono and it has hand sewn golden kites (phoenixs) and each feather has hand sewn veins on it. They feel like real feathers. Not a battle item but I still really enjoy the quality and work involved.

[SOF 18C]

LOL Guamsst: I've never licked a christmas tree but it's a good description. I guess mine would be the Confederate belt buckle I found at Mine Creek Battlefield recently. I was looking for deer tracks. Pretty cool find.

[Liam]

Not worth a toot to anyone else, but I have a favorite .50 cal ammo can. I've held onto it for 26 years and it reminds me of my service. Still has the PRAVDA sticker I bought in Heidelberg. Used to keep it in my M151 jeep (before our unit switched to HMMVs) and use it to fill the void between the front two seats. That way I could recline and sleep in the vehicle where it was warm. It was never on the load out list, but no one ever questioned it. Looked military enough I guess. Here's a facsimile (the original resides at home):

[Embalmer]

grandfathers k98 bayonet he picked up off the battlefield after battle of the bulge and brought home.

[Doug Douglass]

One item? My mint 1905 SA bright blade bayonet dated 1906 serial number 4139 in a krag hanger 1907 RIA scabbard

[Michaelp]

Grandfather's hospital corp Bolo knife he used in WW1.
Plus a lighter made by other grandfather using an aircraft wing wire turnbuckle and German button.
Also father's 506th PIR items from WW2.

[macPA]

Mine is a staff sword from the Span-AM period. It has been in my family for years and came to me as the keeper of the archives,.
What makes it interesting is the photograph if its owner, my great grandfather's brother in law in uniform.
The other is my Dad's filed manual from WW2, not only does it talk about the M1 but also how to saddle your horse
and put a gas mask on it.

[Hal O'Peridol]

My favorite is my M1009 CUCV, because I use it every day. A blast to drive.

[Liam]

Hal - I wish this forum had a "Like" button. Do remember to wait for the warm-up light before starting!

[Hal O'Peridol]

Hal - I wish this forum had a "Like" button. Do remember to wait for the warm-up light before starting!

Oh yes, the wait light!

Drove any a CUCV while on active duty back in the day. Just had to have one to pull the 1944 GPW Jeep to shows.

[ncblksmth1]

At a recent gunshow I picked up a "M8" army knife. 75.00 bought a mint condition guard marked Case M3 knife with a near mint M8 scabbard. I think thats my coolest.

[Sarge]

Hard to say a single non firearm item is my favorite so I'll list 3 or 4?
My mint 1944 SS dot pattern camo uniform from a vet in 1961 (I also have the matching pants). My Mint water pattern Fallschirmjäger jump smock from a gun show in about 1965. My Knights Cross u. German crosses. My SS typewriters - all have the SS rune key.
Sarge
Dot jacket..jpgmovie displ - 2..jpgRK u DK..JPG3 SS typ open..JPG

[Art]

When the Soviet Empire collapsed and they were selling off everything in sight there was an outfit called "Sovietski Collection" that marketed the cooler stuff. My favorite, and I have some very cool stuff, is the Spetnatz survival tool I bought from them. This has to be the most overengineered cutting tool ever made. It is a short very thick bladed combination machete, ice axe, intrenching tool, saw and battle axe and those are just the major functions. It also incorporates a navagation quadrant, parachute riser cutter leather punch/needle and a butt container with matches fish hooks etc. It cost me $65.00 and was one of the more expensive items in their catalog. It came in the typical cheap commie pasteboard stapled box with the instructions (in Russian of course) and stays in the back of my car as an emergency tool.

I gave one to friend who uses it as sort of a multi tool in his woodshead to do things like knock off the rotten spots and strip bark. He told me it's almost impossible to dull the thing.

I know the Commies only were supposed to have issued these little gems to special forces troops and pilots but the cost of manufacture of these tools had to be very high. No wonder they went broke.