From a soldier 'somewhere at the front' - Afghanistan

I've been exchanging email with a US soldier fighting in Afghanistan and I thought this paragraph might be of interest, reprinted here with his permission.
I mentioned that I'd received a lovely 1903 bayonet from Afghan a couple of years ago ...

'I read with interest your comments about the 1903 bayonet in good condition. I am envious! If I found something like that, my supervisors would be quite nasty with me. Speaking of finding Enfields, I am yet to come across British or Ishapore- made rifle in our travels. We are in Northern Afghanistan, not sure if that really makes a difference? I told you about the American Enfield, which was a surprise. But I have to say this, when I was in Iraq about 30 km south of Baghdad on one of the weapons cache sweeps, my Soldiers brought in the treasure trove of all kinds of weapons. In this bounty, there were 8-10 British Enfield No. 1, Mk III rifles dating pre-WWI, WWI, and 1920s'. !!! Most were in issued condition. A couple had the brass tacks hammered into them. Oddly, no No.4's! As I was looking at these, I really wanted to take at least one home and rebuild it but they were hung on walls in the command building. I had to correct just about all the labels they put with them, which was a pain- heart pain that is! A few No.4's did show up in other sweeps and guys took parts off of them as key ornaments. But I digress. As a sidenote, we found a lot of Nazi Kar98k rifles with solid walnut stocks in beautiful condition. Again, I wanted the stocks to take home and refinish. Again, NO GO! They either burned them or dumped them in the rivers, but like anything else in that part of the world, the good ones are probably in some select officers' closets. Too bad.'


How sad, to be a gun enthusiast, in the center of one of the worlds great war dramas, and be stymied at every turn ...:nono: