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PS if you look close at the AAF holster in the top of my cabinet - my fathers , you will see the patch of the 20th , he gave it to me when i was quite small - ive kept it close
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...ifles012-1.jpg
i dont have his service pistol[a colt originaly till stolen - then an ithica] , it was turned in at the time , but i have the 1918 colt 1911 he bought in the early fiftys from a close friend of his fathers who brought it home , the other holster was this mans from 1918 ,
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...ifles015-1.jpg
and i have a nice ithica 1911A1 that is what he ended up with on saipan - he had looked for one , as had i , but i didnt find it till after he was gone ,
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...ifles155-1.jpg
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A square 10, Please don't confuse the name Marilyn Gay, with Enola gay, The Enola Gay flew out of Tinian, The Marilyn Gay [Z Square 58] was assigned to Sipan with the 883rd Bomb Squadron The 'Square" indicates the 73rd Bomb Wing, Saipan was exclusively 73rd Bomb Wing territory.
Any way, Thats a great story about Your dad and his plane. Just saw your pic's of some of your collection, WOW!
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https://www.milsurps.com/images/imported/deleted.gif Here,s a part of the ole bird i kept as a suv. this panel was replaced due to battle damage [not the rivet holes Ha.] it was cut from a larger panel, i put the award's on it that the Marilyn Gay had on is nose art.
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i apoligize , i see what your saying , thats a very nice momento , 27 bombing missions , 3 kills and 5 POW supply drops [i believe]
i did check before i spoke , in both my 20th AAF albumn and my 73rd wing albumn and didnt find her there amoung the nose art ,
you are correct in that Z square 58 would be 500th and that the 497th[dads bomb group] 498th , 499th and 500th were all at isley feild on saipan , i didnt really mean to challenge but rather i thought there was a chance for confusion ,
i knew the 313th and 58th were on tinian ,
i have another source for looking them up , ill check it out to see what i can learn , maybe i can find out more about Z square 58 ,
i realise we hi-jacked this thread big time but , oh well
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...SunsetA5-1.jpg
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https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...yonet001-1.jpg Just to show it's not a 100% hi-jack, here's a pic. of my carbine M4 bayonet, I know it's not as old as most here, But a WW-2 Vet [Maybe] But Korea, Vietnam for sure.:beerchug:
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thats an excelent M4 , far better condition than the one in my collection ,