M1A1 case's

[Bill Ricca]

I will explain it so it is easier to understand.

Company A gets a contract which requires 50,000 sets of fasteners. Rau Fastener bids the lowest price (Klikit) and delivers the fasteners. During production the company gets another contract for a different item and it requires 10,000 fasteners. Scoville is the lowest bidder this time and 10,000 Star Pull arrive. During production some get mixed up and production on some of the first items start showing up with Scoville marked fasteners.

Another factor was that fasteners were available as sets, and as individual parts. Sometimes the parts got mixed up and a producer could have one company's marking on the socket and a different company's marking on the back plate.

These rules did not apply to Ordnance items because of the strict requirements of the drawings, but there were very rare production errors which resulted in exceptions.