The military school that my father and I attended, Western Military Academy, was issued M1903-A3s for the JROTC cadets as early as the winter of 1944 (my dad graduated in 1944 and you can see the 'A3s in the photos in his yearbook). The 1903s previously issued to WMA were withdrawn in 1941-42. There must have been plenty of 'A3s available if there were sufficient numbers for JROTC units during the middle of WWII ( However, WMA had a pretty good armory during the war. The pictures in Dad's yearbook show a 37MM AT gun, BARs and a M1917 MG. Dad told me that he learned enough about the M1917 MG at WMA to be assigned to a machinegun section when he was a Marine replacement on Okinawa in May 1945). When I was at WMA we had M1s from 1968-70 and received M-14s in 1971. I can't get very excited about 'A3s - I see at least one new or near new example in nearly every Rock Island Auction Co. auction.
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