Thank you all for the assistance and information about registration on the US Militaria Forums, especially browningautoriflefor contacting a Forum mod on my behalf. While I can understand the desire to qualify new Forum registrants, any process that requires MONTHS to complete is completely absurd.
Even more frustrating is my experience, where all email to the Forum Admin is being returned as "Undeliverable - Mailbox Full" and there is no other way provided to contact an Admin or a Mod unless you are signed into the Forum as a full member. Catch-22
BTW, I received the original registration acknowledgement email within a few moments, so the vBulletin system has already done its part; the rest of the process is evidently in the hands of a human being (or in my case, already in the email bit bucket).