new 1903 owner...

[Rick the Librarian]

I believe what they mean about the "bringback" is that it would be very rare for a US serviceman to bring back a US owned rifle. They were US government property, not the soldiers so it would have been "theft" for him to have brought it back. Bringbacks are foreign captured weapons that soldiers were permitted to bring back.

A more plausible explanation would be that he used such a rifle during the war and once they were placed on the surplus market after the war was over, he bought one to own. They were something like $7 back then.

I agree -- it is very easy to move from "This is LIKE the rifle I carried in WWII" to "The IS the rifle I carried in WWII".

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[hershey]

as a product of the vietnam era, i certainly can't comment on stuff that happened much earlier. i do know when a pilot retires from the us navy, he has the option of keeping his gear. (at least it worked that way in the early 90's). anything is possible and "War prize" weapons are definately true, it is a possibility it was the actual rifle, but most likely it is as you guys state. irregardless, it is mine now and will probably be in my care till the day i pass my guns on to the next generation, unless of course duty calls before that day.

[Col. Colt]

I have personal knowledge of four "bring back" US weapons. My Dad brought back an M1 when mustered out of the 101st Airborne - not his issue gun, of course, one next to it in the rack - and my next door neighbors dad had a real, fully functional BAR behind his bedroom door - he had been a BAR gunner in Korea.

And my ex-wife's Dad - two Bronze Stars and promotion to Warrant Officer for his service as an MP in Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge, brought back his M1911A1, holster and belt. He stayed on in the Army Reserve and ran a Reserve Camp in his state for a number of years after the war. If you watch the movie "Battle of the Bulge", and see the scene where the MP points out that the "American" Convoy of jeeps and trucks filled with "American" soldiers are actually Germans in US Uniforms - that man was my father in law. He went on to a distinguished and honorable career on a Railroad, and did charitable and veteran work his whole life, until he passed two months ago.

A one star General in my state passed away unexpectedly, and his widow found his Vietnam issued M14, complete with full auto switch, in his safe. This is not a new or uncommon phenomenon.

None of these men, nor did thousands of others, regard it as "theft", exactly. They felt the weapons were "earned" through going through the dangers of military service and personal sacrifice. In virtually all wars until the advent of standard issue full auto firearms and computerized tracking (and airport and bag screening!) soldiers bonded with the weapons they used and some brought them home. Particularly back when a man would be issued his personal weapons and they stayed with him for his entire military career. Large numbers of M1911 pistols went "missing" at the end of WWI, and are often encountered today, for one earlier example. And war "trophies", captured from the enemy, or even our own weapons, dropped on the battlefield by a wounded or killed GI, have always been available and avoid even the modern computerized tracking of them, eventually just being listed as "combat losses".

Times and attitudes were very different then. It is difficult for a modern person, regimented and used to being electronically tracked and undergoing video surveillence as a regular part of every day, to understand how people felt, operated and thought back then. The legalistic will always see it in black and white - the GI who brought back a weapon was a "thief". The GI was used to having to circumvent rules just to get through it all - and, as a warrior who had seen the horrors of war, was reluctant to relinquish them after his innocence was gone, or just as a rememberance of a very intense time in his life.

Do follow up on the rifles history - and Document it!! We are quickly running out of Greatest Generation Vets of WWII and Korea. Get it on paper! CC

[Rick the Librarian]

I don't doubt that "bringbacks" occurred - a lot depended on the rank and what was being "broiught back" - a pistol was a lot easier to smuggle than a rifle. Officers obviously might have had more leeway. However, it didn't take place in the vast numbers you would think, if you scan gun ads today.