new find: Vietnam War gear

[burb1989]

Update: Hey everyone. After extensive digging in my attic and at my grandmother's house I believe I have found everything my dad had brought home from Vietnam:
- His 1945 e-tool with a 1944 cover
- his ka-bar knife
- his duffle bag
- two field medical kits
- some Vietnamese money
- around twelve different surrender leaflets in various amounts
- his cereal bowl
- a sword, two wooden wall hangings, and two paintings from Thailand
- an m14 mag pouch
- his belt ( ww2 vintage, just found this one along with his last piece of gear)
-his original backpack (ww2 vintage)
- his m14 with a bayonet (don't worry it was modified to fire as a semi auto only)
- tons of photos and military newspapers
-a Chinese SKS which he captured during a raid on a cache
-and finally a Vietcong flag that according to my dad he had found during Operation Arizona
I believe that's everything but if I find more I'll add them to the list

[browningautorifle]

his m14 with a bayonet (don't worry it was modified to fire as a semi auto only)

That still makes it an M14...stand by for the rest of the story.

[HOOKED ON HISTORY]

Update: Hey everyone. After extensive digging in my attic and at my grandmother's house I believe I have found everything my dad had brought home from Vietnam:

Lucky fellow.
Pictures to follow?

[Bill Hollinger]

Burb, what BAR (Jim) is saying is that just because it was "modified" to shoot semi-auto only does not change the fact that it is an M14 and it was a select fire rifle and therefore illegal. This if we are getting the story correct anyway. The rule is once a machine gun, always a machine gun.

[browningautorifle]

I just wanted to wait for a US citizen to pass that on. It's almost the same here in Canada, if it's still operating, we classified them as converted auto and the have to be papered. Doesn't matter even if you cut the loop off the right side so it can't take the selector. Just the Norinco types don't need paper at this time.

Unfortunately, Burb hasn't been back since posting that little gem...

[burb1989]

Sorry for the delay. I just got back on. Anyway I talked to my dad and turns out the m14 doesn't fire anymore. My dad did something to it shooting it back in the early 80s with his friends and thus the systems that operate the gun aren't functioning anymore. My guess is when he was shooting it something inside of the gas system malfunctioned to the point that unless it was extensively repaired it wouldn't fire again. I guess that classifies it as a demilled rife. Not to worry though he bought an M1A1 from a company called Fulton Armory that uses GI parts to make newly semi auto versions of the M14. So now I have not only my dad's original rifle but a shootable one as well. Thank you all for the concerns and warnings.

[burb1989]

I almost forgot. Hooked here is most of big stuff in pictures. Sadly my dad got rid of the SKS sometime in the late 90s in a trade for a 9mm springfield pistol and now I have the full scoop on the M14. Also I keep the paper items in special protective paper to help preserve them as most of them weren't in the best of shape to begin with.

[Bill Hollinger]

Sad to say however that does not constitute a demilled weapon. On that M14 only torch cutting the receiver in three different place does.

Lots of cool stuff there. Thanks for sharing with us and welcome back.

[HOOKED ON HISTORY]

Great time capsule there. I (as you obviously do) cherish the few small momentos I posess from my fathers WWII service, his fathers WWI service,hid brothers WWII service and my other grandfathers WWII service. They are my most prized possetions.

[burb1989]

Bill does that still mean it is illegal for him to have it? He never gave me full ownership of that one rifle not only because it doesn't fire but he wasn't sure if I could get in trouble for owning it without a class 3 license (which he has but I don't).
Hooked that is so cool you have so much war history. I cherish every piece of my family's war history from one of my confederate ancestor's cavalry sabers to my great grandfather's trapdoor rifle and gras bayonet from his time in WW1 to my great uncle's 1903A4 that he used in the Aleutians during WW2 and on and on. I cherish every piece I get from the family and it's like I'm the family historian and treasurer of war antiques.