Hello Scott,

I was never one to pick up souvenirs, men would get hurt or killed taking items off booby trapped dead japs. There was some good trading a fellow could do in the rear with the Navy boys for helmets,swords and such. For the most part, we carried all we could with our own gear, if a fellow wanted to drag something along on the way back, I had no problem with that.

My youngest brother Bill wrote me few times about sending him something, I ended up taking a map case off a jap officer for any Intelligence it may have contained, that was attached to a pistol belt. So, we filled a box with the jap pistol, a few defused jap grenades, a flag the officer carried, a few jap dog tags, some jap rifle and pistol ammunition, and a bayonet, I figured the package would be stopped be for it got to him, I addressed it to my Father and they got it just as we mailed it. Later on I sent him a jap sword, a 7.7 rifle, and a bottle of sake labeled for my Dad, that one showed up without the bottle.

I wore my 45 home, I'd been sleeping with the thing for a long while, I tried to turn it in after the war a couple of times due to the fact the item being marked "U.S. property" along with my trench knife, pistol belt, and shoulder holster. I was told to just loose them, or get rid of them by a supply officer, too much paper work he said.

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All the Best
Jack