It was in the news this week about a son that gave his Dad an amazing gift. His 79 year old father would always talked about his M1 Garand. How he could hit a popup target at 500 yards with the iron sights, and how reliable it was during his service in the Korean War. He even remembered the serial number. His son decided to see if he could find anything out about the rifle. After talking to some dealers, he actually found the rifle and bought it for his father. They said that over 7 million M1 Garands were built during the Korean War, so this was quite a miracle.
that is an amazing story, but I should point out that the total production number included all the years of production, from the thirties until the fifties. The correct time frame would have been "from start to end" in the Garand's production run; not simply "during" the Korean war. That quibble aside, it is a wonderful tale.
Jeff brought this up in the Militaria forum. http://www.ww2f.com/militaria/26490-korean-war-garand-found.html#post320762
that number was my only problem-o., I still think as great as the story was, exaggerating the production number makes it less rather than more outstanding. The "unlikely-hood" of finding that rifle, and buying it for his Dad is remarkable enough. It reminded me of that program on "Tank Overhaul" when those guys in UT., went to rebuild an old "Hellcat", and it tured out the numbers matched to a guy who was living in the area. Lord oh dear that was a great show. They paid to bring him down to the "unveiling" of a restored "Hellcat", and talk about his time as the "commander" of a Hellcat. He waxed nostalgic about how much he loved and hated them as vehicles. Then they showed him his restored vehicle, with all matching numbers, and the old fart literaly "jumped" into the open turret (showing the rookies how to use the tracks and such for hand/foot holds) and rode around shouting "faster, FASTER"; he was once again the young warrior who had used the "Hellcat" in dire times all over again. It was a wonderful show.
I have a similar story from a family visit to Lackland Air Force base many years ago. While on the base we stopped to look at a F-94 on display, a type which my dad had been an armorer for during the Korean War, with my dad then remarking ‘ I think that’s my plane’ and ‘I think that’s the right number’. After we returned home he dug out his photos - the numbers matched. http://cdn-www.airliners.net/photo/USA---Air/Lockheed-YF-94A-Starfire/1345034&tbl=MILITARY&photo_nr=3&sok=WHERE__%28aircraft_generic_%3D_%27Lockheed_F-94_Starfire%27%29_&sort=_order_by_photo_id_DESC_&prev_id=1348688&next_id=1313812 I don’t think they’ll let me bring it home, though.
