Question about a movie

[ilovestrategy]

I saw Clint Eastwood's movie, Gran Torino last night on HBO. There was a scene where he told his friend that he killed someone in the Korean War with the same M-1 Garand that was in his house.


Was it possible for someone in the Korean War to bring their rifle home by some means? Only way I can figure is to mail it and tell his CO it got lost in combat.

[JudgeDredd]

Of course it's possible. All sorts of weapons (and other contraband) gets brought back from the front line. And in the heat of battle, I think it could be very easy to "misplace" your weapon.

[JudgeDredd]

Excellent film btw.

[goodwoodrw]

Boy, if an Australian lost his rifle in South Asia, the only thing that would be mail home, would have been his very sore backside [:D]

[decaro]

ORIGINAL: ilovestrategy

... Was it possible for someone in the Korean War to bring their rifle home by some means? Only way I can figure is to mail it and tell his CO it got lost in combat.

Was it going to go by APO?

MASH once had a joke abt mailing home Army equipment, i.e., Radar was mailing home a jeep part-by-part.

[ilovestrategy]

ORIGINAL: Joe D.

ORIGINAL: ilovestrategy

... Was it possible for someone in the Korean War to bring their rifle home by some means? Only way I can figure is to mail it and tell his CO it got lost in combat.

Was it going to go by APO?

MASH once had a joke abt mailing home Army equipment, i.e., Radar was mailing home a jeep part-by-part.

I have that DVD! I laughed when Hawkeye and Trapper brought one of Radar's boxes to the X Ray machine and saw a steering wheel inside! [:D]

[Knavery]

Yeah this movie was excellent. It's supposed to take place in my neck of the woods, but was shot in Michigan instead. There are a lot of Hmong that've settled here since the Vietnam war, but I've never run across what you would consider gun carrying gang bangers.

[GoodGuy]

ORIGINAL: ilovestrategy

Was it possible for someone in the Korean War to bring their rifle home by some means? Only way I can figure is to mail it and tell his CO it got lost in combat.

I don't know how they did it, but it happened.
A friend, who is a Vietnam vet (Marine), still had his M-16 including the bajonet, until a while ago.

[Southernland]

When I was younger I used to mow lawns for an old guy who fought with the NZ 2nd Div in Italy.  His whole house was roofed in terra cotta tiles and had 20 cm square terracotta plaques detailing Roman history inlaid into the walls.  He'd found a village producing these on an island off the italian coast, bought a house lot and shipped them home during wartime.  When his Captain asked what he was up to he replied he knew the captain was shipping a jeep back to the family farm so the matter was ignored by both parties. 

[Doggie]

ORIGINAL: ilovestrategy

Was it possible for someone in the Korean War to bring their rifle home by some means? Only way I can figure is to mail it and tell his CO it got lost in combat.

Yes. A lot of weapons are "lost" in combat zones. It was traditional for aviators to "lose" their sidearm if they were rescued after bailing out.

During the Korean war era, there was no customs to pass through when returning to the United States. The military controls access to it's aircraft and airbases and personell don't pass through local foreign customs. Things may have changed, but in the 1970s there were no German authorities of any sort at Rhein Main Airbase.

Legal weapons could be shipped home as war souveniers, including U.S. weapons that were recaptured from the enemy. Once an M-1 was written off, it stayed written off. That is no more. Modern soldiers are no longer allowed to keep any sort of souveniers from foreign wars, as it might offend the people who are trying to kill them.

[decaro]

ORIGINAL: Doggie

... Legal weapons could be shipped home as war souveniers, including U.S. weapons that were recaptured from the enemy. Once an M-1 was written off, it stayed written off. That is no more. Modern soldiers are no longer allowed to keep any sort of souveniers from foreign wars, as it might offend the people who are trying to kill them.

After Desert Storm, there was so much unexploded ordnance abt that our superiors were concerned soldiers would attempt to bring them home as souveniers, and sure enough, some did, sometimes w/disasterous results. Hence, UCMJ was threatened against any soldier bringing back anything more lethal than a bayonet.

Otherwise, the battlefield was a treasure-trove of Vietnam vintage Soviet-made weapons; esp. popular was the Makarov pistol: I found an entire crate of brand new Markarov's on the "Highway to Hell" that made it's way back to the 2nd AD museum. In fact, many heavy enemy vehicles were tagged by different units for shipment home to their respective post museums: in fact, our curator had herself a field day.

[GoodGuy]

ORIGINAL: Doggie

Things may have changed, but in the 1970s there were no German authorities of any sort at Rhein Main Airbase.

Actually, US bases in Germany were considered to be "US soil" (technically and legally) until Germany regained full sovereignty in 1990. The London and Paris agreements (1954) restored vital parts of Germany's souvereignty, but also created exceptions favoring the occuyping forces, where one was (I'd guess) that US forces either did not have to put up customs authorities or it was not deemed necessary to have them IF GIs transfered from a remote base back to a US base (via Germany).
Also, the Rhein Main Airbase shares the runways with Frankfurt International Airport (FRA), but the US airbase is located south of FRA and seperated from it (restricted area).

And in case GIs would have left the airbase (and trespassed German territory) with their souvenirs, they may have violated US military codes, but I think that -until 1990- the US military police was the only authority GIs had to fear, IIRC, as a) the German authority/sovereignty ended at the gates of the US base and b) even US soldiers on German soil did not fall under German jurisdiction.

[Doggie]

A lot of things have changed. Americans used to be able to keep privately owned firearms in off post quarters. I heard Clinton put an end to that.

[grahdenn66]

Ye people could smuggle stuff out and did all the time.  Organisation of inventory was very difficult back then.

Even now you get the occassional story of an ex soldier using a military firearm to do something illegal.  A lot more difficult these days but still doable.

[decaro]

ORIGINAL: grahdenn66

... Even now you get the occassional story of an ex soldier using a military firearm to do something illegal. 

Not long ago on Fort Hood, an active duty officer used two civilian firearms to commit a series of "crimes".

[Weavos]

ORIGINAL: Knavery

Yeah this movie was excellent. It's supposed to take place in my neck of the woods, but was shot in Michigan instead. There are a lot of Hmong that've settled here since the Vietnam war, but I've never run across what you would consider gun carrying gang bangers.

Yea, being from the area where it supposedly takes place now:

1) They said one of the challenges is the scene where the son asks Clint for the Lions tickets. Obviously, the original script was more plausible since they were hard-to-get Vikings tickets. You can't give away Lions tickets these days!

2) Detroit has almost every ethnic groups possible in the past 200+ years since it's inception. However, there is no Hmong area in any part of the city.

It was only moved to take advantage of the huge tax breaks that Michigan currently offers the film and television industry.

[Doggie]

Gangstera are not using automatic weapons. Contrary to what you see in the movies, automatic weapons and "assault rifles" are rarely used by criminals.