I wonder...On the M1911 Forum...

[John Sabato]

MikeP

Being retired Army myself, I know many peers who brought back things from RVN...

I would be very interested to know the method you used to bring back a .45 from there

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Not sure if I have told this story on the forum before, but an acquaintence of mine brought back two .45 Autos... he acquired them from a crate in a bunker that was abandoned in a hurry by NVA troops. Obviously they had been obtained (stolen) by the previous owners, and surely they had been written off as combat losses (At least I would think so).

To get them home he went down to the local Artillery unit and took 2 ea. 105mm howitzer empty casings... He had EOD mark them as DeMilled after drilling a hole in the side of them (where the lamp cord would eventually protrude) .... then he took them to a vietnamese machine shop and had them turned and polished into bright brass lamp bases... sort of trench art if you will.

He made no secret of the fact that he would be sending the lamps home as a Christmas gift to his wife.

Prior to the shipment however, he disassembled the pistols and put all the parts into the bottom of the lamp bases. Then he poured molten lead into the lamp casings so they would be bottom heavy and not so likely to get turned over... just enough lead to cover the parts...

Even x-rays wouldn't penetrate the lead weights in the lamps. Once he returned to the states and was discharged, he waited until his wife went out and disassembled the lamps. Placed each of them on a kitchen stove burner and let them sit on the heat until the lead was molten. Then he poured out the lead and retrieved the parts... probably not an easy process but it was successful....viola! Two .45 pistol war souveniers.

He even managed to put the lamps back together! It probably took a lot of polishing to get rid of the discoloration from melting the lead.

Never underestimate the ingenuity of a determined GI...

In case you are wondering, I am not the guy the story is about. While most of my peers were serving in Southeast Asia, the Army had me doing other things in East Africa!

I have lost track of the guy who told me the story and showed me the .45's. I haven't seen him in almost 25 years... they sure were nice looking lamps though... he wouldn't sell me the lamps OR the guns! Imagine that!