Atticus Finch
Call Me a Cab
- Messages
- 2,718
- Location
- Coastal North Carolina, USA
We still have a couple of surplus stores in this area. Saigon Sam's down in Jacksonville is still in operation, last I looked. But there just doesn't seem to be any "surplus" in our surplus stores, anymore. Most of what they sell nowadays seems to be new, knock-off military gear...you know, Rothco, or whatever.
When I was a kid, I used to go to the Army-Navy stores down in Wilmington. The Korean Conflict was over and unpleasantness in Vietnam was still a year or two away. Those stores sold tons of real, WWI and WWII era military gear. It was great. You could buy an issued M-1 helmet and liner for less than five bucks. The real military gear they sold was cheaper than the toy military gear being sold in our local dime stores.
Here's an M-1 I bought in one of those stores. I added the butterbar on the front when I was about ten...maybe to make it look like Lt. Hanley's helmet.
AF
When I was a kid, I used to go to the Army-Navy stores down in Wilmington. The Korean Conflict was over and unpleasantness in Vietnam was still a year or two away. Those stores sold tons of real, WWI and WWII era military gear. It was great. You could buy an issued M-1 helmet and liner for less than five bucks. The real military gear they sold was cheaper than the toy military gear being sold in our local dime stores.
Here's an M-1 I bought in one of those stores. I added the butterbar on the front when I was about ten...maybe to make it look like Lt. Hanley's helmet.
AF