Gun Show Rare Find 8/13/23

4205raymond · August 14, 2023 21:05

Short story ahead. Back in 1961 at Ft. Jackson, SC we would double time intermittently from the rifle range back to the company area with M1's held high.. Red Alert for Cuban Missile Crisis. As I recall maximum score was 250 and some where around 240 you broke into Expert Class. ( marksman, sharpshooter, expert).

In the old days they had a coal cart that was used to carry coal for stove in the barracks to keep the troops warm. A tongue on each side to pull it with. Well, each day the two top guns in the Company got to ride back to the Co. area in that cart. What a bunch of hooting and hollering when you got in and sat down. My Army buddy John would usually outshoot me but once maybe twice, I got the honor. It was like you were God sitting up there so smug for the free ride back to the Co.

John, from Piedmont, SC and I were the last two in our Company to get orders. Half to Germany and half to Korea. By the grace of God the missiles got turned around in Cuba. To this day John and I don't know why they sent just the two of us to West Point. I shot on 1st Bn.!st Inf. team at the Point and at Ft Dix.

Over the years somehow my Expert Rifle Badge got lost, I guess with the many moves since Diane and I were married. I had a chance to buy one at a Middletown Gun Show about 20 years ago for a ridiculous price and it was not sterling silver like my original so I passed.

Yesterday I was at the last gun show table thinking not one thing to take home to remember this trip by. I looked down and there laid my Expert Badge with Rifle Bar in this fella's case. I turned it over and sure enough it was sterling silver. I told the fella my story about losing mine and for some reason he gave it to me for $15 instead of his $20 asking price.

Told my friends/family over the years about badge. I suppose some thought "yea sure." Last night went thru a ton of pictures and found this one lone picture taken not long after arriving at West Point. It is proof positive that i don't make this stuff up and I have the badge now to go with the picture. I qualified as a "Expert Rifleman".

The badge to the right of Expert badge is for driving a zillion???? miles w/o a accident. Shortly after i was picked to drive "Westy." I was 642.10 Heavy Vehicle Operator. Did any of you folks ever see one like that? I am scared to death that the Expert badge is some kind of Omen. My Army buddy John's heart and lungs are shot. His kidneys are failing but he is doing somewhat better when I talked to him four days ago. Thank you all for your prayers for him. He is a hard nosed skydiver and he promised me he would not give up.

------------------------------Ray

Gun Show Rare Find 8/13/23

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