. Hi mikie,   Thank you, an eggcellent post !!!!!!   Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, April 20 2O25.   ….

A month or so ago I picked up with a buy it now option on eBay an advertised unidentified paratrooper wing that the seller thought might be fake however I felt it was a WW2 era Chinese Commando paratrooper wing so I wasted no time in purchasing it.   If you go to Les Hughes website It is pictured amongst the various iterations of metal WW2 era Chinese Commando paratrooper wings (link attached).  I'm assuming these were made somewhere in the CBI Theater and it is also hallmarked 925 like the above pilot wing.  I know that OSS Detachment 101 wore their version of the CIB that they referred to as the Burma Bar which was made in India and stamped STERLING.  The Chinese Commandos were I believe formed and trained by OSS Detachment 202 in China so is it possible that a jeweler in the CBI Theater used the European 925 (9.25 percent sterling silver) mark?       http://www.insigne.org/OSS-commandos.htm    

After all this time and still no one figured it out,  the most obvious IMPOSSIBILITY  about Captain DAVID CHRISTIAN..... there is no way in hell to be a member of the Co A 3rd SPG Airborne then August 1968 he is in  F Co  52 Infantry  LRP, then in September 1968 he is both HHC then Combat Support Co B 1st Infantry Bat 26th Infantry Regiment 1st Infantry Division, now he claims  I Co.  75th Rangers LRRP ( At the same time in October 1968 he awarded Black Stallion Trooper with the 11th Armored Cavalry  all at the same time or even within a 6 month period.      

It always amazes me how small some of these Nazi helmets are.  

Thank for the information.  I was pretty happy to come across it.

Great story Bill, thanks for sharing!

Peterson is now a very dated source and is unlikely to have the information you want. It was one of the first to tackle the field and so is still quoted for that reason but it really shows its age for modern study. I bought the Kindle version just to have it, but rarely consult it since so much more detailed and accurate information is available. He was a pioneer for sure, and not just for swords.

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Here are two period photos of the M2s repaired with mess kit loops in use during a July 1943 training jump. The large rivet used to fix the mess kit loops is visible in the first photo. In the second photo the mess kit loops are visible and hang low below the helmet’s rim. 

I truly enjoy finding numbered Army Campaign Medals that are unresearched because every one of them has a story. Yesterday I was at TMCA Show in Franklin TN and acquired this Mexican Border Service Medal 17553. After I got home the recipient was easy to research. Lt. later LTC Ora M. Baldinger graduated from VMI in 1910 and and was an early aviator in the US Army Signal Corps. As a boy he worked for the local Marion Ohio Newspaper and his boss was Florence Harding. When Warren G. Harding became President he became a Presidential Aide and this medal was being worn by him on his dress uniform. Baldinger retired in 1938 but was recalled for WWII and retired again in 1946. He died in 1977 at age 94.