One from my travels...   SAMTEC Space and Missile Test Center Canton Island

One for the Zoomies... (from ebay)   623rd Aircraft Control & Warning Squadron, USAF   Detachment 4, 623rd AC&W Sq - Okino-Erabu Air Station, Japan  

To add to The Old Guard theme here's a giant painted version of the 3rd Infantry Distinctive Unit Insignia. It was from the 1970-80s and the 1st Battalion, 3rd Infantry (TOG) at Ft. Myer, VA. The "cockade" is detached from the tricorne hat, but the discolored area shows where it has been affixed.

Americal 11th Infantry Brigade

In Germany in the early Sixties we spent quite a bit of time in the field on alerts. A call would come in to HQ announcing an alert and once authenticated we would all draw our ammo, gas masks, and M-14s from the arms room and hook up trailers, generators, start all vehicles and head out of our kaserne in Babenhausen to our assembly area in the woods. It was usually in a little area we called Wasserlos where we waited for orders to proceed to another specified location. There, we would set up our equipment and run through a mock firing of a missile.   We had a basic load of Corporal Type IIB guided missiles and our fire mission was primarily to defend the Fulda Gap- the most probable invasion route of Soviet and Warsaw Pact armor into Western Europe. Once a missile had been "launched" and guided to its target and a final range correction and warhead arming signal was transmitted, we scrambled to a secondary site and repeated this drill. After we had fired all of our missiles, we were not needed as electronics technicians so we simply became riflemen. With our possible re-designation as riflemen, I decided I might be somewhat better armed than carrying only an M-14, so I also carried a Walther PP pistol in a shoulder holster and strapped my Randall Model 1 fighting knife to the outside of my right thigh. This was a "gray area" as far as being authorized as far as I knew but I had no problem until the time we returned to our kaserne from an alert and I was walking back to our unit.   I was accosted by a very short MP who demanded to see my knife. After inspecting it, he announced "This blade is over 4 inches long so it is illegal!" Actually, it was an 8 inch blade, so sharp that I could shave with it. He looked up at me and smugly said that I was under arrest and I would be taken to the kaserne MP station. I offered no objection and we walked over to the MP station up to a desk with an older MP senior NCO. The older MP and I stood in front of the desk while the little MP droned on and on about all my violations and his own vigilance for the law, etc. One would think he had captured John Dillinger the way he went on and on. Finally the old Sergeant looked at me, squinted his eyes and hissed "Get outta here!" The little MP was crestfallen; his career-making arrestee walked out and back to his unit, still carrying his M-14 rifle, his Walther PP, his Randall fighting knife, and a couple of grenades.

Old Guard A Company 4th Battalion 3rd Infantry Regiment 11th Infantry Brigade (Light), 23rd Infantry (Americal) Division 1969    

USMC Landing Support Battalion markings, aka shore party. Used from WW2 until present day. 

Thanks, our missile shop had been a WWI German Cavalry horse barn. Germany was good duty in those days.

That Krag bowie is a rare one! Nice job