Buddy of mine was in an artillary unit in WWII.  By the time the party was over, he had a couple battlefield pick-up M1 Carbines, Garands, and .45's he was looking to bring home.  When they got pulled off the line, they got a big speech from a sergeant about how they'd be spending time in prison for any bringbacks, he really put the fear of God into them and caused a lot of them, including my buddy, to put their stuff in the amnesty barrel.  

They got the same speech when they got back to Britain, and then again in New Jersey when they got home.  After those speeches, though, they were also told that there was going to be an "inspection", and if they had any souveniers they should get them out of sight.  The inspection consisted of an officer walking down the middle of the barracks tent, looking straight ahead.  If he and his friends hadn't fallen for the initial fear-of-God speech on the line, they could've brought all their toys home.  

Quoted: Buddy of mine was in an artillary unit in WWII.  By the time the party was over, he had a couple battlefield pick-up M1 Carbines, Garands, and .45's he was looking to bring home.  When they got pulled off the line, they got a big speech from a sergeant about how they'd be spending time in prison for any bringbacks, he really put the fear of God into them and caused a lot of them, including my buddy, to put their stuff in the amnesty barrel.   They got the same speech when they got back to Britain, and then again in New Jersey when they got home.  After those speeches, though, they were also told that there was going to be an "inspection", and if they had any souveniers they should get them out of sight.  The inspection consisted of an officer walking down the middle of the barracks tent, looking straight ahead.  If he and his friends hadn't fallen for the initial fear-of-God speech on the line, they could've brought all their toys home.

My granddad was a pilot -- not support crew, but the pilot -- in the pacific during WWII on Tinneman(sp) (same island that Enlola Gay was stationed on) and was told that he couldnot bring home his service .45.  Instead, all the 1911s on Tinneman were rounded up , put on a barge, and sunk in the pacific ocean



ARRRRRRGHHHH

My Great-Uncle got his stuff back with no problems. Lots of lugers... He gave them away to his nephews when they returned from Vietnam.

This is probably one catch out of a hundred (thousand?).  I was in GW1 in the AF and prior to deployment, we boxed/crated and palletized all of our equipment.  After the azz-whupping we delivered to Iraq, we had to re-box/re-crate and palletize all the stuff we were bringing back.  It would have been REAL easy to use "contraband" to fill in the spaces.  Only problem was that you did not know WHO was gonna break down the pallets and unbox stuff.  If you were in a small unit like I was, the stuff pretty much sat back at the unit until you got back to unpack it yourself, but if it was a larger unit, someone else would be breaking it all down and you stood a good chance of getting busted!  This crate wasn't a "personal package" but looks to have been slipped in with the unit equipment.  Probably not a good thing to come back with more cargo than you left with!

Quoted: In a depature from conventional wisdom, i think we should be more liek europeans. The Swiss, to be exact. A machine gun in every home, with citizens capable of using them. that box right there would make a good start.

Yeah, as god, George Washington and Thomas Jefforson intended!

And we'd have a lot less tyrany, then.

There's a reason that gun control has wide support from both wings of the major party.

Quoted: Quoted: My granddad was a pilot -- not support crew, but the pilot -- in the pacific during WWII on Tinneman(sp) (same island that Enlola Gay was stationed on) and was told that he couldnot bring home his service .45.  Instead, all the 1911s on Tinneman were rounded up , put on a barge, and sunk in the pacific ocean I know of atleast 1 1911 that was on IeShema that wasn't sent to the bottom of the Pacific!....also some ammo that was there with it!

He said he knows a few guys snuck theirs home, but he believed the speech and just wanted to get home asap to see his wife.