A Veterans Day visit with the last Doughboy, Frank Buckles

Today I was able to take this old veteran of the trenches of the Great War, my 32nd Division M.1917, and go down the valley and across the river to visit Mr. Frank Buckles, America's sole surviving veteran of The Great War.

The helmet brought back memories of Mr. Buckles 11 months "over there".

(photo: David DeJonge)                          

to see a glimpse of the visit click here.

 

A hale and hearty Frank Buckles in 1917.   Today, at 108 years of age Mr. Buckles is a delightful person and a gracious host.  It was a real pleasure to visit him, and such a surprise to find that he lives only 25 minutes from my door!


 Following Armistice Day, Mr. Buckles enjoyed a prosperous career working for various steamship lines and in that capacity ended up in the Philippines in 1941.  Although no longer a fighting man, Mr. Buckles was imprisioned by the Japanese and held, under grueling conditions, until his rescue in 1945 by those doughboys of a later generation, the American G.I.s

Happy Veterans Day Mr. Buckles!

To learn more about Mr. Buckles and the World War One Memorial restoration efforts, link here

2009 MAX Show

Bring Money!

I went to the 2009 Military Antiques Extravaganza in Monroeville Pennsylvania this weekend.

Goodness! Extravaganza is right. What a show.

Comprised of mostly top-of-the line objects with few fakes, most notably the one below:

WWII German lid with a post-war liner. An oddly obvious attempt at subterfuge at such a prestigious show (and dig that crazy chinstrap bail).

The organizers of this show strive for authenticity of objects and they seem to do a pretty good job of policing their dealers. About the only thing bogus at this show were the prices. Generally unrealistic asking prices seemed to be the order of the day, flying in the face of not only the current economy but also the realities of ebay. Obviously this show's for the hoity-toity, not for the hoi-polloi such as I.

It is Nazi heavy in artifacts. I saw but one South American helmet, a Peruvian Adrian, and there were no Scandinavian, Asian, or Cold War Eastern Bloc helmets to be found. Anyone hoping to score modern ballistic plastic and composite helmets would have similarly found themselves out of luck.

Helmet-wise this show consisted of, in ascending order, WWII Russian, Japanese, Picklehauben, U.S. M1s, and Nazi German lids. I was in a sea of swastikas, to the point of creepiness.

Interestingly enough I saw almost no money changing hands, at least not on Saturday. Perhaps this was a reflection of general economic hard times, or simply the unrealistic asking prices on most of the items. Leaving me to wonder exactly who the target clientele was supposed to be:

deep-pocketed bunker decorators? rubes? overeager monied beginners? neo-nazis? Mel Brooks? (click the link, you'll be glad you did)

Crazy daddy-o!

Nonetheless it was worth seeing... once.

You can watch my low-resolution video below, thus saving a trip to Monroeville (you'll thank me for that).

Keep your sense of humor and keep on collecting!

Mannie

From Before the time of Modern Helmets

Here's a video I put together of a remarkable event that I attended one week ago. It's a short reminder of service, sacrifice, and the dignity we can bring to remembrance.

Go here to view.

German M.1916 "high visor"

Never pass up a dumpster.

Here's the sort of story we all hope to be involved in personally.

First, the helmet. New to my collection is this very nice WWI German M.1916

A fine specimen of that most iconic of early 29th century lids.


Although sans liner, the gray/green paint is about 90% present.

That dramatic Teutonic profile always makes me just a touch uneasy.

With a pleasing patina, this helmet seems to have been, until recently, treated very well,

until it was quite unceremoniously pitched into a dumpster and headed for a Western Maryland landfill.

Then, this young man came along to change the outcome of the story.


This is my friend Jim. Jim is a motorhead in the best sense of the word. He has a passion for, and is very handy with, automobiles. With the budgetary constraints of most 18 year-olds with sensible parents, Jim has to use creative - though legal - means to acquire usable spare parts for whatever vehicle he's currently working on. Those means include occasional "dumpster diving".

Jim was diving a dumpster that was shared by an auto repair shop as well as an antique store. Imagine young Jim's surprise when he emerged from said dumpster not with an exhaust manifold, fan shroud, or hood strut, but this very nice old soldier from the trenches of WWI.

And imagine my surprise when this fine young man recently gave it to me to add to my collection!

Acquired just two weeks ago this lid may turn out to be a favorite. I already have a nice garden-variety M.1917 which, unlike this one, still has most of its liner (check it out here). Otherwise the two helmets are nearly identical.

The dome stamp "R440" is quite crisp and the intact paint is shown here to good effect.


Though no liner or chinstrap are present, there is still a single strap fastener end.


The characteristic lugs are quite crisp with nice squared, sharply defined edges...

and are still very tightly secured with a large washer on the inside of the shell.


All split rivets are present...


and in very good condition.

As my M.1917 this is size E.T. 64, visible here on the side skirt and...


as a ghost image, here on the exterior. Some stamping mill!


All in all a delightful piece, though no standout until I set it on a level surface facing my M.1917:

voila! The storied "high-visor" early production version of the M.1916.

Thanks Jim, for bringing something new, and special, to my collection.

And thanks Olaf for the comment below which prompted me to view this lid as an M.1916 rather than an M.1917!