"but no one ever bragged about it, or even more than casually mentioned it. A civilian kid would have been duly impressed by all the war stories I grew up with, but to we military kids, it was just part of the landscape we lived in. Heroism and sacrifice were simply what was expected of a man, no big deal. And we were expected to follow suit when we came of age."

I found that for those men to even tell you about their experience they had to first of all trust you to understand their situation. They only talk freely in their own circles and you have to earn that trust to hear their stories.

My first job was working in a Gun Shop where the owner had been in the O.S.S. A Japanese Nambu Mg sat on the top of the safe. a Double barrel shotgun cut down to the size of a pistol was in one of the cabinet drawers. It was deactiviate and had a BATF number stamped into the reciever. He claimed that it had belonged to Bonnie and Clyde. I wish I had copied that number and traced it back.

One of our good customers brought in a Benjamin pump-up air rifle just like the ones we had on the shelf for our customers to buy for their kids. It had Japanese arsenal marking of a japanese arsenal during WW II. We asked him where he had gotten such an unusual weapon. Turns out that he was a Major in the Army in the Pacific. That the weapon was a war prize he had taken after a Japanese sniper had used it to kill 3 of his men in his camp.

You really had to wonder at all the Oral history that passes away every day from our veterans from our Great Grandfathers of the War Between the States right up until today.