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For you vets, or anyone that might know, I have a question for purly informational purposes. What happened toy your uniforms at the end of the war? I know that most if not all troops left the service with their class As, and such, but what about your other uniform items? Such as your combat uniform, or what ever other stuff you had. Did you turn them in to somebody? Were you allowed to keep anything that was still wearable? What about gear such as helmets, packs, cartridge belts ,etc?
WHat did you actually leave the service with?
This may be a strange bunch of questions, but I was thinking about it the other day and figured I'd ask.
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This is a very interesting question that I have seen asked on other forums and it always fetches a mirad of answers.
What about your foot locker? Do you still have it?
Brooke
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I can only speak from my fathers view. He came home with two duffle bags of stuff, for lack of a better word. He still had his class As and after 5 years 1940 to 1945 in the Army , he had collected a variety of gear. He still had his winterover coat . many khaki and od wollen shirts; his Ike jacket. He had his Combat jacket from the Bulge. The one he wore stuffed with newspapers to keep him warm in that long ago forgotten winter of 44-45. He brought home souvineres, pair of white leather Boots with red inserts and the eagle and swastika in them. He captured (Liberated) them from a town in Germany. Several bayonets, a Burgermeisters sword that and a large red flag with the swastika on it, that he and a buddie got when they had a town surrender to them in the midst of a hooch run. He also had a Luger with the paperwork from his commander.The luger was gotten rid of in the 50's when he got married. He didn't like the thought of a gun in the house with children.
Over the years he wore the khaki shirts to work at the Atlantic refining company in South Philadelphia. The woolen ods were worn while working on the house or car in the winter. The slowly but surely, they wore out and were used for rags until he died. The moths got ahold of his overcoat and that was thrown out and I wore his OD and Khaki ties in High school as a sign of rebellion . He passed away in 1968 and all that remains I have are 5 OD woolen shirts, his Ike jacket and his Combat jacket that has paint on it from every single thing he painted for 23 years.
He also rejoined the service in 1950 and served in the Air Force with the 36 th fighter squadon. I don't think the AF was as liberal with the uniforms after the Korean war as the Army was after WW2all that is left is his aluminum footlocker that still looks good after 55 years.
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When my orders camt to return home from the 3rd Inf Div all web equiptment, helmet
and other gear including weapon was turned in. I left with a complete Class A uniform,
extra O.D.'s, field jacket, raincoat, underwear and socks. I sold my P-38 pistol to a new replacement for a $100.00 MONEY ORDER MADE OUT BY HIM TO MY HOME. (Allied currency was no good to me. At Le Harve France we were given any clothes needed.
When I arrived home it was with litle but what I wore plus a small bag. My class a uniform was hung up in a closet with my boots and forgotten. When I married, it still stayed there after moving out and then was evidentally lost or forgotten. (Damn it).
Luckily, my "souvineers" and many German weapons and equitpment I had already sent home and many boxes awaited me.
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Thanks for the replies, and very interesting.
I kind of figured that your clothing items would be kept by you, but equipment type items turned in for re-use.
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My Dad's WWII Navy uniform (blue wool bell bottom trousers and pullover) remained in his dufflebag, along with several caps. Like Jiggers, I wore some of it in highschool trying to be "cool" or whatever. Eventually the moths got to them and all were tossed by my Dad. His rough weather navy jacket (OD with sheepskin lining) he wore as a work coat up until his death in 1996, and it has been repaired many times in his own style...using "hotglue" to hold the pockets on 
That was my Dad, and I loved him dearly! That jacket is mine now and I still wear it on occaision. We have never been able to figure out what happened to his medals, but I was able to replace the WWII Victory medal.
Jim 
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Dogdaddy,
If you check with your Congressional Office, you should be able to get replacements for them.Do you have any of his paperwork? If not the National Archive Record site has info and a form to downlosd so you can figure out what medals he would have been awarded.
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I did that for my great uncle who died when I was 5. I tried to do the same for my gramps but he had already got a set a few years ago (they will only replace them once) that didn't make it thru his divorce...
anywhoo... it takes months and months and just when you say "ah well, guess my paperwork got lost" they show up.
Brooke
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If you can't get the medals for what ever reason. They can still be found on E-Bay and through some of th ere-enactors equipment sites. I have a cataolog around here somewhere that sells just about everykind and size of medal .
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Hi Jiggers!
I did in fact contact NARA and was able to get copies of my Dad's service records and find out the 3 medals he was eligible for. Like you said, you can get replacements on ebay and other sites for the most common medals, like WWII Victory and Pacific Victory etc. I do wish we had preserved his uniform though.
DD
