Indholdsfortegnelse for December 2022 i Military Trader

The Civil War period is one of the most favored periods of military history and collecting interest. This is evidenced by the large number of Civil War reenactors showcasing military uniforms and weapons. Other collectors might devote themselves to collecting the medals of the Civil War, but soon find that the only federally authorized medal of the Civil War was the Congressional Medal of Honor established by order of President Lincoln and signed into law July 12, 1862. Collectors will also find the Civil War Campaign Medal, but even this was only authorized by the War Department in 1907. Yet many medal examples associated with the Civil War can be found with a few state examples and multiple Civil War veteran organizations. A closer look at the medal history of…

The Metro Washington D.C. area is home to several agencies of the United States intelligence community, but most of their official museums, including the Central Intelligence Agency Museum and Defense Intelligence Agency Museum, can’t easily be visited by the public. Fortunately, for those with an interest in all things of a clandestine nature, there is the International Spy Museum, a privately run, nonprofit museum located near the Washington Mall in the heart of the city. Within its multiple floors are numerous exhibits, along with some 1,000 artifacts that chronicle the role that espionage has played from the ancient era to the modern day, with an emphasis from the American Revolution to the Cold War. While by no means a “military museum” in the truest sense, the International Spy Museum still…

“A picture is worth a thousand words”. This often-quoted passage conveys a message which has often proved to be very true, especially since the arrival of modern photography in the 19th century. Professional studios monopolized this photographic art until less expensive and simpler processing made cameras available to the average person. Men and women took images valuable to themselves, and some captured images that would prove to be of historical significance. This was more than evident during the Third Reich, with the thousands of cameras used to capture images of both the mundane and macabre. Photos were then often added to commercially produced, military themed or civilian albums, which were readily available to the photo takers and their families. Personal German photo albums of the period are often unique collections…

We all dream of finding something amazing to add to our collection. For some of us, it might be finding a tunic owned by a member of E Company, 506th Regiment, of the 101st Airborne Division at some Salvation Army store. For another person it might be finding a pristine WWI German luger with all matching numbers at an estate sale for $350. The only thing better than finding one item like these would be to find a collection of them. Since I grew up on “The Rat Patrol”, “Kelly’s Heroes”, “Combat!”, and “12 O’clock High”, my dreams centered around WWII and the ETO. For many years I dreamed of finding an original, unaltered WWII jeep at an affordable price. I finally gave up on finding one and restored one…

Despite being the oldest branch of the United States military, the United States Army only saw the construction of its official service-wide museum begin in September 2016. The plan had been for it to open on June 4, 2020, but due to the Covid-19 that was delayed until Nov. 11 of that year. It was certainly worth the wait, and the National Museum of the United States Army (NMUSA), located at Fort Belvoir, Va., 20 miles south of Washington, D.C. (and just three miles from George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate) now chronicles the history of the service from its founding during the American Revolution to the modern day. The main building, which is approximately 185,000 square feet, features 11 galleries of displays and artifacts from the United States Army Center…