Back in WW2 GI’s loved collecting souvenirs. Ex. Japanese Samurai swords were big in the Pacific and anything with Nazi symbols on it like flags or daggers were big in Europe.
In our current wars in say Afghanistan or Iraq, is there anything that a soldier would want to collect and take home as a souvenir?
Note - I’m not talking things morbid like teeth.
The guys I know who served in Afghanistan and/or Iraq brought home stuff like enemy unit patches or bits of enemy load-bearing gear. No captured modern weapons of any kind. I understand they could bring home stuff like Khyber Pass Special replica muzzleloaders (guaranteed to possibly be safe to fire, maybe) but relatively few seem to have bothered to do so.
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In the fall of 2002, I was flying USAF C-130s out of Oman supplying military ops in Afghanistan. Once, flying into Kandahar, I spied an old, bent and tattered windsock between the taxiway and runway - a perfect souvenir for my flying squadron back in the States.
I ran up to the control tower and asked the mixed-service team of air traffic controllers if I could have the windsock; they thought I was crazy, but said I could take it. I got back to the plane, and walked my crew out to the windsock and we all gave it several heave-hos, but it wouldn’t budge. Time to formulate Plan B.
Two nights later I was back at Kandahar, up in the control tower to pitch my plan to the controllers: If they could get the windsock out of the ground and keep it for me at the base of the tower, I’d bring them 6 pizzas from the Pizza Hut concession at my base in Oman (pizza was a delicacy at the then ‘outpost’ of Kandahar). The controllers agreed, and would email me when the 'sock was ready for pickup.
A few days later, I got the email; the next night I had my windsock in the plane, and the controllers had their feast. I sent the windsock back to my home squadron on one of the “rotator” jets that swapped out parts and personnel from my home base the States.
Upon returning from my deployment, I had the concrete anchor removed from the end of the pole, mounted the 'sock on a base with a commemorative plaque, and placed in the squadron ready room. Perfect.
I retired from the USAF a year later, but a couple of years ago I re-visited my old squadron, which had since merged with an Air Reserve Component squadron. At some point the windsock had disappeared - neither of the current squadron commanders ever recall seeing it.
So, if anyone out there has an old, tattered windsock with a commemorative plaque from 2002, you now know the rest of the story. 
Allegedly, somewhere well off the coast of Cornwall is a large dump of Argentine weapons. They were prizes from the Falklands War, but the Captain of the Canberra had them all collected and then they were dumped.
Allegedly.
I’m curious about the whole thing these days of taking “battlefield souvenirs”. I recall that in Basic Training for the Army and during periodic training in both the Army and Navy, we were told that it’s not okay to take souvenirs like that. When did that change?
I don’t know when exactly the policy changed, but this has been a general shift in attitudes and cultural practices over time. When I was in Iraq and Afghanistan I recall AFN PSAs reminding us that “times have changed” and we were no longer allowed to take war trophies anymore. I suspect it has a lot to do with the fact that there is a very thin line between taking “trophies” and straight-up stealing.
In ages past, loot and plunder was explicitly the point of war for the average soldier. They expected a certain amount of booty as part of their compensation. Over time this changed, mostly in conjunction with the idea that Soldiers were supposed to be professionals and the realization that modern warfare hinged on maintaining the perception of legitimacy and the loyalty of the population. Nowadays, of course, we have created the expectation that Soldiers are supposed to embody all of our moral ideals (which I have discussed at length in other threads). For better or worse, we are very much subject to the court of public opinion.
So it would be very easy for someone to put on Youtube a video of a soldier taking wartime “souvenirs” and portray him as a bandit who murders people just so he can pilfer their possessions. There are also sound reasons, from a law enforcement perspective, to limit a person’s ability to bring foreign firearms into the US. Nowadays most soldiers content themselves with kitschy bullshit sold by/through AAFES from the authorized junk merchants that set up shop on or near the posts.
Weapons are only permitted to be taken as souvenirs if they are permanently deactivated, the Commander gives permission, and the JAG produces a memo attesting to both of the above. This is of course a tremendous pain in the ass when you have better things to worry about, so it is easier to just prohibit the practice entirely.
From a personal perspective, I only have one story. When I was a young soldier, I went on a mission that took us to an Iraqi police station. There was a guy outside selling military gear and surplus. I bought an Iraqi police uniform from him just because I thought it was cool. Very soon thereafter, the commander prohibited us from buying crap on the local economy. Although he never mentioned me specifically, I’m pretty sure word got back to him and he wanted to stop us from treating our missions into town as shopping trips.
I’m not sure where the quote originated but the old saying goes, “The English fight for honor, the French fight for glory but the Americans fight for souvenirs.”
I can tell you that both when I was coming home on leave and when I was leaving Iraq for good we went through a very thorough inspection which included two x-ray machines and a hands on inspection of every item in our bags. Prior to that every item that was being shipped in our shipping container was inspected. The Coast Guard was there as inspectors.
There was a process in which units could bring home enemy equipment for display. It was a pain in the ass but I didn’t have to deal with it directly.
I’m not saying that no one found a way around the rules or that things weren’t much looser early in the war but by the time I was there it wasn’t worth the risk.
Somewhere I have a book that consists of articles from wartime (WWII) issues of Stars and Stripes. Souvenirs are the topic of a surprising number of stories. American servicemen did love them. They traded them among themselves, gambled for them, and just plain bought and sold them…and not infrequently stole them from each other. For this reason, I always take family lore surrounding Papaw’s souvenirs from any war with a truckload of salt. Especially any that are of the form “Papaw took this off a _______ officer he killed.” Just once I’d like to hear “Papaw won this in a poker game off a truck driver from Peoria” or “Papaw stole this from another GI’s knapsack while that guy was getting deloused.”
When I was in Iraq war trophies were not permitted.
I used to know an older gentleman (he’s since passed away) who was an infantryman with the 103rd ID in Alsace, Germany and Austria in 1944 and 1945. To hear him tell it, the real souvenir time was at the end of the war when the Germans were surrendering; they’d basically take charge of their weapons when they surrendered, and keep anything interesting for themselves, as well as walking off with whatever was not nailed down in most German towns they passed through.
The rule when I went to Iraq (twice, 2003-2004 and 2007-2008) was no souvenirs or trophies, period. Now, I have some “souvenirs” but not the kind you’re thinking of. An Iraqi who worked at the gate when I was pulling guard duty one day sold me his shemagh, but that was considered something I bought, not something I stole from an enemy combatant or civilian. Also, I brought home a six inch hunk of sharp shrapnel from a mortar that fell on our camp.
I also watched a particularly stupid LT walk up to a half-exploded mortar, pick it up, put it in his pocket, and walk away with it. I’m assuming he displays that on a mantle or something now, since I didn’t ever hear about his leg being blown off by carrying unexploded ordnance around in his pocket. :smack:
A great uncle of mine brought home a drilling from WWII. No, not a Luftwaffe drilling, just a regular hunting gun of that type. It was certainly stolen from a civilian. I don’t know whether he stole it or got it off another GI who had stolen it.
I doubt the LT managed to get it home. At least where we were all our mail packages were searched as were we as we left by navy customs.
Bayonets were specifically allowed, and that was about it. Everything else was specifically not allowed. There was a process for the unit to bring back things upon approval, but that was for the unit only, and not personal use or possession.
From actual missions, things I brought back include two enemy bayonets, the serial number plate I chiseled off an old Russian BDRM, a couple Enfield pistols I purchased (one admittedly a copy, and the other supposedly genuine–but who knows…), one thing I probably shouldn’t mention on this message board, and another thing that I absolutely shouldn’t mention anywhere…
To keep the bayonets, I just needed to have a memo signed by the company commander. To keep the flint lock and the cap n ball pistols, I had to complete paperwork with the US Customs agent in Balad.
And of course there’s all the other boring shit people bring back that was either purchased, received as a gift, or otherwise acquired. Nothing on the level of CPT Spears sending home peoples’ silver collections, but almost anything could gain enough sentimental value to want to bring home as a souvenir. I have a US Flag that was flown over Sadam’s old palace at Camp Victory on July 4, 2008.
If I can find an old memo or other paperwork related to official guidance on souvenirs, I will throw it on my Google Drive and share it.
So that’s where that T-72 in your driveway came from.
Don’t worry your secret is safe with me.
Why bayonets? It seems like if that’s the case, then any knife should be okay.
Somebody’s going to hear them yelling from the basement eventually. 
[QUOTE=Really Not All That Bright]
Why bayonets? It seems like if that’s the case, then any knife should be okay.
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You pretty much answered your own question. Bayonets are cheap and plentiful, and hard to object to because they are essentially just knives. When I was on VBC in 2006, the local junk merchants always sold bayonets as souvenirs.
…Vacation Bible College?
Victory Base Camp. The military complex that surrounded Baghdad International Airport.