From: smile@dontemailme.com   
      
   In article ,   
   zulu.pacifier.com@shell1.pacifier.net says...   
      
   >Many a GI picked up German war booty like Lugers and did not   
   >have them taken by their NCOs or officers.   
      
   I was just a kid during WWII and didn't have anyone   
   in my family, that I recall, who was in the military.   
   But many of my boyhood friends did have fathers and   
   other close relatives who sent them mementoes from   
   both the European and Pacific war zones. Most of what   
   I recall were military uniform patches/badges/belt buckles   
   and such, but there were also instances of de-activated   
   hand grenades, Samurai swords, Luger pistols and other   
   such "deadly" weaponry making it back to families.   
   I recall a very liberal policy on the part of the   
   authorities when it came to GI's sending packages back   
   home. While their letters were often heavily censored, it   
   seems there was no concerted effort to stop "contraband"   
   from getting "back home." Perhaps because it helped to   
   keep people back home supporting the war effort.   
      
   One of my favorite memories was of the huge aluminum-frame   
   and cloth kites one friend of mine received from a father who was   
   a bomber pilot in the Pacific. These kites were part of   
   life raft equipment intended to "lift" the antenna wire   
   for better radio transmission from the emergency transmitters   
   carried on the life rafts. These were USA military items,   
   not captured enemy, but typing the above triggered the   
   memories.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)