Chandos;
Man, you have dug up SO much stuff! Impressive. I am going to have to read through all this stuff, it is very interesting and I have not seen it before. I knew Phil, but he never told me about a lot of these things (because I never asked) and so this stuff is new to me too.
I always understood from Phil that he won the revolver before Guadalcanal. I believe he won it in February of 1942 -- but memory is hazy and I can only say "I think that's what Phil told me." . There MUST be some way to confirm that, or find out which month it was, in this age of information.
Remember; most of my conversations with Phil took place over 8 years ago now. In 2000 Phil started to suffer from Alzheimer's. I used to joke that it was a perfect ailment for an ex-CIA Station Chief to suffer from -- but by 2001 he was really having memory problems. Up until 2000 he was as sharp as a tack, and so it would have been between 1991 and 2000 that we had most of our "hearty" conversations.
I believe that Phil said he was on Guadalcanal from the beginning. I know for a fact that Phil Roettinger and Stan Levine originally met on Henderson Field at the end of the Guadalcanal campaign and that Levine was "just coming to the field" when they first met. I was there -- in my Ice Cream Store -- when they met each other again and recognized each other some some 43 years later.
I cannot remember which Marine Division Phil was with, but that also could probably be checked. I believe Stan Levine was with the 5th Marine Division, but again my memory may be faulty. It was years ago and I didn't write this stuff down, I was simply happy to be able to know and talk to these guys.
I might point out -- as I have said nothing about it yet and nobody has asked -- that the cut-down Pachmayr grip adapter found on Phil's revolver was there when I picked it up. Phil had cut it down like that and I do not know from what point in time in the life history of the gun he did that. Also, the stocks are "thinned" at the top on both sides -- I have never seen S & W stocks thinned like that. I don't know if they came that way or it is something Phil did. If Phil did thin down the stocks he did an excellent job as they do not show any signs of "tampering" and look like they might have come that way.
Thanks for the additional info, I'll read through it tomorrow. I still haven't come up with my original email, but I also haven't had a lot of time lately to check into stuff. The kids are out of school, I have an Ice Cream Store, and it's busy. In another month I'll be whining that there's no business but I'll have time on my hands.
Cheers!
Cal