I think that Lefty is right: in his epochal book from the next world war, Ted Lawson wrote that his B-25 crew on the Doolittle Raid had all sorts of handguns and knives from home as well as issued .45 autos. He had his wife's Colt .32 auto and a Govt. .45. ( Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, also a movie of the same name.)

Officers supplied their own sidearms, although most probably had the official models.

I thought it was a nice touch on author Suzanne Arruda's part to have her heroine's boyfriend Sam pack a Colt M-1917 in her latest epic, The Crocodile's Last Embrace. In a postscript, she explained that this is the version of the Colt New Service .45 that he carried,and that he had bought the (issued) gun after the war, in which he was a pilot.

Mrs. Arruda credited me in the acknowledgements of her last two books with giving her firearms advice, and I did. But this was something that she came up with on her own, although I suggested the New Service, inasmuch as she wanted Sam to carry a Colt, and she writes of the just post-WWi era , in colonial Kenya. Her books are quite good, and your wives may also enjoy them, as the protagonist is an American girl who drove an ambulance in the war, then went out to Africa with British friends. She solves crimes in her singular fashion, and the books are very authentic to the period and the setting. Her site may interest those who like good adventure books: www.suzannearruda.com

Still, had she left the matter to me, I'd have had Sam wear a commercial New Service in .45 Colt, because it's more powerful, and I like the better finish of the commercial version. But her reasoning about him carrying his former service weapon is certainly sound. I'm sure that many former officers did just that.

T-Star