I have been a long time lurker here, but this morning I decided to join this forum because I am a huge fan of S&W PC semi-automatic guns so I would like to learn more about them and share a few rare ones from my collection.

My first submission is this strange 39-2. I found this gun at a local gun show, for sale by the original owner, a retired lieutenant colonel, who said these were issued by S&W only to special forces. He was a man of few words, and really didn't tell me much more that that. The metal piece over the ejection port is something I have never seen before--on any gun, let alone a 1rst generation Smith. I asked him what it was, and he said, it enabled the gun to be fired under water? Hmmm. That seemed ridiculous to me, but I said nothing. The price was right, and it came with original box, wax paper, magazines, and paperwork, so I thought, why not, I'll buy it and take it home and research it. One month later, I still cannot find anything about it. So my question is this--what the hell is it? Did I buy a really nice 39-2 LNIB and that's it, or did I buy a really rare variant?