James E. McCall
Member
Many years ago( 50) I acquired a US Army Model 1917 from a neighbor who had carried it aboard ship (merchant seamen engineer) he said he had bought it in Singapore just before WW2 and he carried it loaded at all times ( while on board ship). Well he had been torpedoed twice while on the Murmansk run but kept it in a waterproof case designed by him so when he went into the water both times it was with him so when he was rescued (twice) he kept that US ARMY Model 1917 with him. After the war he continued in the Merchant Marine until he retired about 1975. He was about 75 years old . I got to know him when I moved into my own home across the street from him and being a LEO at the time after getting out of the Marine Corps (1962) and going from one uniform to another he noticed my patrol car in my drive way and came over to talk to me, We started talking about guns and I told him I was on our Depts pistol team ( we carried S&W 38 Specials Model 10s 6 inch bbl)He asked if I wanted to see a "real gun" and went to his house and showed me the above pistol. I never knew they made them that big , told him while in the USMC the biggest handgun I had carried was a 1911A1 Colt 45 and not anywhere the size of his. We laughed about that. I told him I had a S&W Model 14 w/ a 6 in barrel that I used on the pistol team. I told him if he wanted to shoot that big "beast" he could shoot it at our range. He accepted and on my next day off we went. T o make a long story short he contracted cancer and before he passed away he gave me that "beast". He was a great man and I still miss his sea stories during WW2 and he was a hero (besides my Dad who also was in WW2 but was in Tanks) and will always miss them both although my Dad and Uncles who were also in WW2 in the Navy and Army I miss also but they never talked about their time during WW2.
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