My favorite antiques and collectibles tell a story. It’s been my experience that unearthing the story is more rewarding than the challenge of obtaining the item. My most recent “story” began at the Hastings, Nebraska military collectibles show in March 2008. I had just set up my dealer table and started walking the floor to see what other dealers brought to sell. A fellow Omaha dealer was loading a garment rack with several US WWII uniforms, so I walked over to take a look.

My eyes were drawn to a green wool USMC blouse and trousers with a 6th Marine Division patch, corporal chevrons, an honorable discharge patch, and matching EGA (Eagle, Globe, and Anchor) collar devices. I looked inside the blouse to discover an unusual name penned inside the shoulder (where size and date are marked on WWII USMC uniforms). The dealer had no information about the veteran, nor did he recall how he acquired the uniform, but he was sure it was a local find.

We agreed on a price, and I walked away with the uniform and a gut feeling that I was going to find information about this soldier. When I returned from the show, I began my research and quickly discovered the veteran was born in Grinnell, Iowa and had attended college at Grinnell University. After college, he entered the Marines and later became an editorial writer for the Omaha World Herald newspaper.

I was on a roll! Further research revealed that he and his wife were living in a retirement community a few miles from my home and his children published a book in 2000 containing a large selection of their father’s World Herald editorials. The book was available at Amazon.com and the first chapter exclusively detailed his experiences as a Scout with H Company, 29th Marines, 6th Division during WWII. Before attempting to contact the veteran, I ordered a copy of his book and read every passage about his experiences being a Marine.

One story that is difficult to forget addresses the randomness of death and injury in combat. It explains how the veteran earned his Purple Heart Medal for a gunshot wound, while simultaneously losing a fellow Marine who had been lying beside him. The two Marines were ahead of their platoon scouting enemy movement on Sugar Loaf Hill (located on the island of Okinawa), when a Japanese machine gun crew flanked them and opened fire on their position. Had the Japanese flanked from the opposite direction fate may have reversed the outcome of these men.

After reading the book, I decided to call the veteran and our conversation went well. He was intrigued that I took the time to find him. After explaining my methodologies in locating him he proclaimed that, “I knew his whole life story.” With a laugh I replied, “That’s what happens when you publish a book about yourself!”

I asked about this uniform and apparently it was sold when he and his wife liquidated their house to move into a smaller apartment. After a nice talk over the phone, we agreed to meet in person. He was kind enough to offer me a copy of his discharge papers, military photos, as well as other ephemera from his days as a Marine to put with the uniform. I listened as he talked about Marine life, his career as a writer, and his family. Being the first generation in my family to finish college, I was amazed to hear the veteran’s father and grandfather had also graduated from college.

As I prepared to leave, I pulled my copy of his book from my bag and asked if he wouldn’t mind signing it. He smiled and wrote inside the cover, “To Chris: Best Wishes & Semper Fi!!” I thanked him for the sacrifices he made for our country and for taking the time to share his experiences with me. I am deeply honored to be the caretaker of his uniform and his stories.

Chris Hughes is a WorthPoint Worthologist specializing in 20th century militaria and the owner of Rally Point Militaria and Vietnam Uniform – Military Collectibles sites.

It began with an urgent phone call on September 7, 1957. President Eisenhower was required at the White House for some urgent affairs of state.

At the time of the phone call, the president was on vacation in Newport, Rhode Island. To reach the White House required an hour long ferry ride across the Narragansett Bay to reach Air Force One. A lot of time for a president. As a former military commander, he believed there was a shorter, more efficient way to accomplish the same task and ordered his staff to find it.

As it happens, a military helicopter, the UH-34, a part of the HMX-1 experimental squadron was on hand as an emergency vehicle to fly the president to Air Force One if necessary. Well, it was necessary now, the president believed and ordered the helicopter into service. He made the trip to Air Force One in a record time of 7 minutes establishing a precedent of presidential service for a squadron of initially experimental helicopters dating to 1947.

In time, the White House established a safe helicopter landing pad on the South Lawn just outside the Diplomatic Reception Room. This became the best way to fly the president and senior government staff to and from sites in and around Washington, DC and Andrews Air Force Base in Anacostia where Air Force One is maintained.

Managed as a joint U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps joint operation, the helicopter when in presidential service was named Army One. This joint arrangement lasted until 1976, when President Gerald Ford commanded that the U.S. Marine Corps solely manage the squadron. So, when the sleek green and white helicopter lifts off the South Lawn of the White House it is known as Marine One.

The patches above are from the era of the joint operation of HMX-1 presidential helicopter service known as Army One from 1958 until 1976. Most Army One memorabilia is very scarce with early patches more so.

Early patches of the Executive Detachment Flight were silk screened or hand sewn patches onto green flight uniforms with the designation of U.S. Army One above the presidential coat-of-arms. These are all 50 star patches which means they were made after 1960 when Hawaii entered the Union. Patches with 48 stars are extremely rare.

Plates, glassware, matches, certificates and other memorabilia during the Army One period are also scarce and hard to find.

Recently on Ebay, a letter signed by 41 Democratic Senators including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Joe Biden and Barbara Boxer. It sold on Ebay for $2.1 million to benefit the Marine corps Law Enforcement Foundation. They will provide scholarships for children of those killed in action, according to the buyer, the Eugene B. Casey Foundation.

The cover page said, in part, “Although Americans of goodwill debate the merits of this war, we can all agree that those who serve with such great courage deserve our deepest respect and gratitude. That is why Rush Limbaugh’s recent characterization of troops who oppose the war as “phony soldiers” is such an outrage.”

The letter was significant because it specifically took exception to Limbaugh’s use of the words “phony soldiers” when referring to those in uniform who advocate US withdrawal from Iraq on his radio call-in show. Many op-ed pieces and articles later appeared from soldiers who also vehemently disagreed with the phrase, including some 82nd Airborne soldiers (of whom I was once one myself) serving in Iraq who wrote an op-ed piece in the New York Times strongly disagreeing with that phrase. Two of the contributors to that article were subsequently killed in action in Iraq within a week of the op-ed article’s release.