Bringing Home a Captured Gun

My husband, Mark Drew, who was on a Green Beret A-Team in the Central Highlands in 1968, told me at least one thing that made me laugh.

He had a captured Russian AK47, with bring-it-home paperwork and a specially made box.  

At the Seattle Airport baggage area, there was no box. But the AK47 with bayonet, was leaned up in a corner of the room. It was his! He slung it over his shoulder and walked over to customs trying to decide what to say.

He started his story, "this my gun, but the paperwork and box are not here".  The Customs guy looked at him, and said "get going, get outta here".

When he walked on the plane to Minneapolis with the gun over his shoulder, the flight attendant cautiously walked up to him, and said "May I Check Your Gun Sir?" -  He handed it over, and the gun was returned to him when he left the plane in Minneapolis.

No official discharge, no debriefing, but now he was a civilian at home with a captured gun over his shoulder. What a culture shock.