There are two, actually for me. The first was my first Browning Hi-Power, back in '69. Like many, I found something else, can't even remember what it was, that seemed the be-all and end-all of handguns. But truth be told, I picked up another one, a gift actually, from another pilot during my first tour in Vietnam. My one greatest regret is that I couldn't bring it home with me. "They" were searching our shipped baggage when we DEROS'd (end of tour), and if a gun was found, it was an Article 15 for openers, and, for sure, the end of a career.
The 2nd was a German Luger with all the correct markings, matching numbers, tools, two mags...the whole enchilada...we found it in a Vietcong cashe up near Loc Ninh in lll Corps late in June '70.
Still in a small shipping crate, it had German, Russian, Chinese and Vietnamese markings on the shipping crate. I can only guess that after it was captured from the Germans in '44, every unit armorer there after said, 'what the hell am I supposed to do with this?" No parts, unfamiliarity with the gun itself etc. and it didn't fit anywhere in their TO&E.
So down the road it went to end up in a bunker there in southern Vietnam. That gun, with that provenance, capture papers, shipping crate and all, would have financed a cpl of years of college tuition for one of my sons. It was in 100% condition and with all the tools etc., but like the BHP, it would have cost me my career, if found by some REMF searching my stuff. And they did search, because all of my logbooks, a knife, and some other personal stuff never made it back home.
Funny, but I've never heard of any rear echelon "desk jockey", "manager" or clerk that had anything charged to them but also have never met up with another vet who spent his nights listening for the cans tinkling in the concertina wire, that actually managed to keep his stuff in tack.
Sorry for the last paragraph rant...still bugs the hell out of me. Best regards, Rod