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My USMC bring-back Irwin Pedersen

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Joined: Apr 03 2016
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    Posted: Jan 17 2017 at 1:22pm
Years ago, one of the guys I work with told me his grandfather was an aircraft mechanic on Saipan and when the war was over he stuffed an M1 Carbine into a hidden compartment of the plane and flew home with it. I told him if he ever wanted to sell it, sight unseen if it had the early features (flip sight, push button safety and lack of bayo lug) I would give him $1500 for it. Years of gentle poking and he had his mom send him pictures that he forwarded to me (the rifle was in Wisconsin, we're in Florida). Sure enough he sends me the pictures and it has all the features that I mentioned but wait.... what's the receiver say?! IRWIN-PEDERSEN!!!

Holy hell, not only is this a USMC bring back carbine off Saipan but it is an Irwin? Now, since this is a guy I am friends with and will be working with for the next 15-20 years I was honest with him and told him the whole Irwin story and explained the rarity of the rifle. He explained that no one in the family was really interested in the rifle and they only wanted it for the family heirloom sake but unfortunately not very many people are pro-gun in their family. He wanted me to have it because he knows I am a history buff and have a real appreciation for it but had to cut through the family politics of selling the rifle. He cut through the red tape and they agreed to sell the rifle to me and use the money to make a tribute to the grandfather (I did change my price when I found out it was an Irwin, I like the guy and would not want to short change him and him find out one day of the scheme I pulled and create animosity, saving a few bucks just isn't worth that in my opinion).

The vet was a Corporal with Marine Night Fighter Squadron 534. He was originally a machinist but was reassigned to guard duty after he aggravated a wrist injury he sustained after falling off a box car while stateside. The rifle has two carvings in the stock, one says "PETE" and the second "WH17". The veterans daughter stated that everyone in the unit was required to name their piece and he chose "Pete". The WH-17 was a bit of a mystery but some USMC aviation experts have pointed out to me the planes in VMF(N)-534 were assigned tail numbers WHITE-[#]. So, perhaps he was assigned it work on or guard plane #17 which would've been abbreviated WH17. Attached is a picture of WH10.

You'll see that in the pictures the rifle had a fair amount of surface rust on it. A little elbow grease with a rag soaked in CLP and most of it came off leaving the finish intact under the rust. In the last picture with the shadow box you'll be able to see how it cleaned up from the earlier pictures. The rifle also came with one magazine, it's an IBM magazine. The barrel is 1-43 Rock-Ola, serial is 17737xx (when I submitted the data sheet they got the full serial). All the parts are Irwin Pedersen and there are no S'G' parts. I've written to the guys in the carbine club and they are of the opinion that the rifle is correct and unmolested... other than the sling swivel missing and a regular hardware store bolt put in it's place.

I know what a lot of you are going to say don't buy the story etc. Well, I do believe the story. The grandson that I work with I have worked with for 11 years and he doesn't know a thing about rifles and did not know he had anything special. His mom confirms the story that he had brought it home and she gave me a small written story of the rifle. As a thank you to the family I had the veterans records pulled from the national archives which helped fill in some of the gaps in the story. Then I made three shadow boxes with the veterans stripes, ribbons, medals, picture and unit patch. I kept one with the rifle, one went to the veterans daughter and one to the grandson that I work with.














-Neil
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-Neil
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote RedSpecial Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Jan 17 2017 at 1:29pm



-Neil
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote NewScotlander Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Jan 17 2017 at 2:46pm
Nice carbine. Isn't the Hellcat designation F6F though?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote RedSpecial Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Jan 17 2017 at 4:16pm
I believe you're right, I found that picture by doing a google image search for VMF(N)-534, and that capfion was already on the picture.
-Neil
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