remington rand 1911a1 serial number lookup

Valley Forge, went ashore there for brief training and moved to the U.S.S. For all practical purposes, my issued M1911A1 pistol was pretty much the standard gun as used for decades by all American servicemen.

I was aware that things would have to be really bad before I would be doing much shooting with a pistol, but I was happy with my new gun.

My modifications to the pistol did not detract from its utility, but rather enhanced its performance in my hands. Before we left the country, I installed an old set of walnut stocks with the original double diamond checkering pattern. Knowing my personal preference for a long trigger and flat mainspring housing, Catarella had moved them from my original pistol and installed them on the new one. It had a brand-new coat of Parkerizing and was completely up to G.I. Made sometime during World War II, my new gun was a Remington-Rand M1911A1 that had been through the refurbishing process at least a couple of times. 45s were not new, but rather freshly rebuilt and refinished from the arsenal. As we were doing so, the supply system began to cough up all kinds of new equipment and a few. The company was Company K, 3rd Batallion, 7th Marine Regiment, and we were poised to ship out for Vietnam. One of them was the pistol he held-my new gun. “Cat” was the company supply NCO, and had come to tell me that our outfit had been issued a number of new replacement M1911. Anthony Catarella knocked on my office door and asked for a brief moment of my time. That time began in the spring of 1965 at Camp Pendleton, Calif. I really hope that something good happened to that particular piece of equipment, because it was a constant and treasured companion during a rough period of time. He also replaced the 1911A1’s short trigger with the longer one of the M1911 and switched the arched mainspring housing with the earlier, flat M1911 component. The gun started out as a standard M1911A1 (top), but he swapped out the plastic stocks with double-diamond wood. A Remington-Rand M1911A1 was on the author’s hip when this photo was taken on the North bank of the TraBong River during the summer of 1966.

Remington rand 1911a1 serial number lookup