March 10, 1946
February 1946. World War II is over and wartime production jobs were ending. During the war, Carl and Georgie worked a number of jobs in several places, finishing the war in Pocatello, Idaho. They elected to return to Iowa, where they both had family, but opted to make a grand tour of the west on the way. Georgie wrote a journal of the trip. The story starts here.
Jones himself had been an officer in the army and had been stationed in Europe. He had a huge gun collection – many of the guns he’d brought back from Europe. He had a machine gun – intact, dueling pistols, etc. Carl visited with him while Fran and I attended church the next morning which was Sunday. That was another unusual experience. The priest gave the sermon in Spanish, read the gospel and said the prayers after mass in Spanish. After the sermon, he came down from the altar and passed the collection plate himself.
After breakfast at the bus depot next to the hotel we left Cuba hoping someday we could come back there.
Drove past many Indian settlements to Albuquerque where we stopped to see Louis and Emma Hutmaker, old friends from Ft. Madison. They were very surprised to see us and we had a nice visit.
Left there late in the afternoon and drove on to Santa Rosa on Hiway 66 where we spent the night.
Walt’s Comments
It’s interesting that Mass was said in Spanish, rather than Latin, which is what they would have expected. Mass in English, or any other language than Latin, wasn’t generally allowed until 1964. I haven’t found anything that indicated there were exceptions, but it’s possible, I guess. I seem to recall that missionaries were granted exception so they could preach in a language the prospective converts would understand. But it’s been a long time since I’ve studied that stuff.
Bringing home a machine gun
For the benefit of those that may not realize it, you can legally own a machine gun in some jurisdictions of the United States. The Federal law states that you must undergo a very stringent background check and pay a fee (still $200, just as it was in 1934, when the law was enacted). There are restrictions on selling them, and transporting them across state lines, but from the Federal perspective they’re otherwise fine. Some states and towns have outlawed them in their jurisdiction, however, so know the rules before you buy!
As for soldiers sending them home, it was fairly common. The Army didn’t make any rules about it until May of 1945. Even then, it doesn’t seem that everyone obeyed the order. I saw a document with a picture of an army form dated December 1945 where an officer signed off on an MP43 (a fully-automatic assault rifle) and an MG42 (a belt-fed machine gun), among other guns.
Even after the ban on sending home machine guns, it was still perfectly fine to send home rifles and pistols, and many thousands of them came home that way. Lugers and Berettas were particularly prized.
Once the machine guns made it home, they had to be registered like any other machine gun, and the owner had to pay $200. That was a lot of money for a GI, so not all of them paid it. Some deactivated the guns, making them legal to own, and some stuck them in the back of a closet. Some of the ones in the closets were registered during an amnesty period in the 1960’s.
Digging Deeper
A document detailing documents in the National Archive pertaining to war trophy firearms. The first couple pages are bureaucratese talking about the papers, but starting on page 3 there’s some interesting stuff.
Aaron Hoel
Great read! And nice commentary about bringing guns home. Didn’t grandpa/grandma have a German WW2 pistol? I seem to remember there being one in the house when I was little…
Thanks for these posts and publishing this story!
Aaron
Walt
They didn’t have any German stuff, but your uncle Tony had a Walther P38 pistol. I’m not sure what happened to it after he passed away. Dad did have a Ruger 22 pistol that looked a bit like a Luger in general profile. I think Tony got that one too.
I’m glad you’re enjoying the story!