I carried a Colt 1911 in 1986 (before they went to the Beretta). I was a Navy Fleet Marine Force Corpsman serving with the infantry (Bravo Company 1/1). Was told it was WWII era, and it looked like it.
1911A1s were still undergoing arsenal refurbishment until the early 80's and were issued in conjunction with the M9 until well after the Gulf War war. Being a sidearm, a majority of the pistols had not seen a ton of use by the Vietnam war, even though they were at least 20+ years old at that point. If I remember correctly, the Remington Rand that was issued to Lasher in 1965 was still in new condition. Unless you were issued a M1911 that had gone through arsenal rebuild, chances are that the pistol would have been nowhere close to the end of its service life.
Late 60's, early 70's ships crews were not issued firearms; on my ship only the Marine detachment (50 of 'em) had firearms to protect the Admiral.
No I have not got it yet. I talked to him on the phone last week. Still do not know what it is.. But we did not talk much about the gun.. talked about tournament fishing Sam Rayburn in April and Lake Fork in September. I am not much on bass fishing except for farm ponds.. but he needs a partner.. his has retired. Fish I usually go after do not have scales.
OK Update ... Sucks getting old for sure. I went fishing with him yesterday to Webbers Falls and got into a bunch of blues drifting. He gave me the gun that was my dad's. It is a Taurus PT1911. Sucks getting old elaborated on. Seems my google foo shows that Taurus PT1911 did not go into production or get sold until 2005. It is a Model 1-191101 with Heinie sight and ambidextrous safety. No way this was my dad's gun if it was made well before 2000 maybe because my dad died of cancer in 2000. Now My dad's cousin that I got the gun from is all happy I got the gun and had a holster made for it that is left or right carry. He was pretty proud to give it to me. I will not bust his bubble and tell him it was not my dads gun. Unless Taurus made 1911's way early.
Sorry to hear YOUR bubble burst. I could tell you had high hopes of getting something memorable to your Dad.
No I did not care much for my dad most of the time..But my dad's cousin was a guy I really looked up to. I feel his bubble would have burst if I had told him that is not my dads gun. Him and my dad were good fishing and hunting buddies. They would float down the rivers for days hunting and fishing and living off the land.
I went to Vietnam in the mid-sixties and I heard that a guy couple bring his own sidearm to battle with him from stateside. And then they stopped the troops from bringing their own pistol. Back then a guy could ship back a gun captured in combat and apparently many were sent back. I was asked by a guy I knew fi I'd ship an AR-15/M-16 back in my Hold Baggage but I didn't want to go to jail for something I didn't own and this was 1967.
