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A set of Hap Arnold wings I made during my most recent deployment to Afghanistan, for our short lived C-27 unit schlepping the army around the country. Made with/from:

1) Spray paint given to me by the ammo dump guys in exchange for some movies
2) A jigsaw borrowed for a few weeks from the next door C-130 unit in exchange for making their Chief a desk
3) Wobbly sawhorses made from some twisty doug fir 2×4s and 2×6s I found discarded behind some tents
4) And a mostly full sheet of plywood thieved from never-you-mind where

Put it up in the Ops tent, and left it there when my rotation was up. A while later, someone from the last rotation through brought it home to me before they struck the camp and tore everything down. I still don't know how, it's pretty big, about 4' in diameter!

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First, thank you for your service. Second, very nice project and great story to go with it. This takes me back to when I saw the original (or darn close to the original) in my father's drawer as a child. Dad would never talk about his experiences in WWII, and after he passed, I found his log-he'd flown 43 missions over Germany.

P.S. Dad's patch had an "8" above the star, which I understand was for the 8th Army.
 

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On my first deployment to Balad there was alot of "borrowing of lumber from the army. Some how we even found some bamboo. I made a couple huts to sit in to get some relief from the hot sun. One was a saloon and one was a tiki hut. My dad sent me over a cordless dewalt circular saw which I still have to this day but is on its last leg. I dont think i can get rid of it because I have now taken it on every deployment. It is amazing the things you can do with just a circular saw and a hammar and used nails. On my last deployment I made a weight bench and 4 sets of bunk beds. Oh and about 10 sets of cornhole boards. The army really loved those as they had so much down time when they came to base.
 

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Those darn AMMO guys always lending out the stuff we need, lol. Well done it looks very nice the most I did downrange was build a crappy step.
 

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As HillBillyShooter already stated thanks for your service (Bradley-you also if you check in on this post again).

Early pictures of my father, after enlisting in the Army Air Corps, have this patch on his shoulder.

It turned out awesome & will be a lifetime conversation piece. Thanks for sharing.

Bill in MI
 
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