I was sitting at the workshop bench in the ship's armory on USS NUECES (APB-40) when my boss, GMGC Dobbins, came in.  He said: "You're pretty savvy on small arms, what do you think you can do with this?"  He then handed me a well-worn Colt . 45 pistol, M1911.  This was a World War I pistol, and not the more common M1911A1 that was adopted for service in 1925.  (We had 20 World War II copies of the M1911A1's in our pistol locker in the armory.)

 

"Well, Chief, I can't do anything about refinishing the pistol, but I can replace enough of the worn parts so that you'll have a shooter."  Chief Dobbins accepted the deal and left the pistol with me for overhaul.

 

Other than the worn exterior, the old M1911 was in fairly decent shape mechanically.  The barrel was junk, but we had a lot of new, chrome-lined .45 barrels in our parts bins, and so the M1911 got one of these.  I installed a new extractor and barrel bushing.  The hammer was in good shape, but I fitted a new disconnector and sear to be on the safe side.  A new leafspring and recoil spring replaced the originals.  The old wooden grips were replaced by new plastic ones from our part's bin.  It took me most of the afternoon to inspect, clean, and fit the parts for the Chief's pistol.  It got a light film of oil and was locked it up with the other .45s for the night.

 

At quarters the next moring, I told Chief Dobbins that his pistol was ready to pickup.  When he checked it out in the armory, he was amazed at what just a few parts had done to restore it to serviceable condition.  He told me that he'd ordered some cold blue from the PX and thought he could refinish the exterior.  I agreed that this would be a definite improvement, since about 99 percent of the original finish was gone on this pistol.

 

The next time I saw the pistol was when we were qualifiying watch standers on the .45 just prior to our arrival in Japan.  Now that we'd left the combat zone, the usual watch standers for the quarterdeck had been expanded to include folks whose job description did not have them handling firearms and ammunition.  That is, electronics technicians, storekeepers, clerks, and others.

 

All the gunner's mates coached the newly-minted quarterdeck watch standers in loading, unloading, firing, and safety procedures with the .45 pistol.  Chief Dobbins approached me about shooting his pistol with the others.  By this time, our Weapons Officer, LT Bradley had learned about the Chief's pistol.  He was unsure whether it was safe or not to shoot the old warhorse. 

 

I assured LT Bradley that the M1911 was a very strong and robust pistol.  And to prove it, I would take the first shots with the reworked sidearm.  LT Bradley reluctantly agreed and Chief Dobbins handed me the pistol.  At that point, I found that his diligent application of cold blue to the unfinished steel had turned an ugly duckling into a swan.  The old M1911 now had a beautiful deep blue that glistened through a light coat of oil. 

 

I wiped the pistol down, loaded a magazine, chambered a round, topped off the magazine, and proceeded to run through the eight rounds without a jam.  With the exception of the miniscule sights -- the M1911 sights were even smaller than those of the M1911A1 -- the rebuilt pistol was very accurate.  I loaded up the magazine and Chief Dobbins blazed away.  Even LT Bradley took a turn with the pistol and was amazed how well this antique worked.  Chief Dobbins had a grin from ear to ear with his resurrected war trophy.  I was secretly pleased to have had a hand in its resurrection.