My dad passed away a few years ago and I've slowly been going through boxes of stuff my step mom finds in storage and sends to me. Much of this stuff is from WWII. My dad was a Marine with the 3rd Jasco (joint assault signal company - responsible for shore to ship comm, calling in air and naval fire support and forward observation). One of the many things that I found especially interesting was his copy of the map of Iwo Jima he used for calling air, ship and artillery fire. It has all the landing info, location of pill boxes, bunkers, gun emplacements, etc. This map was done by the Dept of the Navy and says right on it that the info is current as of 2 days prior to the landing, and is accurate based on aerial (sp) photos and naval observations. It is also marked TOP SECRET. I also have his code books with the call signs for every ship, air group, command officer from company level up, company units and up.

Aside from the personal value to me being something my dad left me, do these kinds of things have enough collector value where I should be concerned about keeping them in safe storage? Also if I wanted to find out more info on some of this stuff where is a good place to go look, i.e. web sites and stuff like that.

That stuff sounds interesting as hell, especially the map!!  Joyce (wife) did a lot of research about her father on the net and I think it was through [url]www.military.com[/url], although I am sure she had other resources.  Give us a call this weekend and maybe she can help you. Right now she is still in the hospital recovering from surgery (hysterectomoy).

Later

Sgtar15

I agree that the value to you would make the best reason to keep them safe. I keep my Mothers familes ration books from the war in my safe because of the value I place on them.  Some baseball cards I have which are surely worth more money I don't.

Recently my mother passed away, about 2 years after my dad, and we also have been going through the boxes in the house.  We have found a treasure trove of over 200 letters from my dad to his folks, from his folks to him, etc...  All from when he was first in the reserves, through training, and basic, to overseas. to post war. - He was in Europe.

One of the most interesting ones is a letter he wrote home after the first A-bomb was dropped, but before the second one.  It is interesting to see the hope of ending the war in Pacific that created.

My brother and I are hoping to put some sort of boko together, or at least a web site that commemorates his service.

Hang onto all that - and if anyone has any ideas on how to preserve 55 year old letters (some with envelopes) please let us know.

Pthfndr, if you are anyhting like us, you are finding a new side of you father - one that he may have hinted at, but didn't really talk about much.

I think, much more than a memorial on the mall (and that's a good thing) preserving these items from that war, and from our parents is a much better memorial to them and their generation that anyhting else.

I have a massive collection of WW2 Memorabilia, so much so it was used in the county museum for their WW2 display.

I would reccomend preserving all of your items. Call a local museum, and ask if they can roccomend some acid-free bags, boards and photo mounts. They should also know who has acid free boxes to store everything in.

And don't wait! The longer they go without preservation, the shorter they will last.

Av.