I like to think this will be one of the great projects of my lifetime. My son Robert is two right now. I will be restoring an M-1 for him for his High School Graduation present. It will be completely rebuilt to new specs. I also intend to give it to him in a pine "transit case" that also has all the accessories in it like a sling, manual, clips, cleaning gear, etc, etc. Just like he were being "issued" the rifle. Boy, I wish I had gotten a present like this for my graduation!

Anyway, here we are now. I thought it would be fun to take a photo of him with the rifle now so he can understand that I was thinking of this even "way-back-then". I think he'll get a kick out of this. Incidentally, Robert is named after my dad, who fought in WWII, landed at Normandy on D+3, and fought through Europe into Germany. Then he went to Texas, where he guarded SS prisoners. My dad used an M-1 for real during the dark days of WWII. I hope the fact that Robert gets one of his own will give him a tangible conection to the grandfather that he never got to meet.

Wow, powerful meaning behind all that. With you as a dad, I bet he will "get" it. Can you send me length,width,height,thickness, etc of the Garand so I can start drawing up the "shipping crate" for the rifle? I think it will be a pretty neat product to offer and will be meaningfull to ME that you got the first one and had the initial idea.

Carry on!!

I've already done a preliminary drawing without dimensions. I'll send that along to you.

I think that is great! This will just blow your sons mind knowing you not only gave him an amazing gift/ piece of history but had it planned out and had been working on it his whole life. Good for you man .

Great project and gift!! My congrats to both of you.
Dan

I have the lumber for the case now (got it a few weeks ago actually). 17" wide x 12' long Maine White Pine board. The whole case will be made out of that one board!! Talk about grain and color matching!!

Hmmm... I trip over that lumber for Robert's case every day. Maybe I should fire that thing up now that I have a rifle to fit it to!!

Fantastic idea, I just passed some of my firearms, my dad's and my grandpap's down to my sons.
They both wanted my 1911 from WW1, but that stays with me , for awhile anyway.

Chris...If you finish that case by the time we come up there we can bring it back down with us and we don't have to ship it!

P2V...I'd say you should enjoy that 1911. You've earned it. Also, I remember P2V Neptune's flying out of Brunswick Naval Air Station in Maine when I was a kid. Of course it's been P-3's for a million years, and they don't even look good anymore with that overall Haze Gray scheme and subdued markings. I miss the old gloss Gull Gray on the bottom and white on the top, with full-color markings and squadron insignia. There's still a P2V serving as "Gate Guardian" at Brunswick. I wonder what will happen to it after BNAS closes in a few years and Mid-coast Maine implodes. Actually the rest of the State should follow soon after, starting with Portland.

I was in VP-5 in Jax, we used to fly up to maine to bring back lobster.