Hi all, below is the pistol that gave me my username.
1918 Colt Left Side.jpg
Here's a long story made short about this 1918 Colt "Black Army" - I'll likely share the long version in another thread at some point, but back in Feb it was posted on another forum or two.
In WW2 this was the service pistol for Tuskegee Airmen Maj Lemuel Custis. Custis was in the first Tuskegee graduating class of 5 pilots in 1942. He had 1 confirmed enemy aircraft kill, 2 additional probable kills, and received the Distinguished Flying Cross among other awards. Custis kept this pistol after leaving the service in '46.
After his death in 2005 this pistol was donated to his local police department (Wethersfield, CT) by the executor of his estate - if it was surrendered to the dept it would have been destroyed, and there was no family to inherit it. The dept subsequently sold the pistol to an officer within the dept, who many years later passed the pistol along to me.
For Veterans Day this coming November 2022, if all goes well, this pistol will be reunited with Custis' WW2 flight jacket and medals in a special exhibit honoring the Tuskegee Airmen, at the New England Air Museum in Windsor Locks, CT. A member on the museum b.o.d. has asked if I would temporarily loan it to them for the exhibit.
After WW1 (possibly happening during WW2) this pistol received an updated field replacement barrel, a 1917 Colt slide, and at the same time what I believe to be a parkerized finish that has been very much worn out.
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