Welcome to M1911.ORG
The M1911 Pistols Organization Forums Site


John needs your help
Please read this message.


Sponsors Panel
If you intend to buy something from the companies advertising above, or near the bottom of our pages, please use their banners in our sites. Whatever you buy from them, using those banners, gives us a small commission, which helps us keep these sites alive. You still pay the normal price, our commission comes from their profit, so you have nothing to lose, while we have something to gain. Your help is appreciated.
If you want to become a sponsor and see your banner in the above panel, click here to contact us.

Results 1 to 4 of 4

Thread: Hello - introduction and M1911 photo

THREAD CLOSED
This is an old thread. You can't post a reply in it. It is left here for historical reasons.Why don't you create a new thread instead?
  1. #1
    Join Date
    20th July 2020
    Posts
    3
    Posts liked by others
    4

    Hello - introduction and M1911 photo

    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.
    Likes (3) :
    BrettID (9th May 2022), Doran (10th May 2022), Murray (9th May 2022)


  2. #2
    Join Date
    22nd December 2019
    Location
    Idaho
    Posts
    285
    Posts liked by others
    83
    Awesome history! Thanks for sharing.
    Likes (1) :
    BlackArmy (9th May 2022)


  3. #3
    Join Date
    4th June 2004
    Posts
    2,829
    Posts liked by others
    185
    Great pistol to have.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    4th November 2008
    Location
    Southern Illinois
    Posts
    223
    Posts liked by others
    3
    An old gun with a history. That is cool. I wish my old M!'s had a history with them. Boy if they could talk. I did pick up three Swiss rifles with tags in them. One of them I found the son of the soldier and exchanged emails with him several times and got it's history. He shot it as a kid.
    Ron

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  



Sponsors Panel
If you intend to buy something from Brownells, please use their banners above. Whatever you buy from them, gives us a small commission, which helps us keep these sites alive. You still pay the normal price, our commission comes from their profit, so you have nothing to lose, while we have something to gain. Your help is appreciated.
If you want to become a sponsor and see your banner in the above panel, click here to contact us.

Non-gun-related supporters.
Thank you for visiting our supporters.