Both trips to Europe (early 1970's and early 1980's) I bought guns in Germany. First tour I was an enlisted man living in barracks and all my guns had to be locked away in the arms room and could not be signed out with out a note from the CO. This made trips to my gun club a PITA because I had to get the note to the CO and back to me via the chain of command before the flag went down in the evening. Worse for me was I was supposed to turn the gun in to the charge of quarters that is the NCO designated to be in charge of the barracks after hours or over a weekend from retreat until the flag goes up the next work day.
"...our best firearms trained experts , basically anyone in the military, …"
That statement needs some adjusting for MOST folks in the military are really simply trained to use issued weapons and not as knowledgeable about firearms in general as the average poster on THR even if they never served a day.
Thus leaving my firearms with the Charge of Quarters (CQ) and his runner (typically a private or Spec. four not in a learedship position, and sometimes an "Acting Jack" Spec four doing and E5 buck sargeants job WAS the CQ) meant they had them to play with all night. One of them was SUPPOSED to be at the CQ table at the inside of the barracks door all night and security consisted of placing the guns behind the table. My rifle and handguns were played with by folks that had only basic firearms training repeatedly as a result and my Colt got dropped onto a stone tiled floor one night but neither that NCO nor his runner seemed to have ANY idea of how a gun in its box got a ding on the steel of the butt that was not there when I read to them the serial number the night before. Experts indeed!
I was required to carry both my PoW hangun (US made but bought in the Neu Ulm Rod and Gun Club) and my little Annie sport rifle in hand and turn them over to air crew for the flight home and in hand through customs. Of course as a lower ranking EM living in barracks I had not household allowance so packing them in household goods was not an option.
nearly a decade later, having gotten out, used my GI Bill to get a degree, played ROTC and gotten a Direct Regular Army Commission (dated the same day the West Pointers got theirs which was actually about ten days before my graduation when all the ROTCies got theirs) rather than a Reserve, I returned to Europe. Initially I was briefly in Holland and later in Germany though this time in Hesse rather than Bavaria.
I imported three US made handguns via "authorized to carry Privately Owned Weapons and munitions in route" on my travel orders. in 1981 neither the Germans nor the Dutch Custom folks even raised an eyebrow or inspected the weapons or ammunition.
I did report the weapons to the Provost when arriving at my final posting in Germany, but was allowed to keep my PoWs in my off post apartment which was "on the economy" and not post housing.
Many of my NCOs were authorized to keep firearms in family housing units. Troopers living in my barracks (I was property book Officer) were required to store weapons in the arms room though we had far fewer in that HQ unit than the Infantry Rifle Company I had served in as a lower enlisted barracks dwelling grunt.
When I left Europe a bit over a year later (a normal tour is three to five years so obviously this was not necessarily "normal") I packaged my household allowance and the repacked it as Customs at Community specifically said I could not have weapons in my household goods and gae me an appointment for when to be at Customs for surrendering my household allowance and witnessing inspection and sealing.
I was instructed to hand carry now six handguns( my original three and three German made purchased in Germany and a US made rifle I did not personally export but bought from a GI in something like a common face to face back home but with forms sent for the sale and purchase to the local Provost Marshal's office.
Observant folks notice I went over the duty free limits on firearms. This was an issue until US Customs said OK once I got stateside. Filling out my customs paper work on the aircraft I declared all those guns. At the urging of the person helping us with that chore an orange broad tipped magic marker was used to draw a line in a diangle from top left corner of the form to bottom right corner of the form and in one inch letters centered on that line was written "GUNS" in the same broad tip orange magic marker. Struggling with a suitcase, duffle bag, rifle case and large pistol case I made it to the Customs counter in Charleston SC at about 3 AM one morning. I was asked whether I had anything to declare and said everything was on the list and then flagged through. As I had not yet received my Form 6A for returning service men (and others)to individually import firearms because I left before they came back in the mail (they were supposed to be preapproved stateside so had to go in the mail to DC then back to wherever the trooper was after customs clerks sat on them for however long) and being an honest sort of fellow I asked "What about the guns?" The customs guy then asked "What guns?" and I pointed out the brilliant and bold notation on my declaration sheet. Suddenly I was a popular guy, as in I got to spend half an hour in the Customs office making sure the serial numbers and discriptions of my now seized Privately Owned Weapons (PoW) (Prisoners of war were at that time abbreivrated PW and this dis cause some confussion with the old WWII POW designationfor Prisoners Of War for some folks but notice the middle letter is lower case when printed).
I sweated out three weeks while my paperwork (which had apparently arrived in Europe about the time I stepped off the plane in Charleston) made its way back to the US and through the system to someone in charge. I will now digress slightly to when the guns were being seized. One of the agents was fascinated with my S&W Model 28 Highway Patrolman. Despite having the normal markings on the barrel it had been customized to life as a .44 Special. The uniformed agent and his buds all carried Model 28s as well. He delighted in comparing the Silvertip hollow points I had for it with his .357 ammo. He announced that he liked my revolver and its caliber more than his issue gun and I said, sort of as a joke, "Well feel free to carry it on duty until I get everything released." Well when I recovered my guns they were neatly packed in a nice wooden crate and had all been cleaned! There was a business card from the agent I had talked to about the M28 with the 28 and written on the back was a note of thanks.
See be nice to folks.....
Anyway there is my now DETAILED account of a GI (both enlisted and Commissioned) importing guns from Europe back in the day.
If it happened different with you or your uncle Charlie great! That was my experience though.
-kBob
