Survivor donates Japanese machinegun

[Drizzt]

Survivor donates Japanese machinegun

Submitted by: MCAS Yuma
Story by: Computed Name: Pfc. Kamran Sadaghiani
Story Identification #: 20053412628


MARINE CORPS AIR STATION YUMA, Ariz.(March 03, 2005) -- A former Marine donated a Japanese Type 99 7.7 mm medium machine gun to the Marine Corps Museum at Quantico, Va., Feb. 7.

Kenneth H. Stevenson, 80, a Yuma, Ariz., native and a former platoon sergeant with the 27th Regiment, 5th Marine Division, who fought through the bloody battle of Iwo Jima, seized the machine gun on Mount Suribachi Feb. 19, 1945, before returning home.

Stevenson said he felt after holding his souvenir for 60 years; he wanted to give it back as a piece of history.

"The reason I donate this machine gun now is to give it back to the Marine Corps, where it belongs," said Stevenson. "It makes me happy that it's going back to the Marine Corps."

According to his wife, Evelyn S. Holl, he is giving the machine gun back to the Marine Corps because he loves the service so much.

"Ken is very proud of his years in the Marine Corps, and he often speaks of how proud he is of it," said Holl. "For a long time he would dwell on how (the Marine Corps) affected him personally. This is the first time that I can think of that he has come forward."

Stevenson said he was with the first wave of troops to hit the beach at Iwo Jima. Looking back at the past, Stevenson recalled how tough the battle was to survive with the mass casualties his Marines faced.

"We killed about twenty-five thousand Japanese," said Stevenson. "About eight thousand Marines were killed and about twenty thousand wounded."

"We lost fifty percent of the Marines on that invasion," said Stevenson. "The battle itself was quite a sight, with the dive bombers and all the shooting going on. It was a heck of a battle. (The Japanese) fought inch by inch all the way. They fought to the very end.

"All of the Marines on that island knew why we were there," said Stevenson. "Being Marines, we did the job. Were we scared? Yes. The Japanese were shooting at us, and we were shooting at them. It was a typical Marine battle, but every Marine that I knew did the job they were supposed to do."

Stevenson said that after storming the beaches they received enemy fire coming from a cave, which they took out with a flame thrower and explosives, killing three Japanese.

"That morning on the fourth day, we were going up toward the first air strip, and there was some enemy fire from Mount Suribachi," said Stevenson. "So we went over to where the enemy fire was coming from. We ran up on the side of the cave and shoved a flame thrower in there and then threw a satchel charge in the cave."

After clearing the cave, Stevenson and his platoon retrieved the machine gun with other weapons.

Before returning from his deployment, Stevenson made an agreement with his platoon to bring the weapon home and sell it to fund a party. Stevenson said before that could happen, he lost most of his men in battle, so the weapon was left to him.

"We were going to bring the machine gun down and we were going to sell it so we could have a big party. But most of the guys (in my platoon) got killed or wounded, so I ended up with this machine gun for sixty years," said Stevenson.

"Now that it's all over with, (the machine gun is) something the Marine Corps can be very proud of. But it was very costly to us," he added.

"I'm proud of that gun and I'm proud of the Marine Corps. (The museum) is where I want the gun to be. That is part of history, its party of (Iwo Jima) and it's part of the Marine Corps," said Stevenson.

http://www.marines.mil/marinelink/m...d86d111f9d41127585256fba005dfa14?OpenDocument

 

[El Tejon]

Wow! A 99!

Talk about rarer than hens' teeth.

 

[bamawrx]

Powerful story. No mention of any NFA reg or not. Not that I care (if he did reg), but it would be interesting to know if it was transferable or contraband.

 

[Trebor]

I agree with Bamawrx. He may have registered it duing the amnesty, he may not have. Doesn't really matter as he did find a legal way to dispose of it and it's in a good home.

 

[Gewehr98]

Third option, with respect to the pictured MG...

It's already a DEWAT.

 

[Trebor]

No, I don't think there is such a thing as a DEWAT anymore, legally. That was one of the things changed in '68, if I understand correctly. Now for it to be legally "not a gun" the receiver has to be destroyed. The old "plug the barrel and it's legal" standard is long gun.

 

[Mr. Mysterious]

I'm glad that it is going to a good home...will be appreciated by many.

Exactly how rare are these things?

MrM

 

[patent]

But it was very costly to us," he added.​

Amen. Good men.

 

[Ian]

I don't know just how rare they are, but my father has one registered as a dewat. I've been trying to get him to find a magazine for it (apparently the mags cost $300 or $400 a piece) and have it made functional (as I understand it, you can re-register a "plugged barrel" dewat and have it restored to working order).

 

[PromptCritical]

How much news was made of the NFA and GCA? When they passed where was there any effort made to spread the word? This guy may have not even have known he had to register the thing. Nothing like turning a veteran into a criminal without his knowledge.

 

[homeka45]

Good man, he must have been a hell of a soldier.

 

[Jim K]

Unfortunately, quite a few veterans never heard of either the original NFA or of the change to the law in 1968, and many had never deactivated their war souvenir machineguns. One vet told me "I fought for that gun, I'll be damned if I will register it and if they want it they can come and try to take it."

Today, with many WWII veterans passing on, their families find themselves unknowingly in violation of the law. Generally, BATFE tries to be understanding (yes, they really do), but they have no choice but to seize an unregistered gun if it comes to their attention.

I strongly advise anyone with registered NFA weapons to make sure your heirs or executor know the ins and outs of getting the gun(s) transferred (Form 5) so they can be sold legally and not confiscated and destroyed.

As to that veteran, I assume he did register the gun under the amnesty. In spite of what some believe, offering to donate an illegal gun to a museum after you are caught with it does not get you off the hook for illegal possession.

Jim

 

[Trebor]

In spite of what some believe, offering to donate an illegal gun to a museum after you are caught with it does not get you off the hook for illegal possession.

Jim, are you sure on that? The reason I ask is that I was told by a curator at the Marine museum in Quantico (same museum in the article) that if you surrender the gun to a govt. run museum, like theirs, you are effectively surrending it to the govt and that this was an acceptable way to dispose of unregistered MG's. He said you couldn't just donate it to a private musueum though.

Now, it could be that this was just a way to keep the gun from being destroyed and that you could still face the possibility of being charged and maybe the ATF just "looks the other way" in these instances.

Just trying to figure out what the situation really is. In the last couple years I've had two or three people ask me about what to do with old war-trophy guns they inherited and I'd tell them to either turn them in to the ATF or donate them to a govt run museum. (BTW, I don't know for sure if they were MG's or not. I'd tell them specifically that I didn't want to see the guns and didn't want to know any more.)