There was another young ensign who grounded a ship early in his career and he was court-marshaled. His name: Chester Nimitz

in louisiana we have parishes instead of counties. claiborne parish is east of shreveport. this was a awesome video. thanks for always honoring soldiers no matter who they served for. i have been to the air station and museum years ago. take care.

Wasn't in the U.S. Navy but believe that shoulder rank is for a Lt. Junior Grade which is the equivalent of our USAF and the U.S Army 1st. LTs.. You hit one of your many home-runs with this one !

The revolver is a Model of 1895 Civilian Colt. It is part of the medium fame series referred to in the video called the Colt New Navy Model of 1889. I have several New Navy and New Army Colts from the series. The Navy models usual had hard black rubber grips and the Army models had plain wood grips with a lanyard ring. They were ordered in small numbers by the government and upgraded over time. They were chambered for .38 Colt (aka .38 Long Colt) cartridge developed in 1875. I also have some M1895 Civilian models in .38 Colt and one in .41 Colt. The .41 Colt cartridge was developed in 1877 for the Colt DA Model of 1877. The M1877 in .38 Colt was marketed as the Lightning and the .41 Colt as the Thunderer. As mentioned in the video, the .38 Colt cartridge was considered ineffective (I've shot cowboy matches with my revolvers and you can see the bullet as it leaves the barrel). Even TR commented on the lack of stopping power and reverted to his M1873 SAA Colt. (His M1892 Colt was stolen twice from the museum and returned anonymously.) I have also shot my M1895 in .41 Colt at Marine Corps League practice and that is much more powerful; similar to .38 S&W Special. After the Spanish War and Philippine Insurrection, the US War Department went to the .38 S&W Special for brief period. Then to the Colt New Service line (M1909 and M1917) in a variety of calibers. Many were altered to receive .45 ACP cartridges with "moon clips". My M1917 is one a small number of models produced in .45 Long Colt. It has a lanyard ring and someone ground off the number on the butt. They forgot to look under the grips where the number still appears.

They should make a movie about this piece of history. This is totally American! God Bless guys just like him🙏

Very cool Tom...You know that Saufley must be smiling down on you for sharing his life while on this earth...

Saufley Field is located in Escambia County on the Florida panhandle, approximately 5 miles northwest of Pensacola. Saufley Field was commissioned on 26 August 1940, and was named in honor of Lieutenant Richard Caswell Saufley, a Naval Aviator who lost his life in 1916 while attempting to set a flight endurance record. In the 1970s, the field was decommissioned to Outlying Landing Field (OLF) Saufley Field under Naval Air Station (NAS) Pensacola and reactivated as a Naval Education and Training Program Development Center. Its current mission is to support training and to serve as home for several DoD and other U.S. Government organizations as a joint use facility. Base tenants include the Defense Activity for Nontraditional Education Support, Defense Finance and Accounting Service Financial Systems Activity, Naval Reserve Center, and Bureau of Prisons. Saufley Field currently has four inactive runways. Three hangars provide over 34,000 square feet of hangar space and 63 buildings are utilized by a population of over 1,000 at Saufley Field. Saufley Field encompasses approximately 866 acres including four airstrips, and a number of buildings that are located south of the airfield. The majority of Saufley Field is covered by paved runways surrounded by mowed, open grassy fields and buildings and structures for tenant support. Approximately 200 of the 866 acres are undeveloped. The majority of the areas surrounding the airstrips and buildings are predominantly wooded and support a wide variety of flora and fauna.

The shoulder board is for a Lieutenant (junior grade), commonly abbreviated as LTJG .

Oddly enough, I recently read that some Smith&Wesson revolvers of that period rotated clockwise. Thanks for Sharing.

Helen Saufley was a pioneering aviatrix in her own right!

Seems like this grouping should go to the namesake airbase or a Naval Aviation museum.

I have my Dad's 1917 Colt New Service 45, Factory Nichol plated with lanyard ring....Manufactured in 1920 and he bought it in 1955....My brother has his Winchester 1873 in 38-40 that he bought in 1935....

Sounds like a hero to me.

Great info! Lived right down the street from Saufley Field in Pensacola.

What a great American! Quite a hero.

Gen. Patton and Gen. Lewis B. "Chesty" Puller were cousins.

One of the other first aviators, in the photo, has Corry Station named after him. It's part of the Pensacola Navy complex and is now home to several training schools including cryptology. Corry Station no longer has it's runways intact. I have a Colt model 1892 DA of .41 CAl. I put it in a display case because the crane and cylinder advance are too worn to restore. It does have matching numbers too.

Wow. A legit museum piece here. I hope whoever winds up with this gun and holster, care is taken to preserve it. Or better yet, one day donated to the Navy. Museum.

We have saufley field down here in pensacola.

I have a similar revolver in my collection, a Colt M1896 New Army Revolver, serial number 143XXX, that hadn't been converted to M1901 configuration as many were. It was inspected by Chief Inspector Rinaldo A. Carr and Sub-Inspector CAPT John T. Thompson, both of whose cartouches are stamped on the grips serialized to the revolver. The butt strap of the pistol is marked U.S./Army/Model/1896 with the serial number below. It came with a civilian holster similar to the one shown in the video that had an inscription written in marker on the inside of the flap identifying the original owner. A small card with his name was also hidden underneath the left-hand grip. I immediately began an internet search to establish whether or not the name inscribed was indeed the veteran who used this pistol in service during the Spanish American War. However, he was too young to have served, so I proceeded onto his father, who also was not yet wasn't born when the revolver was initially shipped from Colt's. His father (the original owner's grandfather) would have been the age to have served and possibly the veteran who brought the revolver home after service.

What a fascinating story! I'm an aviation buff and never heard about this early history of US naval flying...

Stationed at NAS Pensacola as a Marine while going through Flight School in 1980..... one of the outlying fields we used for training was Saufley Field.

The number on the in side of the Crain isn't a serial number its a part/assembly number, not sure about the release but I would assume the same. Learned that one from my colt Philippine. Keep up the great work, without history guns are not much more than fancy pieces of metal 👍

The 306B 38 on the back of the holster is the manufacturer model number of the holster. It's not a military marking.

Thanks Tom...From a old Navy flying Shoe🇺🇸

Facinating history. The (parish) originally came from the villages here the old days UK. But thank you very interesting .

What a wonderful story about a very enterprising naval aviator! Perhaps the first ever "Top Gun?" 😊

I lived in Cantonement, Florida in 1957....Pine Forest Road going north dead ended at a Navy emergency landing field...The yellow SNJ's were flying constantly around the area and I loved every minute of it for one year....I was 14 years old....

I know that you are a business man and aren't out to lose money. I would recommend donating the gun and other memorabilia to the Naval Air Museum in Pensacola.

Wow that's incredible. I bet you love your life. I would love to do what you do. I guess I could if I put my time and energy into it. I have the background to do it. That was sure a interesting video. I love the firearm and the background of it and the man who owned it for a brief period of time. See I love firearms with a history. Heck I have a 1911 colt that was bought by a police chief from Denver in 1918. I wouldn't sell it for the world. Maybe if I die you will get it. I guess I could will it to you but would sell it and it's not a firearm that 8 want to go to just anyone even though I cannot control what happens to it. I have had it since 1994 when I moved to Denver. It came from a well known collector who had a shop/museum in Denver. I loved to look at his collection. When 8 would go there he would always give me a cup of coffee and a pair of white cotton cloves because he knew I was going to look at incredible firearms. I even talked him out of one of his M1A1 carbine's that was all original. I needed it for my M1 collection. I even took him out to shoot my M2 carbine when I got mt class 2 FFL. Enough about that. I would love to visit your business and see what wonderful firearms you have. I can look on the computer all day long but it's not getting that history in my hands and feel the metal and wood. It's different to actually hold the firearms then to look at them. Im sure you understand. Well Happy Safe Shooting 🇺🇸💪

After seeing the letter, I'm in disbelief that the gentleman who last posessed the family heirloom sold it off. I guess maybe there was no one to pass it on to.

Always fascinating content, thank you!

Thank you Tom for your videos!!

Edwin Harris Dunning.....another interesting guy...in the same field of planes and ships

38 didn't go to 45. There was always the two from about the time of cartridge revolvers. It goes back to the cap n ball revolvers in 36 and 44, the cartridge conversions moved the 36 to 38 and the 44 to 45.

Presented by Department of War and Department of the Navy, Mexican Service Medal Established December 12, 1917. May have been issued Posthumously as it did include the Veracruz campaign. Concentrating on "hydro-airplane" (seaplane) development, he set altitude and endurance records and was attempting to better his own record when he died in a plane crash on Santa Rosa Island on a flight out of the Naval Aeronautic Station at Pensacola, Florida on 9 June 1916. His Curtiss Model E hydroplane, AH-8, went down at the 8-hour-51-minute mark of the flight.[1] The Aeronautic Station's commandant, Commander Henry C. Mustin, later faced accusations that his "wrong flying instruction methods" had caused the deaths of Saufley and another aviator, Lieutenant, junior grade, James V. Rockwell. Saufley is buried at Stanford Cemetery in Stanford, Kentucky.

Excellent revolver!!

Florida has counties. Louisiana has parishes.

Great video,thank you 🇬🇧

I am glad you are remembering the early military and pilots....Maybe you could do a video on my friend Grover Cleveland Loening....I would visit with him at his Key Biscayne, Florida home on Harbour Point....

I have my Dad's Nickel plated Colt New Service 45 that he bought used in 1955....SN 318xxx

Lieutenant Junior Grade

Terrific video, as usual.

Fantastic

I am curious as to why there is no date on the authentication letter letter from the lady?

Leiutenant Junior Grad

I doubt its a rack number. As a privately owned gun it would be kept by the owner and not kept in the ship's armory. More likely is that it came from factory with a matching holster.

Rank is Lieutenant Junior Grade, I believe.

I bet they were extremely disappointed to find out we had the same empirical designs as the Spanish and fought like hell.

MY understanding is Parishes are the same as counties in Louisiana. Not sure what other states use parishes.

I have one in 41 cal

Never heard of him....

Timing being off is common to all Colt large revolvers. Good reason to not own one.

Maybe the people from the the Philippines weren't on drugs? Maybe they were just trying to rest their country back from the US who had come to aid them from Spanish empire?