They're back! Those of a certain age will remember being taught to crouch under their school desks in case of nuclear attack. Shortly thereafter, the gov't, in its infinite wisdom zoomed about the cityscape plastering black and yellow signs on buildings with basements to designate them as fallout shelters wherein it stored cans of water and radiation meters which were so insensitive that any reading could only mean the past tense of crispiness. We have a quantity of these signs, brand new in the sense that they have never been plastered, but antique in the sense that they are Cold War originals and may show slight wear from being stored. 10" x 14" , 25 ga. galvanized steel. They have a black base coat on the front over sprayed with orange/yellow reflective paint in the familiar design rendered nearby by our faithful artist. This is a true collector's item fetching $50 and up in antique stores! A tasteful addition to even the dullest basement hangout.

You will survive, too, just like Gloria Gaynor, and in the woods, even. But only if you have this U.S. Army manual, cleverly titled: SURVIVAL, Department of the Army Field Manual FM21-76. It's 287 heavily illustrated pages of techniques for staying alive (add your own BeeGee jokes here) including orientation, food & cooking, fire- and shelter-making, rafts, animal, insect and plant recognition, and much more. This is the 1970 edition, but staying alive in the woods hasn't changed a whole lot since then. In soft-cover.

Call it a MASK unit. This faux-military “Minor Surgery” kit from Voodoo Tactical® comes in a 7" x 5" x 2-1/2" OD canvas pouch containing: 6” wound probe; 3-1/2” stitch scissors; 3-1/2” tweezers; 5-1/2” bandage scissors; 5” straight and curved forceps; a #3 scalpel handle with disposable blade; pupil flashlight with mm gauge; alcohol pads; antiseptic towelettes; some 5/0 monofilament; and a gram of antibiotic ointment. And remember: reenacting actual combat surgery without a license is still not allowed.

In nylon digital camo, this military radio bag measures 11" x 12" x 6" with adjustable straps on the side panels to pull them in, another to close the top, and a pair of female molle buckles to attach it to something else. Sew it all together, add a strap and you’ve got a great carry-all. Note openings at bottom corners. For you collectors, it’s marked  "APB03 RADIO POUCH SPM1C1-09-F-C002 8465015158636 F190686393 TAMCN NO. C54402F"

Blank dog tags, ready to punch. Each set measures 2" x 1-1/8" x 1/32" thick in matte stainless steel with (2) ball chains, one 24" long and one 4-1/2" long. You get (2) sets of (2) tags, with (4) chains altogether. Made in the USA.

These just in, special for military strap aficionados. Right angle olive-drab canvas strap. The wide part measures 17" x 2" and is sewn onto  a U-shaped steel clip with a 13-1/2" long x 1" strap mounted at right angles to it. Both straps have steel ends with (2) 3/16" holes. Quite useful for something, we're sure.

Add the glitter of bright, brass-tone aluminum buttons, 9/16" dia, to tops, jeans, purses, backpacks. The buttons are new and convex, with a stationary 1/8" sewing loop on the back, and an embossed star and small hammer and sickle design on the front. All right, so they were from the Soviet military (circa late 1970s). The design is very discreet. And we weren't the ones who had to tear down a wall, so you can consider these the spoils of a cold war. (Lots and lots of spoils. Left-leaning artists who want to cover a giant canvas or Soviet statue with them should call for a volume discount.)

That’s where these military overseas caps started out, on Deutsch köpfe. Slightly shorter than the U.S. garrison cap, and with a jaunty curve, front to back, they’re in dark blue-gray with orange piping and a German army insignia on the front. We’ll pick a pair in (2) different sizes 58-63, which is approx 7-1/4 to 7-7/8 on American heads, but the envelope design gives them some size leeway.

The kind that you hammer into the ground for to hold up your tent. Make that shelter-half, because these are from Uncle. Measure 12" long x 1-3/4" wide in a V-shape, in olive drab steel with a 1/4” bore for your rope, and shoulders to wrap the rope around. Marked 97403-132227 E0136 MFR 92398, which is a lotta numbers for a tent stake, but that’s the gummint for you.

From the mid-20th-century German military, this is a fully functional field phone. Weighs in at 8.2 lbs, and comes self-contained in a 10-1/4" x 6-3/4" x 4-1/4" dark brown Bakelite case with a handset on a 4-foot cord, a 52” 2-pin jumper, 25” TT plug cord, ringer crank and a battery holder for the pair of D-cells you’ll need to add. Side has slots for the carrying cord that we don’t have, and the inside lid has a full schematic. Should work with standard stereo speaker wire, and we’d get a pair of these phones if we were you. Small quantity available.

Not actually a mystery--it’s one of (4) olive drab polymer paddle-ish things used to hold up mosquito netting over cots in the military. We’ve got the paddles, but not the stakes or nets, so we recommend creating a new game with these and whiffle balls or shuttlecocks in the woods. Or carry them as emergency canoe paddles for when you’re up a creek, or use them as props in a musical. Or you tell us. Measure 29-3/4" long with a 2-3/8” hole at one end, tapering from 3-3/4” down to 1-1/2” with a 6" dia round at the other end.

Could very well be for a gas mask, but that's just a guess, and we know not from whose military. Interesting, though, and rubberized for your protection. It's olive drab, 9-1/2" x 11" x 4", with hook-and-loop belt fasteners. The belt fasteners are oriented so that there's an 8" x 10" snap-flap pocket on the front, a fold-over closure for the bag itself on one short side with a hook-and-loop catch against the body, and a 4" x 6" pocket with hook-and-loop closure on the opposite short side. Good deal if you need to keep stuff dry. Even better after a few hours in the sun and a good spray with a fabric freshener.

Talk inside the mask. This microphone, designed to fit inside an oxygen mask, is brand new, made for the US Air Force in the mid-1980s. NOS microphone, dynamic type M-133/U. Manufacturers part # 4500-WBC DLA900-85-C-098. Cable has MIL-C-5898C-WD-34U USAF and U-173/U connectors. Sorry, folks, that's all we know.

This single-earphone 200 ohm military headset straps around your head with a second OD strap over the top from ear to ear, all adjustable with hook-and-loop ends. Manufactured in the mid 1980s in the USA for the US military, we know not which branch. Part #s include DAAB07-85-C-E613 FSCM 80063. Has a 4-1/2" foot cord terminating with a BNC connector.

Originally a canteen pouch with two little mouse ear flaps that wrap around the top and snap closed, this insulated olive drab bag could double as a purse or a dog bone holder. Which technically would make it a pooch pouch. Measures 7-1/2" x 7" x 2-1/2". Snap straps on the back let you clip it to your pack or belt.

But no tent. Or shelter half, as they say in the army, although we don't know whose army these are from.  You get a 3-section, 44" tent pole plus (3) steel stakes, all well used and all in an OD camo pouch. Your bivouac partner is supposed to have the other pole and pegs, so maybe he has your half of the pup tent, too.

This Olive Drab painted on the outside and shiny, reflective silver on the inside aluminum lampshade from Uncle is 7” dia at the bottom x 4-1/8” tall with a 1-5/16” hole non-threaded, in the top for the bulb. Plug the hole and it’s a bowl!

These olive/brown canvas camo grenade pouches measure 3-3/4" x 3" x 2" with snapping top flaps and (2) 1” wide snap-on belt straps on the back. Made in the USA and marked “NSN 8465-01-465-2093 DAAK60-97-D-9302" which is a lot of numbers for such a little pouch, but that’s the military for you.