A Warrior’s Weapon Returns Home

by Paul Kirchner

The personal weapons of noted warriors have always held an allure for students of history. Revolvers owned by Wild Bill Hickok are one of the main attractions at the Adams Museum in Deadwood, South Dakota; Patton’s famous sidearms draw visitors to the General Patton Museum at Fort Knox, Kentucky; and the M-40A1 rifle with which Marine sniper Chuck Mawhinney achieved 103 confirmed kills in Vietnam is on display at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Virginia.

Unfortunately, the value of historically significant weapons attracts the attention of thieves. A brace of cavalry pistols carried by Alexander Hamilton in the Revolutionary War was stolen from his home, the Grange, in 1958, and a single-shot pistol of the notorious duelist Alexander Keith McClung went missing from the historical society of Jackson, Mississippi. Stolen items may eventually turn up; the Colt model 1892 .38-caliber revolver Theodore Roosevelt carried on San Juan Hill, which was stolen from the Sagamore Hill National Historical Site in 1990, was returned 16 years later.

A recent news article in the Southern Oregon Mail Tribune reported the return of a Colt 1911 to its owner 30 years after it had been stolen. This .45 was of considerable historical interest — John J. McGinty, USMC, used it in combat in Vietnam on March 12, 1968, the day he earned the Medal of Honor. His citation states, “When the enemy tried to out-flank his position, he killed five of them at point-blank range with his pistol.”

Five! That’s an extraordinary performance with a handgun. Only Sgt. Alvin York, who on October 8, 1918, killed six German soldiers with his .45, is known to have exceeded that toll in a single incident. U.S. Navy SEAL R.J. Thomas, profiled in More of the Deadliest Men Who Ever Lived, may have killed more, but his exact score was not tallied.

Reporter Paul Fattig’s fascinating account of the return of McGinty’s .45, as well as his Medal of Honor citation, can be read by clicking here.


Paul Kirchner is the author of Bowie Knife Fights, Fighters, and Fighting Techniques; The Deadliest Men; More of the Deadliest Men Who Ever Lived; Jim Cirillo’s Tales of the Stakeout Squad; and Dueling with the Sword and Pistol. He also contributed to The Paladin Book of Dangerously Fun Stuff and did the illustrations for the revised edition of Jeff Cooper’s Principles of Personal Defense.