Henry Rifle Forums

A number of years ago, I was given an old duffel bag at an estate sale (it was going to be tossed away!) It had belonged to a Marine during WWII in the Pacific theater and was marked with his initials and duty tour. I've had this bag for at least 15 years, never finding a use for it but not wanting it to go in the trash, either.

I decided my Henry needed a vintage style case, and decided to make one using the duffel bag. It's reminiscent of WWII and earlier cases. It has some batting to cushion and is lined with polyester fleece. Best of all, I kept the markings intact as a tribute to a Marine I never met, who served in places I never heard of before (Ulithi? Had to look that one up!) I hope he would approve!

Lloyd Frank Rivenburgh, USMC, 27 Jan 1923 - 24 Dec 1996. Tour of Duty: Samoa, Maui Territory of Hawaii, Pearl Harbor, Kwajalein, Eniwetok, Honolulu, Guadalcanal, Ulithi, Okinawa, Guam, Saipan, Tsingtao.
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Pictures look a little squished...anyone else have that problem?

In Firefox I can right click and select view image and the image opens on a page by itself.

The case is awesome, a great re-purposing job! Nice work saving the historical nature of the bag.

I think that is one of the coolest things I've seen JB.

Moe and Henry, thank you very much!

That is a great use for an old duffel bag, and I'm sure that Marine Rivenburgh would definitely approve. It sounds like he had a very busy tour of duty - I hope he made it back home in one piece.

Great tribute you've made to this vet...I'm certain he would have smiled at the honor.

Salute....some of Marine Rivenburgh's Pacific duty areas were tough spots to be in during WWII.

You did a great job of handcrafting the rifle case and your idea to re-purpose his duffel bag in this way, retaining it's historic provenance and character, is outstanding. Thanks for sharing it with us.

CT_Shooter wrote:You did a great job of handcrafting the rifle case and your idea to re-purpose his duffel bag in this way, retaining it's historic provenance and character, is outstanding. Thanks for sharing it with us.

+1!

Moe60 wrote:In Firefox I can right click and select view image and the image opens on a page by itself.

The case is awesome, a great re-purposing job! Nice work saving the historical nature of the bag.

same here

That is really cool, and I do think he'd approve.
Semper fi
Jim

Great job.

Great idea and it turned out nice!!

For anyone following, I think I've been able to track down Marine Rivenburgh' s unit. The only one I can find that was at all these stations was the 22nd Marines Regiment.

It's fascinating to research things like this. What one learns on the side adds so much color to the entire picture. For example, Ulithi had a lagoon that could hold more ships than Pearl Harbor, and we made it a fleet support base. It had floating dry docks capable of lifting battleships completely dry, a ship with a machine shop and base metals that could cast any alloy and make any part needed, even one ship that could make up to 500 gallons of ice cream per day! (Always the little things that help!)

Truly a first class job. Very inspiring!

I like it. Nice job and like we all should anytime I can support the vets or vet in anyway I will do it. Without those vets we wouldnt have Henrys. Al