Airforce shipping crate

I'm not sure when to date this crate to. Size 31x15x16 inch. The stamps on top (Wilson $1) were first printed in 1938, and the "Air Force Postal Service" postmark may be May 1938 or possibly 1988 or other? Ten stamps so $10 seems a lot to ship a crate (even a heavy one) back in 1938? Box originally contained "4 Fuzes .. with arming delay" - anyone know what those are? I don't know military collectibles (if this is one). The paint is awesome simply as a decorator piece; does it have any value beyond that?

 

I would think fifty bucks on the higher end but it would be invaluable to drop it off at the PO today

 

way fricken cool !!!!!

"4 Fuzes .. with arming delay" - anyone know what those are?...
YA...they make bombs go BOOM !!!!
it even says BOMB on the box !!!!

 

Well, according to this, the 37th Bomb Squad was active between 1933 and 1938 when it was disbanded (until 1940.) Previous to that, it was only active from 1917 to 1919. So I'd think your crate dates to the 1930s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/37th_Bomb_Squadron#Inter-war_years

Debora

 

.......... 1938 ...for the stamps , at least !!

 

Pretty awesome. It would be fun to find out who the guys were too. I'd have hauled that home in a heartbeat.

 

Yeah I was fortunate to get $50 for an old WWI shipping crate on CL.

 

VT fuzes were first issued in about 1943-44 and I’m sure these are at earliest, more like 1945.

http://michaelhiske.de/Allierte/USA/USNBD/USA/BombsAndFuzesUS/Section03/Page229.htm

But the timeframe is most likely Korean War. APO 970 was the address of that bombing squadron during Korean War as found among these postings

https://www.koreanwar.org/html/units/usaf/37bs.htm

 

i guess I could be persuaded to read the postmark as 1952...

 

I read it as 1953. In that odd font the tops of both 5 and 3 are compressed to the top. ??

 

hard to make out......but 53 works too !

 

For anyone interested, I put this out for $150 since I thought the colors, history and folk art quality to the tiger were quite nice. I have booth space in an antique mall and it sold within 24 hours. Not that much traffic at our mall, I sell furniture (mostly mid century since that is what people buy though I do sprinkle some antique furniture in sometimes when I have room) and stuff usually sits for quite some time before it finds the right buyer.

 

nice sale...

 

Looks like 1953 to me. You could try to find info on what year Lt. Patten mustered out and shipped his stuff home to himself. Be even more interesting to know what was in the chest!

 

Thanks for the update, which I am late finding. I'm glad you sold it!