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gunnyg
10-02-02, 09:14 AM
Looking for the origin and use of an item called "blanco" used in the Marine Corps prior to WW II.

My first knowledge of this came in 1952 when I worked for an old salt SNCO at CJHP. He instructed me to get up to battalion supply and see a ponyo of his, also an old salt, and get some blanco for him.

Uh oh!, I thought--sounded like another of his deals where he sent some boot out on a wild goose chase--like looking for a seabag-stretcher, etc.

As it turned out, the blanco had been ratholed by the old supply sergeant for his own use. I recall that it was in cake form, like the old laundry soap,but others since then have told me that it also came in powder form.

Its purpose was to use on your 782 gear, for inspections, and/or just for general use--it renewed your 782 gear to one uniform (light khaki) color.

I had always thought it was a Marine thing, although I also heard that the British military may have used it too.

Recently, I received thie following, indicating that the Army was using it in the ETO during WW II--but green?

"Peter Hayes
Re: Blanco?
Wed Oct 2 06:10:42 2002
144.132.42.48

I think that Blanco was a British product,used in the ETO in WW2:

"It was common for the troops to color their web gear with a substance known as Blanco. Blanco was a powder, sometimes issued in cake form, which was used to coat the webbing to renovate it, or to change it to an acceptable color. Khaki webbing stood out amongst the terrain of Northwest Europe. British troops would Blanco their gear if possible. Webbing could be seen colored in shade 97 (light green), or in shade 3 (dark green) which was the preferred color."

Did surplus stocks end up with the USMC after the war?Where Marine NATO deployed forces on the East coast,ready to fight in Europe,catered for also in this regard?"

This is just one more item of USMC Customs and Tradition that has just not appeared in books or records anywhere. Only the real old salts know.

Dick Gaines

gunnyg
10-02-02, 10:17 AM
Here's one response from an old salt Marine--as you know, there are fewer and fewer of these Marines around, every day....

DickG
******************
(from the Tarawa Talk Forum)

"Les Groshong
Blanco again.
Wed Oct 2 09:59:17 2002
64.12.97.9

from: Dick, "Apparently, it was commonly used prior to WW II by Marines-"

Dick, I joined the Reserves in October 1939, and went on active duty in November 1940. I never heard of Blanco, and would like to hear from any pre-war Marine who ever heard of, or used Blanco. The only non GI product that I can remember being"standard" for Marines was Kiwi shoe polish, and I guess that it still is."




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Re Blanco again... ? Dick Gaines, Wed Oct 2 10:07

gunnyg
10-02-02, 07:57 PM
this one from Ken McCullough.

http://www.network54.com/Forum/message?forumid=220604&messageid=1033602452

gunnyg
10-02-02, 08:04 PM
Mac was Col Evans Carlson's radioman on the Makin Raid and The Long Patrol on Guadalcanal.

On Makin, he was the one to successfully signal the subs, after failed attempts to evacuate the island as planned, for a pickup at the lagoon side of the island.