: What is the legal status of the Army-Navy surplus stores? Are : they selling stuff stolen off military _base_s by some enterprising : Sgt. Bilko type? Or is the military auctioning off odd lots of : perfectly good equipment? They buy stuff from military auctions, distributors who buy lots at military auctions and break stuff up, warehouses like US Cav, direct from the manufacturers, and also from the occasional soldier. There was a surplus store near my first guard unit that would trade you an unopened case of MREs for a new pair of jungle boots, frinstance. That was a no-brainer in my book. The military has a staggeringly large amount of crap warehoused. Still, there's only so much they need, and as stuff reaches the date where it doesn't make any sense to keep it in storage any longer, they sell it while they can get _something_ for it. Downsizing has probably put a lot of crap on the market also. Also, soldiers who are technically IRR or could be called back for whatever reason are responsible for maintaining a 'basic issue', which in the army I believe is four sets of BDUs and a set of class As- but in my case over ten years I probably accumulated a dozen sets of BDUs and two or three sets of class As, most of which don't fit, and almost all of which I could tote down to the local surplus place and see if they'll give me ten cents on the dollar for. It would still work out to a pretty good-sized chunk of money, I bet. : And how much of a military uniform can a person wear before it : qualifies as impersonating an officer? Impersonating an officer is a UCMJ thingy. As a civilian, you'd probably get charged under somewhere between 'tresspassing' and 'espionage'...
: [This post was conceived on the usual arrogant USA-centric : assumptions, but if there are similar retail outlets in other : countries I'd be interested in them as well.] There was a surplus store in Dearborn that usually had more German stuff in it than US...
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