Spotlight on Finnish militaria collectors

There are dozens of great Finnish Militaria collections in the U.S. and Canada and this new section on the KevOs4 website will "spotlight" some of those collections. Some of the collectors had parents or grandparents that fought in the wars 1939-1945. Some of the collectors are just interested in the history of Finland and it's wars of Independence. Whatever the reason, here are a few collections and some text directly from the collectors themselves.


	Ray Tribble's Collection I am like many of us I started out collecting Finnish rifles. I bought my first rifle in 1995 at a gun show, it was a 1968 M39 and it started a long fascination with the rifles and the culture behind them. As I started collecting more and more rifles I began gathering some information and at the time there was not much out there about the rifles and the Finnish people. I began to read of the hardships and heroism displayed by the Finnish military and people during the Winter and Continuation Wars. I am a serious history nut and soon found myself a dehydrated sponge never able to get enough information to fill my curiosity and desire to learn more about the Finnish people. I was amazed that such an influential conflict had such limited material and coverage. Some years later I decided to set up a small display and started looking for a Winter War period or reproduction M36 Tunic to start out with. Since I wear a size 46 chest… the search lasted a long time. During the mean time it only made sense to acquire the other items a solder may have in his possession or at his disposal. 12 years later I have managed to amass a few nice items and a fair collection of rifles. I seriously doubt that I will ever get everything I would like to have in a display, nor get enough facts to complete my interests regarding this brief moment in history that many have seemed to have forgotten. I decided to build and portray a “Dug Out” type display and get everything out of the boxes and set it up. My goal continues to be driven my personal passion to obtain and accurately display a segment in time where a small and new democratic society stood on both feet against the giant of socialism and do my part to share my passion with others who have not heard the stories. The rich history of the Finnish needs to be distributed and not tucked away in the minds of the brave men and women who fought so valiantly and are fading away into times distant sunset. By the way, I finally found that Tunic… I owe my greatest installation to the display to Mr. Marshall Kregel and I look forward to meeting other members and those interested with the Finnish people.


			Most pictures are taken during the Ashtabula, Ohio, FinnFest event in Fall of 2007.



		Nice displays!