I was allowed to keep my TL-29 that was issued to me.
I was never asked to turn it in, I thought they were issued to us as personal property. It was an issue that never came up.
Though one possible explanation of why it didn't come up was that I came home on a medevac flight and went to the US Naval Hospital at Oak Knoll (Oakland, CA). I don't even recall going through customs when I cam e back to the US.
What I do Remember-
I remember flying on a medevac flight into Travis AFB (I think it was Travis) and several of us who were ambulatory were allowed to go through the chow line at the base hospital (I think). We walked through the chow line with a huge metal tray and the mess man asked if I wanted eggs. I said, "Sure," and held out my tray. He looked at me like I was stupid and asked, "Fried, scrambled or poached?"
Never having been asked this before in a Marine Corps chow line, and not seeing any eggs in the steam tray in front of him I was thoroughly befuddled, I stammered, “Fried.” He gave me that your-an-idiot-look once again and ask, “over easy, over hard, or sunny side up?”
That was the third question in a row just for some eggs and I didn’t even have them yet! I said “sunny side up.”
Then I had to stand there while he cooked them for me. That was kind of cool to have hot eggs in the chow line for breakfast! Them Air Force boys know how to live!
But, it turns out we hadn’t seen anything yet. After loading my tray with sunny side up eggs, two styles of potatoes, (I did pass on the grits), bacon, ham and sausage I reached the end of the chow line, to the very last mess man, and the very last inquisition before I could actually eat. “Would you like some toast?” “Yes please.” “What kind; white, whole-wheat, sourdough or rye?” (Are you freaking kidding me? Who has rye bread toast for breakfast? Apparently the Air Force!).
I finally managed to squeak out a weak answer, as my brain was reeling from all of the questions and of course lack of nutrition. “White,” I managed to the small voice. Then what happened next absolutely defied logic, he handed me two uncooked, pasty white pieces of white bread. Seeing such undercooked toast kind of aroused the Marine in me, I said, “What the…” My comment was cut short when he pointed to the toasters on the next table. I put two pieces of white bread in the toaster, (it was a very fast toaster), and a few seconds later out came two pieces of perfectly toasted white toast! I reached for the butter next to the toaster and spread some on my toast.
Wonder of wonders! Miracles beyond all comprehension! Something happened that I no longer thought was even possible, the rich yellow butter MELTED, ACTUALLY MELTED into the toast!
I don’t think I had actually seen butter melt on toast since I had been a civilian. In the Marine Corps, at least in the
Old Corps, our toast was always served to us from a pan in the steam tray, and usually a steam tray that was not been turned on. We had several options on our toast in the
Old Corps; cold, soggy, stale, moldy, slightly warm, but never HOT! Not once in my 3 years, 9 months and 13 days did I ever eat toast in a Marine Corps mess hall that was hot enough to melt warm butter!
There we were, four medevac-ies standing at these very fast oversized Air Force toasters watching butter melt on hot toast! The mess man finally just handed us a loaf of bread and got out of our way. Well, he was nice enough to take our trays to the table for us, since we were gimpy and crippled and couldn’t lift all the eggs, potatoes, ham, sausage bacon and hot toast with melted butter that we had piled on each of our trays.
I think that was the most memorable event upon my landing back in CONUS.
I have no recollection of going through Customs, nor even where my TL-29 was when I was medevaced.
As I recall we were medevac in pajamas, I don’t think I had my jungle utilities on. My TL-29 may have come in with my seabag, a week or so after I made it to Oak Knoll.
Obviously the only thing I had on my mind was hot food!
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Bad grammer, bad spelling, I still love this site! I was wondering how Carmillus got to keep his knife , when I got out of the Army in 1966, all I got to keep was my fatigues, class A uniform, and my DD214, no bayonets, M14's, entrenching tools , or mess kits 
