Kit Marking
These section comes in two parts, those items of kit the soldier commonly marked with there details in regulation for; secondary is the sorts of items that the soldier would mark with other details unit details helmets.
One of the major problems when re-enacting in the field is that everyone’s clothing and equipment looks very similar. Sometimes, in the heat of the moment, or while breaking down a display, it is very easy to accidentally collect another member’s Jacket, or pick up the wrong Cartridge Belt, mistaking it for yours. Something that you learn very early on is to mark your items so that they can be easily identified as belonging to you. There are various ways in which this can be done, but the US Army actually produced an Information Circular containing the prescribed locations for marking individual clothing and equipment.
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Generally, items were marked with a soldier’s laundry number. Laundry numbers were special identification codes that were introduced by the US Army in order to allow service personnel to quickly identify their individual equipment. The laundry number consisted of the soldier’s last initial, followed by the final 4 digits of his Army Serial Number. These numbers were then applied to personal equipment so that they could be easily identified when stored with others’ items. While laundry numbers are not unique to the soldier, they were sufficiently specific within a soldier’s unit.
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Of course, lots of you won't want to mark all your original kit with the regulation details and that's fine. This is only further information on things you can do to enhance your impression.
These markings were done in many ways, some soldier used rubber stamps that were made upon demand, others used what ever was to hand, from pens, markers and paint! So the preference on how you want to mark the kits is really down to you. There are specialist kits for stamping metal and leather items. Both original kits can be taken to events should someone need us too stamp something.
Also note, that despite some instruction saying some items where not to be marked, you can find plenty of originals that have been stamped up in these exact ways! So, again freedom of expression can be used.