I carried those ratchets in a USAF tool bag on flight lines all over the world in the late 1960's and early 70's. Uncle Sam bought untold thousands of them, and they followed a lot of GI mechanics home. They were stolen almost as frequently as WW II 1911 pistols!
Jerry
Yeah, I got one of those (the ratchet not the 1911) from my grandpa. He worked for the US-Army over here at the motor pool - he said it was "fallen from a truck" ;-)
Frank
