Born in Philadelphia and raised in Akron, Ohio, Walter S. Osipoff had a robust career with the United States Marine Corps, starting his service as a young paratrooper officer with the newborn "Paramarines", seeing action in the Pacific for World War II and Korea, and holding a number of staff positions, achieving the rank of Colonel in the process. Much of this is overshadowed in remaining records by an extremely high profile incident that took place in San Diego in May of 1941. On the 15th, then-Second Lieutenant Osipoff was acting as jumpmaster for a USMC training operation, deploying a small group of men and cargo (chiefly weapons, per the doctrine at the time) when a cargo container slipped out of position and initiated a sequence of events that would lead to Osipoff being violently pulled from the back of the aircraft and left dangling by his ankles from the tail gear, entangled in the shroud lines. Seriously injured and unable to be brought back in by the other men on the training plane, Osipoff spent nearly a half hour in dire peril until a pair of Navy men in an observer's biplane managed a daring mid-air snatch and grab, one man physically grabbing hold of Osipoff while the pilot severed the shroud lines (and part of the training plane's tail) with the biplane's propeller, after which they successfully brought Osipoff back to Earth. Needing some time to recuperate after the incident, Osipoff returned to the Paramarines, but through no hesitancy of his own he would never make a combat jump; the USMC, ambivalent to the Paramarine concept, opted to use them as amphibious forces along with the Marine Raiders, eventually rolling both outfits back into standard units. All items in this lot are noted by the consignor as being the personal property of Colonel Osipoff, a mixture of personal items and war trophies, along with a very large quantity of personal documents ranging in importance from framed citations and documentation, articles about the incident in San Diego, to mundane items like used passports, picture postcards, bowling scores and pre-internet chain mail jokes about the real meaning of military terminology. The Papa Nambu bears the standard blade front and tangent rear sights, with a set of white paint markings applied to the right side of the frame and left grip panel, with a tan lanyard and a brown leather clamshell holster with shoulder strap. Two American swords are included, a U.S. 1902 and a USMC mameluke etched to Osipoff. A Japanese sword is included, with both naval pattern and shirasaya mounts, 35 1/4" overall blade length, 26 5/8" live edge with sharp temper line and grain, carved signatures on both sides of the tang and gold filled "Cutting test" marks on the right. Also included are a number of framed artworks (both personal to Osipoff and of a generic nature), a bowling league plaque, and two foot lockers. The surrender of the sword is documented in an article that appeared in the September 1, 1945 edition of the New York Times: "Official surrender accepted by Lieut. Col. Walter S. Osipoff of San Diego, Calif., who received the Japanese naval captain's sword." An article from the National Park Service provided additional information about the surrender of the sword: “Here, at Tateyama, the Japanese carried out the surrender instructions without resistance. As Lieutenant Colonel Osipoff noted: ‘When the Japanese captain presented his sword to me, it was evident that he and his officers were taking the surrender inwardly quite hard. Here was a man passing over to a foreign power everything that he stood for. Yet he looked me straight in the eye. He wasn’t haughty. He didn’t turn away. But he was obviously deeply moved. I felt sure he must be thing that his surrender was something that went along with the military profession. You fight and lose and you must face the consequences.’” The sword has a two body cutting test attestation.

The Papa Nambu is very fine, with 75% of the original blue finish, with a brown patina and thick oxidization on the remainder and light handling marks. The grips are also very fine, with mild wear, and the holster is very good. Mechanically functions fine. Rear tangent sight is absent. The American swords are in fine order, with mild wear and spotting, and the Japanese blade is excellent, bright with strong hamon and attractive grain, with fine furniture.