...also, I've heard Tailgunner Joe was into Contaxes.
No, but Art Kramer WAS into Leicas. Remember him from Modern Photography years ago? He was also into carrying them along during his missions on Willie the Wolf, a B-26G Martin Marauder of the 344th Bomb Group, 494th Bomb Squadron of the 9th Air Force during WWII in Europe. He was the bombardier.
"The richness of the experience that occurs when one is exposed tangibly to a subject, material, or process is unmatchable in the abstract... Thus, when 'touch it,' 'taste it,' smell it' become the watchwords, the results are most often extraordinary. Equally extraordinary are the lengths to which people will go to avoid [that] experience."
— Tom Peters and Robert H. Waterman Jr., In Search of Excellence, 1982
How can anyone pass up a Kiev with that provenance...I mean really...
Too late, I have grabbed the Gagarin 3M, he was a hero of mine. You see, he strapped himself to a Russian missile...re-defines guts really.