Los Angeles’s big prop shops can supply a thousand films and TV shows a year, outfitting crime procedurals to Bible epics with satchels, spears, and pogo sticks. This spring, a manager at such a shop got a request for help with a different kind of production. “One of our salespeople picked up a cold call,” a firm manager said recently. The unknown dialer wanted to equip sixteen hundred soldiers in the style of every major U.S. war.