Back in about plus or minus 1980, a guy I knew who worked at Western Costume and gave me a tour through their work and storage areas. We did not go everywhere, but spent a lot of time poking around the places the military related items where. Back then, they were working on doing a major purge, and a lot was going into the dumpster, but they were also putting considerable thought into what they might need in the future.
Most of what was possibly heading out was material that was old, small sized or had condition problems....which much had from years of being cooked or eaten in poor storage conditions. Most also was from movies from 1960 or before, that were either shot in black and white or technicolor, which hid a lot of condition issues or prop department enhancements.
As far as the thousands of A-2's, I did not see them. What I did see was a rack area with maybe forty to sixty feet of rack space with mostly leather jackets on it. It was a mix of everything, real and modern, including maybe 15 or 20 A-2's in various levels of condition. I remember there was only a couple that had anything much on them, and the vast majority were rather average or beat.
Maybe there was a secret air conditioned underground vault were all the good A-2's were stored, but clearly I did not have the clearance level to see it. I did see plenty of original Civil War, Indian War and World War One era uniforms that were rotting away on the racks. It would make a lot of sense that they would leave these things to go to hell, and put the $75 leather jackets away for the future....$75 was the price back then for a nice average sized original A-2.
Anyway, at that time, they were not selling anything....I asked. I did leave with a few old books that were on a garbage pile and a box of buttons and insignia that had been cut off some of the uniforms that had already been tossed. It was a really fun day, and a neat memory to revisit.