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vietnam LH in the UK


deros
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Having attended many shows over the years I am almost always a little disappointed by the hokey standard of the bulk of Vietnam era displays, there are only one or two that create the right feel to me. And no-one seems to do a 65-66 era impression, rather fielding a late late impression with long haired and often bearded older men who should be portraying squared away career soldiers at their age. Everything seems so cliche'd too.

The hardware and props that is about is conversely of a good standard. What do we think is the cause of this anomaly?

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If you want my "honest" opinion..i feel that the masses like the stereotypical...but wrong Vietnam re enactors .That impression can give todays re enactors a lot more leeway in their displays.

 

Take the new Dutch group above they seem to portray the clean cut new GIs in 1967 era.

 

The 65-66 GIs i dont think...the groups "think" would be appealing.

 

But i think any groups impression provided its done right educates and appeals to everyone.

 

regards

 

Lloyd

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65-66, in Britain we have the problem that M14s, Thumpers and 60s are bloomin expensive.

Until very recently there werent repros of the 107s, 1st patt jungles, early boots etc, but you could get original or post war 3rd patterns and jungle boots, and plastic M16s.

Now you can get repros of all the uniforms, pretty cheap too, so it has become much easier.

Standards are pretty good over hear though, especially at the big shows, where the groups tend to band together for big joint displays.

 

The thing is that the old age/weight issues are even more obvious if you do Vietnam, as all your privates should be around the 18-20 mark. Which aint gonna happen.

And yes the late "hippy era" does leed to lots of folks excusing their dodgey hair etc.

 

Personally i would get bored pretty quick with the one late war generic look, i'd be filling in kit for each unit in each stage of the war. (actually im part way there for a few differant looks, and i aint even in a vietnam group) :rolleyes:

 

ah, just noticed that you meant the UK, do you not think the Rolling thunder displays are pretty good at Beltring/Detling ?

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65-66, in Britain we have the problem that M14s, Thumpers and 60s are bloomin expensive.

Until very recently there werent repros of the 107s, 1st patt jungles, early boots etc, but you could get original or post war 3rd patterns and jungle boots, and plastic M16s.

Now you can get repros of all the uniforms, pretty cheap too, so it has become much easier.

Standards are pretty good over hear though, especially at the big shows, where the groups tend to band together for big joint displays.

 

The thing is that the old age/weight issues are even more obvious if you do Vietnam, as all your privates should be around the 18-20 mark. Which aint gonna happen.

And yes the late "hippy era" does leed to lots of folks excusing their dodgey hair etc.

 

Personally i would get bored pretty quick with the one late war generic look, i'd be filling in kit for each unit in each stage of the war. (actually im part way there for a few differant looks, and i aint even in a vietnam group) :rolleyes:

 

ah, just noticed that you meant the UK, do you not think the Rolling thunder displays are pretty good at Beltring/Detling ?

 

yes, some groups really have it nailed. others.. not so much. I suppose that could be held to be true for a lot of eras though. I suppose if I think about it, Cheesy in a nam setting makes it cheesier. thumbdown.gif

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Yes i too agree that "Rolling Thunder" and the old AIPS have it correct for various eras especially even with the Austrailian and New Zealand input into the Vietnam war.... thumbsup.gif

 

But for the most part i feel that research is lacking leading to an assumption of how a display should look and that invariably is wrong.

 

BUT even the public get it wrong.....i lost count of the times we were doing a 4th Marine Division Display circa July 1944 on Saipan and the public thought

 

"oooh look johnny a Vietnam display".... think.gif

 

thats why educating the public aswell as new re enactors id the key to success.

 

Regards

 

Lloyd

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I dont think it is realistic to expect the public to know, for the most part they dont care much either. I think what I am driving at is how do you avoid the cliche and still provide a display that gives the level of entertainment that the event organiser envisages?

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  • 8 months later...

The main problem is the different weapons. As Gliderinf says, it is very difficult to get M14 or the right M16 for that time frame. Especially since we are located in Europe. crying.gif

 

65/66 are extremely interesting years as you can find a lot of experimental items.

 

The public knows little about the VN war, except what they've seen on TV... That's why we don't attend to shows anymore but we concentrate on our web site.

 

Cheers.

 

NTS

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