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ARVN Jump Wings


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Thought I'd share what I've come across over the years with SVN paratrooper wings. Here is a set of stamped regular Army ARVN paratrooper wings in basic, senior and master. They were probably patterned after the French paratrooper wing minus the wreaths.

 

 

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Here is set of sand cast regular Army ARVN paratrooper wings in basic, senior and master.

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Here are a number of variations of this paratrooper wing. The upper left one is unique as it is a sand casting but made in two pieces with an attached gold colored star. The one on the upper right is an early stamped piece with a French style pin back. The lower left wing is the same style stamping as in Post # 22 which is serial numbered like the French paratrooper wings. I don't know what the significance of the red cloth behind paratrooper wing on the lower right but it is similar to the red cloth behind this SVN airborne intendance (support) pin.

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Here are two SVN regular pattern paratrooper wings that I feel were probably made as replacement wings for soldiers authorized to wear them but not made in SVN and post war.

 

 

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Here is an example of the French paratrooper wing which the Army ARVN regular paratrooper wing was probably patterned after. The ARVN paratrooper wing in post # 22 copies the serial numbering and rear attachments of having two loops and this dumb bell looking pin unique to French insignia. I understand that during the French Indochina era there were no grades (basic, senior & master) which came about once the Americans arrived and they saw how we wore our paratrooper insignia with three different grades.

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Lastly here are a number of ARVN LLDB Special Forces style paratrooper wings. The most common that you come across are the top two with the stamping on the upper left and sand casting on the upper right. The one on the lower left I feel is an original piece made of a very light weight metal and have rear pins that aren't sharpened or don't have a point at the end but are blunt. I've seen this same construction on other ARVN insignia so I have a feeling they are crude and cheaply made but period originals. The one on the lower right and bottom I'm not sure about. The front of the very bottom wing is similar to the US made replacement paratrooper wings but the back has a checkerboard board cross hatching surface. What you have to watch out for with this style wing or the Army version is the sand castings minus the silver coating with a slightly different pin that came out of Communist Vietnam after the war. They are all reproductions.

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Found a photo of the reproduction paratrooper wings that are or were coming out of Communist Vietnam. They all lack the silver coating and the way in which the pins are attached is a little different. They used the same plastic clutches as the originals.

 

 

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thefallenbuddha

Tonomachi,

 

Thank you for taking the time to post these wings from your collection.

Your posts are informative, and I am sure are much appreciated by members of the forum!

Great looking wings, too, by the way!

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