1st Vulcan Combat Team Vietnam

[sapper23]

I recently purchased a large patch collection, these Rare patches and stickers were part of it. The large sticker was for the APC. Since the small 40 man unit has never been mentioned or the I patches shown, I thought I would share these.

The 1st Vulcan Combat Team was sent to Vietnam in October 1968 and left in April 1969. They were to test the use of the M-61 Vulcan 20mm cannon mounted on M-163 Armored Personnel Carriers, a modified version of the M-113s. These were to replace the M-42A1 and M-55 'Quad-50' air defense systems.

This unit only consisted of about 40 members including 3 civilian advisors/technicians who deployed with them. The unit saw combat and suffered casualties during their your of duty. They were stationed at the Bien Hoa Air Base.

Please enjoy, does anyone have any additional information or pictures to share?

Jeff

[sapper23]

Two photos from Jerry Krzeminski.

[sapper23]

Two more photos, one of most of the unit taken in early 1969 and an unknown member of the unit wearing the colored patch on the pocket of his jungle jacket. These patches would be in the rare category, but the in-country made tab would probably be in the extremely rare patch category.

Jeff

[vintageproductions]

Your subdued patch is Korean made.

 

There seems to be that most of the ones you see are Korean made from when the units were in Korea.

[kingroe]

To: Sapper23

My dad worked on the Vulcan / Chaparral project in Huntsville, AL. in the 60s. I was only 14 at the time. I did get to see the testing of the Helmet guided aiming system they were working on. The Vulcan was set up on a tripod in test shop and used light pulses to simulate fire. A light dot was projected on the wall. When the fired light pulse hit the light dot it registered a hit. Without the helmet site activated the hit accuracy was like 14 to 18 percent via the standard gun site. However, with the helmet sight activated the accuracy went into 90s. They figured just in unspent ammo alone the military would save millions. On a standard site, one person said it took 1100 - 1400 rounds to shoot down a target but with the helmet site automating the control of the cannon it was more like 60 - 100 rounds.

 

My question to you is: Do you still have the patches? If so would you want to sell them to me? It would mean a lot to me as I have nothing from those days except memories of my dad who passed away way too soon and too young.

 

Thanks

[kingroe]

Here is an interesting notation from the AMCOM site:

 

8 February 68 DA changed the name of the VULCAN/CHAPARRAL system to CHAPARRAL/ VULCAN. This rearrangement occurred because of the possible confusion between the acronyms V/C for the system and VC for Viet Cong.

 

I always knew it as Vulcan/Chaparral when we were there in Huntsville.

 

[lamarhooten]

Got these from a 2nd cousin that was stationed at Ft. McClellan and was TDY to Huntsville all the time. Said he got them from the cilvilan 'pencil-pusher' type of guys that were running tests on the new systems down there.

[kingroe]

Would you be interested in selling them?

Lmk