Bob Hudson Posted January 22, 2013 Share #1 Posted January 22, 2013 Drove about 120 miles today to see an 86 year old vet who'd answered my newspaper ad. He was in WWII in the Navy aboard the USS KANE when she earned 7 battle stars. After the war he joined the Marine reserve and spent two years there. He then joined the Army and saw combat in Korea and Vietnam. He was in Vietnam with MACV about 63-64. He said he retired as soon as he got back stateside because, "The CIA was running the war not the generals." He is one of those people who is as straight and tall and on the ball at 86 as most people are at 56. He lives on a seven acre ranch in the shadow of Mount Palomar. It is one of those areas barely changed since the 1800's. He told me he got this knife and cup from a member of his MACV team, a Navy Chief. I assume the knife is VC not NVA? Link to post Share on other sites
Bob Hudson Posted January 22, 2013 Author Share #2 Posted January 22, 2013 I bought at least a hundred pounds of stuff from him (he spent most of his Army career as an MP), including this hat he picked up in Vietnam: Link to post Share on other sites
vintageproductions Posted January 22, 2013 Share #3 Posted January 22, 2013 Great VC items and the tiger boonie is really nice www.vintageproductions.com "A militaria show is a social event for anti-socials" - A.T. 2008 ASMIC Executive President Link to post Share on other sites
ww2relichunter Posted January 23, 2013 Share #4 Posted January 23, 2013 Great value there VC is pretty hot right now Link to post Share on other sites
BOLO Posted January 23, 2013 Share #5 Posted January 23, 2013 very interesting items, excellent finds! the tiger stripe hat looks like a copy of the French boonie hat Link to post Share on other sites
Bob Hudson Posted January 23, 2013 Author Share #6 Posted January 23, 2013 I took the above photos with my iPhone in the Starbucks parking lot. Here are some taken in my studio. The grip has some very dense grain: at first glance it looked like cast resin. Link to post Share on other sites
kammo-man Posted January 23, 2013 Share #7 Posted January 23, 2013 Very nice items . Bob did the guy have any pictures ???? owen Link to post Share on other sites
Bob Hudson Posted January 23, 2013 Author Share #8 Posted January 23, 2013 Very nice items . Bob did the guy have any pictures ???? owen None that he mentioned, but I'm going to ask when I call him tomorrow: I want to find out if he can give me some details about his MACV unit. As I said above, he was pretty upset at the way the CIA was running things in Vietnam in 63-64, got disgusted and retired as soon as he returned to San Francisco. He spent most of his Army career as an MP and I've got a bunch of stuff from that I'll be posting elsewhere in the forum. Link to post Share on other sites
Bob Hudson Posted January 23, 2013 Author Share #9 Posted January 23, 2013 It wasn't all the bad guys stuff: tonight I pulled out the contents of a footlocker that came from this vet: in the bottom were two pairs of REGULAR-LARGE 1st pattern tropical combat trousers - a rare to find in any size. I knew there was a tropical combat coat but I really did not have a chance to figure out what pattern it was, but I don't recall seeing the exposed buttons. Link to post Share on other sites
kammo-man Posted January 23, 2013 Share #10 Posted January 23, 2013 Not more stuff ????????? Link to post Share on other sites
Bob Hudson Posted January 23, 2013 Author Share #11 Posted January 23, 2013 Not more stuff ????????? Yeah, but unless some black pajamas show up, that's the last item I'll add to this topic. Link to post Share on other sites
Bob Hudson Posted January 23, 2013 Author Share #12 Posted January 23, 2013 Finished digging through the rest of the stuff I bought yesterday from this veteran and I just had to add this one more piece from his early Vietnam days: Link to post Share on other sites
Bob Hudson Posted January 24, 2013 Author Share #13 Posted January 24, 2013 I called him back today to get some more details. He was in Vietnam from fall 64 to fall 65 snd was assigned to MACV Advisory Team 79 at Vung Tau - "That's where I got my mail at least," he told me. He said he would be detailed to other areas and he and two or three others would head out into the boonies "to do scouting and what not." He got the VC knife and cup from one of the Navy Chiefs he worked with on some of the scouting missions. I asked if the Chief was a SEAL, but he said "n". So what kind of Navy enlisted would be going on land missions with MACV during that 64-65 era? Link to post Share on other sites
vintageproductions Posted January 24, 2013 Share #14 Posted January 24, 2013 Maybe a Seabee helping to build camps... www.vintageproductions.com "A militaria show is a social event for anti-socials" - A.T. 2008 ASMIC Executive President Link to post Share on other sites
Bob Hudson Posted January 24, 2013 Author Share #15 Posted January 24, 2013 Maybe a Seabee helping to build camps... I'm thinking it was maybe SEALS since they were doing intel patrols. The SEALS were only a few years old at that time so his Navy colleagues (which he describes only as "Navy special forces guys") might have been low key about their parent unit. In looking around for some info on this, I did find a quote that relates to this vet's disgust at how the CIA was running the show in 1965, "not the generals." Remember, he operated out of Vung Tau and a story I found online said of that: "Vung Tau became the seedbed of the CIA's political cadres" Link to post Share on other sites
Patriot12 Posted January 25, 2013 Share #16 Posted January 25, 2013 Great vietnam grouping. I like the early field jackets. Link to post Share on other sites
kammo-man Posted January 25, 2013 Share #17 Posted January 25, 2013 Bob classy ! o Link to post Share on other sites
Grizzly Adams Posted February 12, 2013 Share #18 Posted February 12, 2013 Lots of Navy "in country," and darn few of them were SEALS! Link to post Share on other sites
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