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Some of my old Vietnam items found today


USMCRECON
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I was over in our storage lockers today looking for some of my daughter's old pictures and came across some items I'd been in search of for years. I found them in a box marled "PRO GEAR" by the movers a couple of moves ago. this stuff was in there with flight suits and jackets, poncho liners, and some old Marine khakis.

 

Here's the first one. These are the dog tags I wore through most of my tour in Vietnam. I'd taken them off the chain and put them on a piece of parachute cord after I lost my first set on my second or third patrol. They were taped together with heavy brown masking tape (that was all I could get my hands on at the time) but it had come off long ago.

 

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Next up is a red beret that I bought from the local indigenous personell souvenir/photo/uniform/barber/laundry shop on the combat base. I tried it on but decided it was a bit too bright for field wear and never wore it. It's in perfect condition. The little spot on the shot of the top looks like a moth nip but it's just a speck of lint. I have no plans to sell it but am curious what an iron-clad Vietnamese beret from 1967 is worth. This picture is the top.

 

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And the underside.

 

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This is the one I was most excited to find. This is an ERDL patter/material (non-ripstop) Vietnamese made beret. I got from one of the Vietnamese Marines we worked with on occasion in about May-Jun 67, but only wore it in the field once in early 1968 (I'd put a metal chevron pin on it and a gold EGA (I didn't have any more black ones at the time. It was so cool, even then, that I decided to just hold onto it and put it away in my foot locker. I'm also curious as to the market value of this one (bit also have no plans to sell it).

 

In the pictures it looks like it has some sort of bburlaplooking cross-hatching. The picture looks that way butt the beret is made of standard ERDL material.

 

Heres the top.

 

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Here's the underside.

 

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And a close-up of the tags inside.

 

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Black berret with well worn EGA and "beer can" Vietnamese Marine pin. This is the second of two black berers that I had in Nam and this one, as opposed to the other berets above, got plenty of field wear and I have several pictures of me wearing it in the field. I got this from another Recon Marine who was rotating home. This is a close-up of the insignia that I wore on it. I didn't take a picture of the inside because it was all removed.

 

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And the top.

 

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That is so frickin cool I can't even stand it. Those are the first notched dog tags I've ever seen with absolute proof that were worn in Nam. Awesome stuff!!!

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One last picture for tonight of some of the stuff that came out of the box. This is from my return to military service as an aF officer in 1979. This is an officer's travel bag. Inside it were three sets of Air Force officer's blue tropical wool shirts and trounsers. These shirts went out of the inventory in the early 1980s and I no longer even remember what they were called. I loved the shirts, They were patterned after the Army WW-II officer's shirt with epaulettes and douible button sleeve cuffs. They were on the heavy side to wear but I thought they looked great. the light spot on the sleeve is something from the camera, not on the iuniform. Two of them were worn lightly, The third was never worn. I remember having a fourth one somewhere that was still in the original plastic bag but I haven't found it yet.

 

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That is so frickin cool I can't even stand it. Those are the first notched dog tags I've ever seen with absolute proof that were worn in Nam. Awesome stuff!!!

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Glad you liked them.

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I found the other black beret this morrning. I was mistaken about the one I posted earlier. I called it the second one but, in actuality, it was the first one, the one I didn't wear much. It had been given me by a departing Recon Marine buddy. Looking at this one jogged my memory and I recalled more about both of them. The one I posted earlier didn't fit all that well and that's why I didn't wear it for long.

 

I replaced it with this one that I bought from the same shop on our combat base that the other berets came from and this one is the one that got the most field use. When I found it this morning, I took the EGA and Viet Marine pin off the other one and put them back on this one where they belong; it was quite easy as there were deep impressions still on the beret and the pinholes still exist.

 

Here are the pictures of this one.

 

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This one was all scrunched up inside an old boot (and why I didn't see it yesterday, I guess) so it's rather misshapen but, it is what it is.

 

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And here's the inside. I'd removed the lining of this one so it woud fit better.

 

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Hi Bill,

What a great find. They all appear to be Viet made except I would like to see the inside of the first black beret you posted. The first one appears to be a nice one piece wool beret. The non ripstop erdl one is a killer !!! To have a picture of you wearing one of the black berets is way too cool. The extra pins are a nice personal touch too. There has always been a controversy (argument) on who wore what color berets in Vietnam. Thanks for posting and if you need a value estimate PM me.

Regards, Mitch

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Hi Bill,

What a great find. They all appear to be Viet made except I would like to see the inside of the first black beret you posted. The first one appears to be a nice one piece wool beret. The non ripstop erdl one is a killer !!! To have a picture of you wearing one of the black berets is way too cool. The extra pins are a nice personal touch too. There has always been a controversy (argument) on who wore what color berets in Vietnam. Thanks for posting and if you need a value estimate PM me.

Regards, Mitch

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The first black one may not be Vietnamese made; I got it from another Marine who was rotating home. I think it was a US Army Ranger beret before it came into his hands sometime in mid-late 1966 and it became a Recon Marine beret.

 

As for color, I can't speak for Army but for field wear in Recon, anything was acceptable. Top Tuttle didn't really care as long as you were squared away on the combat base. As for berets, one of my fellow Recon Marines wore a green one that he got from a 5th Group guy during a visit to the MAC V SOG compound south of Danang I have a picture ofg him with it ssomewhere). Another guy wore a maroon (perhaps faded red) one and that's why I bought the red one but decided it was too "loud" and never wore it in the field.

 

Several guys wore the ERDL camo patters like the one I posted above from time to time, and I seem to remember one Marine with (what I remember to be) a medium blue one that he got while from the Aussies.

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I was over in our storage lockers today looking for some of my daughter's old pictures and came across some items I'd been in search of for years. I found them in a box marled "PRO GEAR" by the movers a couple of moves ago. this stuff was in there with flight suits and jackets, poncho liners, and some old Marine khakis.

 

Here's the first one. These are the dog tags I wore through most of my tour in Vietnam. I'd taken them off the chain and put them on a piece of parachute cord after I lost my first set on my second or third patrol. They were taped together with heavy brown masking tape (that was all I could get my hands on at the time) but it had come off long ago.

 

attachicon.gifDog tags.jpg

 

You should edit this pic........PM sent

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........................The little spot on the shot of the top looks like a moth Japanese but it's just a speck of lint................

 

attachicon.gifRed Beret-1.jpg

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Whaaaa?

 

I just noticed this......a moth Japanese???? I have no idea what a moth Japanese is but I do know what a moth n*i*p is (as in a moth bite) and that's what I typed. As used in the sentence I typed, the word clearly was not implying a derogatory term for an Asian.

 

What the heck was that all about??

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You should edit this pic........PM sent

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Hi. As I mentioned in the PM reply, I appreciate you're diligence in contacting me. I can't edit or remove that picture anymore but I don't really think it's necessary. The number on my ID tags is my Marine Corps service number, not my social security number. The Marines didn't start using social security numbers as service numbers until at least the early 1970s.

 

Again, I appreciate you calling my attention to it but I don't know of what use it would be to anyone attempting to improperly use it at this point.

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  • 1 month later...

When my grandson returned an old flight suit that he borrowed for Halloween, he said he found a set of dog tags in the sleeve pocket. They were the firsst set of AF dog tags issued to me when I was flying ABCCC. When I found my old Vietnam dog tags I was wondering why the old P-38 can opener was no longer with them. when I looked at these dog tags, the reason became clear. I had taken them off the Nam vintage Marine dog tags and put thme on this set. anyway, here they are with a 1967 P-38 can opener tucked inside the plastic sleeve. Since, this pair had my SSN on them, I did have to sanatize this set by blurring the SSN.

 

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  • 5 years later...
  • 1 year later...

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