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ARVN Ranger Advisor 1965


gwb123
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Cop ,

Are you serious ?

This is the traditional Invisible pattern cloth .

The wing came on the hat .

I am wondering if my boy didnt know the difference in the shjop he bought it in .

Lets see ......

Printed patches which you did not like, now the wing .

It seems like Mr Wells did not check in with the badge nazies before he , had his uniform altered , badged up , hat made , and helped a little 3rd world country keep its freedom .

owen

 

 

Owen,

 

I didn't say I didn't love the wings, just said that looks rather LLDB wings than Airborne one... (I think other members can confirm you that). But who cared about it in the 60s..., Mr Wells was probably not a guy who cared of his apperances (maybe he was too focused to kill VC)...

 

BTW, I will go to LA next month, I hope to have time to look closer your uniforms :D

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Cop

Next month is The West coast historical militaria show in Pomonia .

This is the 8th and 9th of April .

I hope you are gonna be here for it .

You will see the largest collection of Vietnam dealers in the counrty under one roof !

If you miss it , then you miss it .

When are you comming ?

Does that mean I will have to clean up my war room to show you my goodies ?

owen

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Cop

Next month is The West coast historical militaria show in Pomonia .

This is the 8th and 9th of April .

I hope you are gonna be here for it .

You will see the largest collection of Vietnam dealers in the counrty under one roof !

If you miss it , then you miss it .

When are you comming ?

Does that mean I will have to clean up my war room to show you my goodies ?

owen

 

Owen,

 

I wish I can come to Pomona, but my boss didn't allow me to take vacation ealier. It would be at the end of the month of May.

 

I will be staying in Garden Grove, don't know how far it s away from you.

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Garden Grove is quite near Vintage Productions .

So you are in luck .

That is only 30 miles from me , which in LA LA land is only around the corner .

owen

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You guys gonna have Mr Pinfo himself at home !

 

One very important thing... watch him when he will look at your uniforms, patches and books.... he has the very baaaad habit to pick his nose while touching your most prized pieces ! whistling.gif

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It is ok to pick .

But eating, I have to draw the line .

Did you say Mr Pinto ?

Because I know some great places to get carnie-asada in town .

owen

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  • 1 year later...
TrenchfootJoe66

Thanks giuys for posting all the pics. Gonna come in real handy at the moment. I just got a Velrinden US Ranger Advisor figure in 1/35th scale in the mail. Was happy to get it off of eBay as the set is now out of production. Now all I have to do is figure out how to paint that pattern. The biggest drawback to the figure is that he lacks shoulder straps in the molding detail Oh well, cant have everything. When he is done Ill post some pics in the modelling section.

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pwmiraldi1967
Here's another example of a great period photo found in a very unlikely publication.

 

This was featured in The Young People's Book of the Year, 1966, published by Grolier Incorporated as an annual to their Book of Knowledge. I believe that was an encylopedia aimed at middle schoolers.

 

This appears on pg. 148 with the caption "U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Fred Wallake on patrol with South Vietnamese Rangers." It is copyrighted and credited to James Pikerell, Black Star.

 

This picture is a classic for a number of details.

 

First of all one will observe that on the beret, the Sergeant has added a small ARVN Ranger DI next to the beret flash. I have never seen this anywhere else and would not have believed it if it were not for a photo from the field.

 

He is wearing early issue exposed button jungle fatigues with a subdued name tape. Notice his Staff Sergeant chevrons... these are either WWII or Korea issue rather than the bright yellow ones that would have been standard for the time period. I have seen other uniforms were similar insignia were worn in the field prior to the use of black and green subdued insignia.

 

He appears to be armed with an M1 carbine, and looks to have the handle of a machete or broad knife at waist level. The sunglasses with retaining band complete the image.

 

Equally interesting are the ARVN rangers in the background. Note the less than subtle camo pattern on their helmets... modern repro artists have a difficult time in reproducing this. The Soldiers also appear to be armed with carbines. The one that is stepping out of the photo looks to have a red strip above his right pocket, possibly for unit identification. He has used a light blue cloth as a substitute for his weapons sling.

 

Notice the ARVN Lieutenant in the background who appears to be speaking into a radio handset. How do we know he is an officer? By that bright gold rank blossom that is in the center of his chest... an unfortunately effective aiming point for any local snipers that apparently can be seen for quite a distance.

 

I believe I picked this book up at a local library sale for a $1. It was well worth it for this single photo.

 

I see the ARVNs are wearing the helmet colors of the 44th ARVN Rangers

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I got this - with pants - from National Historical Sales quite a few years ago. Shirt and pants in the early ARVN pattern/JWS. As I have said before, I am not an expert on badged garments, but everything looks good/original. And vendor gave his word it was.

 

post-13485-1297978849.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...
TrenchfootJoe66

I was wondering if I could convince anybody to post a pic each of the BACK of an Invisible and an ARVN ERDL jacket so I can get a clearer look at the pattern. Im trying to paint the patterns on some figures. Thanks in advance.

JW

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  • 1 month later...

I would like this opportunity to share some BDQ items that I have in my collection.

 

The first is a uniform from a friend who also resides in paradise. I hook up with him by accident and was able to pick up his uniform and pennant shown.

 

Highlights of this uniform:

 

Name tag (name hidden), U.S. Army, Infantry branch and Captains rank all subdue

 

On right shoulder Mr. (Military Region) 4 / Vietnamese Ranger SSI/ CMD Scroll. I have never seen a Ranger Advisor scroll like this before. It is larger than normally made.

 

On left shoulder subdue bevo BDQ SSI

 

On right pocket, a pocket patch for the 44th Special Tactical Zone

 

Top two pockets of the uniform modified in the airborne advisor style with zippers that are completely hidden under the side pocket flap. This is one of the few Ranger uniforms that I have seen patterned after the airborne advisor style.

 

No Ranger qualification badge or CIB on the uniform. He had earned both.

post-468-1302421474.jpg

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The next picture is of a heavy weight camouflage pattern that I wore.

 

As I had previously related to Copran most soldiers did not like to wear this uniform on operations. It was of a heavy weight material that did not breath, and when it got wet just adhered to your body like a glove. As you can see by the group photograph most of the troops are wearing a plain green uniform many of which were light weight.

 

To explain how bad this uniform was I would like to relate a personal experience that was both hilarious and painful.

 

One night about 0200 hours we received a warning order that we out be moving out on operations at 0400 in the morning. It was July the weather just sucked, hot and muggy and because it was so hot it was difficult to sleep so I just slept bare assed and naked in a hammock. Well when we got the up and prepared to depart I just slipped into my uniform and gear and was ready in five minutes.

 

We were trucked to our line of departure and moved out at 0400 hours. We had to traverse thru rice paddies and swamp conditions and within an hour I began to experience a sharp pain in my crouch area because of the rubbing of the uniform against my privates. Every step became excruciating painful because the uniform acted like sand paper and had rubbed off all of the skin. After three hours going through this experience I was in so much pain that I told God to have a sniper shoot me, I did not want to walk another step.

 

This went on for another 6 hours and when we set up out perimeter for the night I was in such pain that I could have cried. Fearing infection I took out a bottle of Bactine and squirted it over the affected areas and then I really cried as the alcohol burnt me to hell and back. I was able to get some sleep that evening but knew that I had to see a doctor after we were extracted the next morning.

 

When I got back to Saigon I headed to the first hospital that I could find and checked myself in. When the doctor saw the damage he probably thought that I had contracted a social disease he had never seen before and was hesitant to touch me even with gloves on. The Bactine did its’ thing and all you could see was exposed flesh and dead skin that had turned a whitish gray. I assured the doctor that this was not socially contacted and we had a big laugh. It took a week of putting cold compresses over the affected area every 2 hours allowing the new skin to form before I was released.

 

Needless to say this was a “Lesson Learned” moment, ………never leave home without putting your underwear on. When I later inspected the uniform I found that where the sewing of the pieces together that they did not tuck the two pieces of cloth under each other to provide a smooth surface. They way it was made left the rough edges exposed to do the damage like sandpaper.

 

Due to this incident I never wore my ARVN issued uniforms in the field. I chose to wear the issued jungle fatigues. They dried within 30 minutes if it got wet, were comfortable and most importantly had large pockets that you could store everything, especially maps. It was a well designed utilitarian uniform as were the jungle boots.

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Sorry bout that, file is too big and will have to send later.

 

The following photo shows an ARVN Ranger holding a captured RPG with a 38th Ranger pocket patch on his heavy weight uniform. I have also shown a detailed photo of this patch which was chain stitched.

post-468-1302422114.jpg

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This photograph is of a light weight uniform worn by Major Phu, Commander of the Duc My Ranger Training Center taken in ’68. He spent over 12 years in a prison camp before he was allowed to go to Australia where he now resides

post-468-1302422438.jpg

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