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Some of My Vietnam Era Uniforms


Nkomo
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Sherman's "Who's Who of Special Forces in Thailand" has only 2 Duncan's listed.

 

One is Duncan, James C. SP4

 

The other is Duncan, Jimmy L. 1st LT

 

Neither are listed as having Thai wings, though that doesn't mean much as the records may be missing that information.

 

You should note that on the uniform that you show, the Thai wings are basic while the US wings are master. This is a point to watch as they should in theory be the same grade.

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Thanks guys.

But my Thai wings isn´t the same as the one on nkomo´s jacket. Mine has some blue "thing" under the chute or am I totally lost now? ermm.gif

Best regards, Martin

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The grade of Thai wings is distinguished by an emblem on the Parachute.

 

No emblem is basic, star is senior and star and wreath is Master.

Here is a Thai master para wing.

uniforms-4.jpg

 

I am looking up the little emblem displayed on the risers and AFAIK it does not indicate the grade.

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Mr-X, I found this photo of a SF jacket, and it looks the same as mine? Any idea´s?

Thanks,

M

(see the Thai wings with red dots and the blue in the chute)

post-2634-1217901563.jpg

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The red dots are the eyes of the 3 headed Elephant Erwan.

 

I believe "Padilla" uniform might be a fake.- No one on the 46th SF Co roll with that name.

 

As I said a US Master Parachutist should have a Thai master badge. I'd like to quantify that with a should.

Check reference below.

dolighanjunglejacketfront.jpg

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nguoi tien su

Nkomo,

post #9 is size 5. The A stands for "Ao", i.e. shirt in Vietnamese. Dated sept 69.

Post #13 could be Biet Dong Quan related.

 

The dyed camo shirt is interesting. But I remember one (I think Bob was selling this one) being from the 1st Loc Com ! So not always special unit related, unfortunately.

 

Sgt Krutina's shirt looks nice ! w00t.gif

 

NTS

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Nkomo,

post #9 is size 5. The A stands for "Ao", i.e. shirt in Vietnamese. Dated sept 69.

Post #13 could be Biet Dong Quan related.

 

The dyed camo shirt is interesting. But I remember one (I think Bob was selling this one) being from the 1st Loc Com ! So not always special unit related, unfortunately.

 

Sgt Krutina's shirt looks nice ! w00t.gif

 

NTS

Everyone, thanks for the great information and comments so far. Any ideas on the Omega jungle jacket or the first tiger set I posted?

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I believe "Padilla" uniform might be a fake.- No one on the 46th SF Co roll with that name.

 

IMO, the Padilla uniform could be legit, but worn in the 80s with the Air Assault Badge, the HALO jump Wings, etc. The guy probably got his Thai jump wings during a Cobra Gold exercise in Thailand.

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Hi again guys.

I found another 2 shirts with the same US Jump Wings and Thai Jump Wings. Can there be an explenation to this.

Thanks and best regards,, Martin

post-2634-1217935081.jpg

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I've been collecing Vietnam uniforms for quite some time and have never really took any of them out to photograph. I am taking a few pictures today and will post many more as time permits. Todays pics are of some of my favorites and a few of my unknowns. I will list my unknown pieces first and I'm hoping that some of you may be able to help me identifying them. As always, I am very thankful for any comments and help identifying unknowns. That being said, here we go.

 

The first piece that I am going to post is of an unknown tiger stripe pattern. I could be wrong, but I have never seen this pattern in Johnson's Tiger Patterns. I am not even 100% sure it is from the Vietnam time period. It has no markings or tags to indicate country of origin. All the patches that it has are the US ARMY and Courtney name tape. Does anyone have any idea what country or what time period it may be from?

 

The jacket has 4 pockets. The two top chest pockets are slanted. The pants have 6 pockets (including two thigh pockets). The fly has three buttons for a closure.

 

I might be wrong, but I believe this pattern of Tiger Stripes was made in the Philippines. I am not sure if it was wartime or post Vietnam. It may have been made after the US Army adopted the four pocket Woodland BDU. I've taken flack before for suggesting that our troops on TDY have had uniforms made up of local cloth, but I think you have an example here. When it was made and for what purpose, I could only speculate.

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  • 3 years later...

I just saw the hand camo jungle jacket you have in your collection. Thought I'd comment on it. I don't recognize this one (but suspect it was made by someone that went into the "High-lands"), when we ran missions, we didn't like the way the "tiger stripes" ran side-ways, so we would use black spray paint and make our own patterns on reg. jungle fatigues. Helped us to blend into the surrounding leaf and jungle patterns better. It worked most of the times, like in Cambodia, I would use the vertical stripes, and in Laos I would use a more "patchy", or leaf design. Like I said, MOST of the times it worked, then of course, a few times it didn't work at all. Have a great one. WULFF

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Close up of the Thai jump wings and SF patch.

 

This is a great jacket, really like the Thai wings and printed name tapes

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I just saw the hand camo jungle jacket you have in your collection. Thought I'd comment on it. I don't recognize this one (but suspect it was made by someone that went into the "High-lands"), when we ran missions, we didn't like the way the "tiger stripes" ran side-ways, so we would use black spray paint and make our own patterns on reg. jungle fatigues. Helped us to blend into the surrounding leaf and jungle patterns better. It worked most of the times, like in Cambodia, I would use the vertical stripes, and in Laos I would use a more "patchy", or leaf design. Like I said, MOST of the times it worked, then of course, a few times it didn't work at all. Have a great one. WULFF

 

 

Thats pretty amazing stuff. You rarely ever hear about that as the reason behind the hand cammos.

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