KEN NOLAN INC., Vietnam Era Military Insignia Mfr.

[468abnarm]

Some more Ken Nolan items. Ordered these flight jacket inserts in 1973. Original sketch I sent had wings & BoS on together. They could not get both to fit so they sent me two sets of each at no extra charge. Also bought from KN reversed 1st Cav. & 1st Avn Bde SSI's for 50 cents each.

 

[vintageproductions]

Well, we have created the world's largest repository of Ken Nolan Co. trivia.

 

They were in San Clemente adjacent to the north end of Camp Pendleton, then moved a few miles north to Irvine CA. They went out of business almost 11 years ago, but I wonder if their remaining inventory is still stashed away in a storage locker in Orange County? Maybe the STORAGE WARS people (is that still being filmed?) will find it one day.

 

I once bought the remaining inventory of a military uniform and tailor shop in San Diego. The son of the owner had it stored in his garage over 30 years after the shop closed. San Diego also had the Wosk store, whose WWII patch inventory was being sold by family members more than 60 years after their shop closed: https://www.google.com/#safe=off&hl=en&q=site:usmilitariaforum.com+wosk

 

After they went out of business their inventory went through a general auction in Santa Ana, and for the next few months every time we would go to the Goldenwest Flea Market there were four or five sellers who had tons of their stuff.

[Linedoggie]

Ruvel & co. was another good one from the 70's, lots of unissued ww2 field gear.

In 1988 or so I was able to buy a dozen M16 cleaning kits from Ruvel for my squad. Was almost impossible to get from Supply in the NYARNG of the era.

 

Also got a nice milled M1 Carbine rear sight windage adjustable from them

[firefighter]

I remember those catalogs and ordering stuff. Who knew back then.

[Ronnie]

Hard stripe I remember P&S Sales. First saw their ad probably in an Outdoor Life Magazine. Ordered one and kept getting them for years. I too bought some knives and bayonets. I remember when I went off to college my Mom thru away a beautiful 16" bayonet.

Bought lots of web gear too. Those were the good old days.

Ronnie

[firefighter]

I think my marking kit from basic, for my uniform and gear, were made by Ken Nolan.

[809ebc]

Does anyone know how many iron-on subdued SSI Ken Nolan put out? I have about a dozen, but wonder if there are more.

[PATCHRAT]

There are at least 15 Army SSI including the AIRBORNE tab plus the Chevrons.

 

I have

 

MACV

USA VIETNAM

1ST CAV

SPECIAL FORCES WITH OUT TAB

1ST ID

4TH ID

101ST A/B

173RD A/B WITH OUT TAB

196 INF BDE

1ST SIG BDE

18TH ENG BDE

AIRBORNE TABS

CHEVRONS

 

I KNOW THE FOLLOWING EXISTS

9TH DIV

199 INF BDE

18TH MP BDE

 

would like to add complete envelopes of these 3 if anyone happened to have a set.

[KurtA]

Thought I'd add the Navy rate to the thread.

 

 

 

 

 

[Salvage Sailor]

.....and some USNR patches - Naval Reserve Bakersfield California

[firefighter]

.....and some USNR patches - Naval Reserve Bakersfield California

 

Very cool. I did not know the did patches, obviously outsourced.

[patches]

Kurt, in your catolog did he make iron on U.S. ARMY ones, you know to make tapes, also individual letters to spell out NAME.

[PATCHRAT]

Kurt, in your catolog did he make iron on U.S. ARMY ones, you know to make tapes, also individual letters to spell out NAME.

In post #5 he does advertise "US Army" at the top of the envelope along with a couple other badges. I have never seen them. Also have not seen letters for individual NAMES.

[KurtA]

Kurt, in your catolog did he make iron on U.S. ARMY ones, you know to make tapes, also individual letters to spell out NAME.

 

I'll dig out the catalog and check to see if they sold the tapes.

[patches]

 

I'll dig out the catalog and check to see if they sold the tapes.

Now these weren't tapes, just the letters U.S. ARMY, you would iron it on a piece of cloth and fold it into a tape or just iron it on over the pocket. How bout qualification and skill badge iron ons, did they have those too?

[1SG_1st_Cav]

Nice insignia.

[F 106 Pilot]

Here is Nolan's USMC Utility hat and shirt iron on. Ben

[usmc grunt]

Ken Nolan USMC cover block in its original box.

[SgtMaddoxUSMC]

From the September 1954 issue of "Leatherneck":

[SgtMaddoxUSMC]

[SgtMaddoxUSMC]

[patches]

Those are some great photos of Nolan Inc, 1954 eh, thought was they started in the 60s, had no idea they went back that far.

 

This will explain the USMC EM rank stencils then, done just before the Marines came out with their pin on collar rank insignia, the sleeve stencils being in fashion in the Corps.

 

By the way, what was the exact year the collar pins came out, you know the ones before the early 60s current Crossed Rifles type? Around 1956? Jack Webb wears them I believe in The DI rather than the sleeve stencils, though can't find an image of him in Utilities, just Blues and Khakis.

[SgtMaddoxUSMC]

The wide metal rank chevrons came out I believe around '54 and were in use until '59 when the current ranks took effect. Those were the first OFFICIAL issue collar ranks. Even before that, Marines were wearing theater-made chevrons on their covers and collars that were cast brass chevrons, painted red and were made during the Marines' time in Korea.

[patches]

The wide metal rank chevrons came out I believe around '54 and were in use until '59 when the current ranks took effect. Those were the first OFFICIAL issue collar ranks. Even before that, Marines were wearing theater-made chevrons on their covers and collars that were cast brass chevrons, painted red and were made during the Marines' time in Korea.

 

 

Thanks that's sounds about right. I guess Nolan INC soon switched to making metal collar rank pins for the Marines in due course after these photos were taken in 1954.

[SgtMaddoxUSMC]

Here is the full set of the first official issue wide metal collar chevrons. These were also worn on field covers I believe.