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A Vietcong flag with a great family tie


Blu1989
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Hi everyone. I remember I briefly talked about this flag in my very first post sometime back in August I think but I decided that it would be better to give you all the full glimpse at it as well as its story and the story of how I saved it from my attic. It started back in 1967 when my dad was on a patrol as a part of one of his unit's major operations named Union 2 (I thought it was Arizona at first but my dad told me the flag came from Union 2 instead). He had been inspecting a hooch where enemies had been shot just minutes before by another patrol and he saw one of this flag's corners peeking out of the dead soldier's back pack. He pulled it out without anyone seeing him and he stuffed it in his pants and covered what was left with his white undershirt. It was only once his patrol stopped to rest when he took the flag out of his pants and put it into his back pack. He came home almost a year later with the flag stuffed into the bottom of his sea bag and then after a few years he took up league softball as a hobby and put this flag in the bottom of his softball glove bag as a kind of good luck charm. After I came along he put that bag in our attic where it would stay through two moves until I found it while rummaging around the attic a couple years ago. I pulled the flag out of his bag and I went to show him what I had found. He turned white as a ghost when I showed it to him and he told me that it was mine and that I needed to be careful with handling it. I hope you guys like it as much as I do.

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Great flag - If you haven't already I would encourage you, at the very least, to write the entire story down or better yet record your father telling it!

 

Very best,

 

Bill

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Thanks everyone on all the comments. Bill I have written down most of my dad's history with Vietnam and now he's been getting to all of the more detailed events like certain patrols and things that happened when his unit was at base. One of his favorites was when he was on leave in Thailand he and another marine were at a bar and this gibbon has hanging out next to the bar area. The other marine gave the gibbon a beer to drink from and from then on my dad used to say "I got a monkey drunk in Thailand" (though I know a gibbon is a type of ape). I found photo evidence of it last year and looking at the photo it is even funnier than it was when I first heard that story as a kid. Some of his battle stories I think he has left parts of out because I think he doesn't want to relive them again but he has told me a lot, especially about his bring backs which he never filled out paperwork on (I guess because it was mostly pieces of his issue gear he smuggled home).

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Thanks everyone on all the comments. Bill I have written down most of my dad's history with Vietnam and now he's been getting to all of the more detailed events like certain patrols and things that happened when his unit was at base. One of his favorites was when he was on leave in Thailand he and another marine were at a bar and this gibbon has hanging out next to the bar area. The other marine gave the gibbon a beer to drink from and from then on my dad used to say "I got a monkey drunk in Thailand" (though I know a gibbon is a type of ape). I found photo evidence of it last year and looking at the photo it is even funnier than it was when I first heard that story as a kid. Some of his battle stories I think he has left parts of out because I think he doesn't want to relive them again but he has told me a lot, especially about his bring backs which he never filled out paperwork on (I guess because it was mostly pieces of his issue gear he smuggled home).

 

Great to hear you're writing it down! What outfit was he in?

 

Very best,

 

Bill K.

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Bill he was in the 1st Marine Division, 7th Regiment, 2nd Battalion, Echo Company. He served alongside many veterans of ww2 and Korea. For example his regimental commander was a marine raider during ww2 and his company commander fought at Guadalcanal and Cape Gloucester. Also his immediate superiors in the field had been at the Chosin Resevoir during Korea. My dad served one tour of Vietnam before being sent back stateside a few weeks before the Tet Offensive.

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No Bill his unit is Echo 2/7. His unit won two Presidential Unit Citations during his time there:one for this operation and the other for Operation Arizona

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