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Jungle jacket marked KILL ROY - USMC WB


Bob Hudson
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This 1967 dated slant pocket Vietnam combat shirt has embroidery above the breast pockets: one side saying KILL ROY and the other USMC WB. There is a shadow from two name tapes that had been sewn above the pockets.  Does the USMC WB bit ring a bell for anyone? Is the stitching an Asian pattern?

 

thanks for any help

 

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vintageproductions

Doesn't look like any Asian style embroidery. Looks like a mom or wife did it stateside.

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What you have right now is a USMC affiliated oddity.  If you strip out the thread,  you will have a plain Jane jungle jacket that probably will not look so great.

 

Years ago a picker friend  of mine came up with a boonie hat that had the loops cut up to make a fringe.  He thought some goofball kid had done it, so he cut it all off to "restore " it to a more military look.  It turns out that some of the female personnel used to do this for a more fashionable look. It was right as rain as a period artifact if he had just left it alone. 

 

You will no sooner strip those threads and then find out what it really stood for.  That's one of Murphy's Laws!

 

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16 minutes ago, gwb123 said:

He thought some goofball kid had done it, so he cut it all off to "restore " it to a more military look.

 

About 15 years ago I bought a canteen that had white writing painted on the canvas case - it looked like a Boy Scout Troop number and I scrubbed and scrubbed to get it off. Did a pretty good job too and I thought it looked much better alongside the canteen cup, on which a WWII Marine had engraved the name of every place - domestic and foreign - the Corps sent him.

 

Sometime later I learned about Marine Corps UNIS marks and why I should not have cleaned off that "troop number."  

 

The embroidery on this shirt is not the stuff of kids: I don't know about the rest of you,  but I did not grow with any kids who did embroidery. I  didn't count the stitches, but there's a bunch of them and it must'vehad  some sort of importance  for someone to have put that much time in it (or is it machine sewn?). 

 

 

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I spent 2nd and 3rd grades in Belgian schools and at both schools we all embroidered and had beer with lunch.
 

In agreement that something cool is up with this jacket.

 

In addition you never find Marine jackets from this time period with anything on them so if it is real it’s not common.

 

I would even venture to say that the vet did it.

 

Where did you find it? Any story?

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2 hours ago, manayunkman said:

Where did you find it? Any story?

 

From a local hoarder: I paid too much, but it is a curious piece.

 

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Cap Camouflage Pattern I

It's odd that it has the shadows of name and bos tapes, I belive only TQLC advisors wore them at the time. I'd guess it probably came from a surplus store rather than a marines duffle bag. 

 

 

"Fringing" boonie bands was popular with male soldiers too, both US and Vietnamese.

 

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