Vietnam War Uniform Grouping

[Tonomachi]

I was going through some of my Goodwill uniform finds before they created their online sales site at shopgoodwill.com.  I picked up five Vietnam War era uniforms belonging to a single individual whom I just identified as LTC Thomas C. Wong (22 Nov 1928 - 24 June 2008) who was CO of the Da Nang Signal Battalion, 1st Signal Brigade.  One of these uniforms has a US Army Special Forces shoulder sleeve patch on the left arm however I could find nothing about his service with the Green Berets.  

 

 

[Tonomachi]

Photos

 

 

[Tonomachi]

Here is the Army Special Forces uniform.  I was curious if an officer during this time period was attached to the Army Special Forces during the war would be allowed to wear the Special Forces shoulder patch without having gone through their Q Course and being SF qualified?

 

 

[atb]

Yes, soldiers wear the Shoulder Sleeve Insignia for the unit to which they are assigned. Many non-parachute qualified soldiers have been assigned to and worn the SSI of airborne designated units. Non-Green Beret qualified support soldiers assigned to special forces organizations were the SF SSI.

[gwb123]

Very nice set.

 

I concur with ATB ... the SF shoulder patch is a unit insignia, not a qualification badge.  If you were assigned to  Special Forces unit, you wore the patch.

 

As for the Airborne tab, I believe I have seen early examples of uniforms where a non-jump qualified soldier wore just the arrowhead, but I think later on it was standardized as ATB said for everyone to wear both.

 

[atb]

"AIRBORNE" tabs are not qualification badges. They are a part of the SSI with which they are worn. They are not worn by themselves. Not all soldiers assigned to airborne designated units are airborne qualified, but all wear the entire SSI.

[Tonomachi]

Thanks for everyone's input and this information.

[WAC_GIRL1944]

I think its so important now that this generation is sadly aging and passing on that we recognize and hold their uniforms and groups with the same esteem we seem to have for WW2 items. I have always thought VN war stuff is interesting.