Interesting Vietnamese medal today

[easterneagle87]

Got this on FB market place and it arrived today. 

 

Vietnamese made National Defense Medal "ribbon/drape" but Vietnam Service medallion on the ND drape. Both medals came in the deal, I'll use one as a comparison. Very light weight construction. 

[Allan H.]

The medal is obviously Vietnamese-made, but at some point, the Vietnam Service pendant has been married to a National Defense ribbon drape.

 

Interesting pick up.

 

Allan

[Cobra 6 Actual]

EE87, one of the interesting things about the design of your VN Service Medal is that the dragon is behind the bamboo. A variation that the Vietnamese preferred of the design was to place the dragon in front of the bamboo, like this:

 

 

Although the medal was not issued to the Vietnamese, some of them apparently didn’t like our design. In fact, when I saw one in a ville in ~1969 the vendor told me that the US-design (with the dragon behind the bamboo) looked like the dragon was hiding, so his version had the dragon in front of the bamboo.

[easterneagle87]

This is great! Thanks for showing the variation of the dragon and the information "behind" it.  

[Cobra 6 Actual]

You’re welcome, EE. I have a Vietnamese-made National Defense Service Medal around here somewhere. When I find it I’ll post it here, too.

[Cobra 6 Actual]

Here you go, EE87, this is the Vietnamese-made National Defense Service Medal:

 

 

And, here are both versions of the Vietnam Service Medal, Vietnamese-made on the left and US-made on the right:

 

[Cobra 6 Actual]

And, here are several other related medals for Vietnam Service, with the Armed Forces Expeditionary Service Medal on the left, the military’s Vietnam Service Medal, the Merchant Marine’s Vietnam Service Medal, and the US Government’s Vietnam Service Medal as given to civilians:

 

Finally, the last two up are the New Jersey State Vietnam Service Medal and the United Daughters of the Confederacy’s Vietnam Service Medal:

 

[Cobra 6 Actual]

14 hours ago, Cobra 6 Actual said:

Here you go, EE87, this is the Vietnamese-made National Defense Service Medal:

 

 

And, here are both versions of the Vietnam Service Medal, Vietnamese-made on the left and US-made on the right:

 

One other thing you’ll notice different on these medals: The Vietnamese spelled “Vietnam” as two words, “Viet Nam”, while the US spelled it as one word, “Vietnam”.