Hi all, I took a still life photograph with the BRO helmet, a BRO liner and a barbed wire picket recovered on Omaha beach. Hope you will like it! Best,  

The above Photo depicts a U.S. Army M-15, variant of the M-3 Halftrack. The M-15 differed from the M-16, the Quad .50 you mentioned by having 2x .50 HMG's & 1x 37mm Cannon. Whereas the M-16 was equipped with the 4x, .50 HMG's. The M.M. Recipient I referred to in the above Post was assigned to an M-15, all throughout his WW2 Service.                Best,     Dom P.

Black Knights 5th Cav 3/5 in country cover 1967-68  Thank you to Noah Kang for allowing to purchase this cover. The 3rd squadron of the 5th Cav arrived in Vietnam in Feb 1967 near the Mekong Delta. They were transferred to the 9th Division A,B and C troops and all armored Cav assets.  They served as reconnaissance and armor. This particular trooper arrived in August of 67 and was from California. He left a girlfriend or wife back home by the name of Janet. He was assigned to possibly a M48 Patton  “Super Tanker” is written on the side of the Mitchell side. The cover is dated 1965 and is in fragile condition. There’s writing on both the leaf side and the Mitchell side. *The leaf side has his calendar and his DEROS of July 14th 68. Also with California on the front and Janet on the side. It also includes the motto “Do not bend or break.”   the Mitchell side Has California on the front      Janet on one side       Also has a bird light figure with a peace sign in it. ( to me it looks like the eagle that you would find on a German dagger as you can see there is a swastika right above it.)      On the other side it has the saying “Super Tanker” On the back of the cover, it has “black knights” 3/5  CAV  Under a black light, you can make out that there was a band on the helmet at one time. The pictures are not the best to cover is extremely fainted and torn. I added the helmet and liner and band.   There are two different sets of pictures. I’m leaving the cover on the Leaf side and that’s the pictures that have the elastic band.   To me the Mitchell side as the best art work but it’s to faded to appreciate.

Great pics man. Well it looks consistent with the cracking like mine. But the texture isn’t the same by the looks. I know there were different types and I’m trying to find if this was a type or not. Yours looks more material than mine, my one looks papery, which was also a type. So maybe yours is the oilcloth type.  hoping someone has a pic of their paper like armbands.  thanks for your pictures, very interesting

Captain Taylor was 1st Brigade Assistant Intelligence Officer at the time of this photo (July 1965). Seems he took over command of B 2/502 following casualties during Operation Gibraltar in September 1965. Still not sure of the exact ID of this helmet marking, but it would appear to be unrelated to 2/502.      

Thank you for the help.  The brim appears to be stiff.

Thanks. On another forum someone suggested this configuration may have been used by 160th "back seaters," so your comment about Air Force/TACPs lines up with other leads I've come across. I'm hoping someone with firsthand experience can eventually confirm the use case.

Hey, Wade, that is a tough question to answer. On the one hand there are probably plenty of them still out there “in the wild”. We have to remember that a typical Army or Marine division in Vietnam would have an authorized strength of ~15,000 personnel … and everyone smoked! (The reality is that, rightly or not, guys weren’t concerned about getting cancer in 20 or 30 years; when being “taken out” by “high speed lead poisoning” was much more probable and much sooner.)   On the other hand, lighters of any particular unit are not in one obvious location. (You know that already, but I’m just covering the obvious.) However, “putting the word out” here is an excellent start. Plus letting friends, family, and neighbors know is also a good strategy. Still the best source is the much-maligned eBay. Put the particulars of your looked for lighter into its search engine and let it do the work for you.    I still have a couple of “Holy Grail” items I’m looking for and have several “bookmarked” on eBay’s search engine. If I get a “hit”, eBay sends me an email.   Now, here’s where we can be most helpful to you: if you do get an eBay hit, then post it on here and we can help you determine if it is a authentic engraved-in-Vietnam lighter or one of the ba-zillion fakes out there. I see you’ve posted helpful comments on this thread before, so perhaps you are already aware of the different indicators of fakes, but a second option is often a good idea. Good luck and good hunting!

Mid-1980’s tour jacket:     These are the seller’s photos.

If anyone is selling any of the original mugs I'd be interested, please send a message.