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. 

Capt. Thomas Taylor (son of Maxwell Taylor) when arriving in Vietnam was with 1st Brigade 101st Airborne serving with B Company 502nd Infantry.  

Oh, Grant had a drinking problem for sure. He mostly kept it under control except for a few unfortunate incidents where he went off the rails. His wife solved the problem by sending their son to join him at headquarters and she  joined them eventually herself. With them around, booze was never a problem again. Some say that he substituted cigars to curbs alcohol urges. That of course led to the throat cancer that killed him. 

Speaking of Sherman, he readily admitted several times that he and almost everyone was wrong for doubting Grant’s plan for Vicksburg. He also credited Grant’s cutting his own supply lines during the Vicksburg campaign for inspiring the March to the Sea.