Gents--while cleaning out some boxes in the attic I found this shirt and some 101st jungle fatigues that I had stashed years ago when I changed focus to WW1.

Its a permaprest fatigue shirt that the original owner had transferred all his patches (except the major leaf and 5th Army) from another shirt---as you can see there are some very worn ranger and 173rd Inf Brigade patches on the right sleeve and 5th Army and ranger tab on the left...the name and US Army are equally worn as are the CIB and Para badge.

 

Any ideas on the 173rd and 75th Ranger combination? and Company N? any significance?....As you can see, the guys name was Bonvillains so not a very common name....

Co N 75th was the ranger company attached to the 173rd.

The patch placement is normal for a former Co N Ranger.

BTW the name and US Army tapes look in-country made.

Your man served with N Co 75th Inf in Viet Nam.The 173rd was the parent unit of N Co.The scroll is US made and seems to be the type worn most often by N Compny Rangers.

 

RD

Should add that he went through a Ranger qualification course and wears the qual tab above the 5th Army patch.

 

RD

Must be him :

 

Vietnam Veterans Database

Name: BONVILLAIN FRANK B

Branch: ARMY

Rate: O03

Rank: CAPTAIN

MOS: 1542

MOS Title: Infantry Unit Commander

Entered: 6804

Discharged: 930910

Service Number:

State: UNKNOWN

Race: CAUCASIAN

Perhaps the Nco/75th Rangers has a site for the Vietnam service and a roster to go with ?

Nice!

For information on this individual Google 75th Ranger Association. When it opens at the top there is a tab call units.

Open to the unit you are looking for and there is a contact name for the director of each Ranger unit that served in Vietnam.

Gents-(especially Andrei, Doyler and 34BDQ)--thank you very much---your information is fantastic and a big help...this forum never ceases to amaze me with the collective knowledge.

 

Al

You may be interested to know that as a Lieutenant, Bonvillian was charged with murder and court-martialed. See the New York Times, Dec. 21, 1969 and Jan. 20, 1970.

You may be interested to know that as a Lieutenant, Bonvillian was charged with murder and court-martialed. See the New York Times, Dec. 21, 1969 and Jan. 20, 1970.

 

Have you got a link?

Googled his name and found a page of the book Stealth patrol By Bill Shanahan, John P. Brackin

 

Show's him on a roster of the 173rd. so the uniforms checks out.

 

Also found newspaper articles about him being charged with murdering a VC prisoner as a 1LT in 1969.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1300...pg=2868,4019881

 

Also found later records that show he might have been promoted up to LTC. at one point.

 

Page from the book.

Have you got a link?

 

I do not, but I did scan an article from microfilm of the January 20th 1970 issue of the NY Times, which includes a picture of Lt. Bonvillian. The image is too large to upload here.

 

Edit: By saving the image as a GIF using a 1-bit (black and white) palette, I was able to get the image file size small enough to include here. You can see it confirms him as a platoon leader in the 173rd.

I do not, but I did scan an article from microfilm of the January 20th 1970 issue of the NY Times, which includes a picture of Lt. Bonvillian. The image is too large to upload here.

 

Edit: By saving the image as a GIF using a 1-bit (black and white) palette, I was able to get the image file size small enough to include here. You can see it confirms him as a platoon leader in the 173rd.

 

 

Thanks for sharing these articles :thumbsup:

Gents---all I can say is WOW---you really amaze me with your ability to follow a clue and find more info than I thought was possible---what was really just a cool uniform now has a historical context that is really impressive---thanks again, and if you're ever in southside Virginia, the Coors lights are on me....

this guy trully earn his name BONVILLAIN ( from french translation) = BON VILLAIN = GOOD UGLY MAN

And did you catch how the paper (and the book reference) mispelled his name? ---Bonvillian---some of that high quality american journalism we have all come to enjoy since the sixties?....

 

this guy trully earn his name BONVILLAIN ( from french translation) = BON VILLAIN = GOOD UGLY MAN

In old french VILAIN stands for peasant, farmboy of lower class. The good LT's name means more likely "good peasant" than anything else.

Gents--while cleaning out some boxes in the attic I found this shirt and some 101st jungle fatigues that I had stashed years ago when I changed focus to WW1.

Its a permaprest fatigue shirt that the original owner had transferred all his patches (except the major leaf and 5th Army) from another shirt---as you can see there are some very worn ranger and 173rd Inf Brigade patches on the right sleeve and 5th Army and ranger tab on the left...the name and US Army are equally worn as are the CIB and Para badge.

 

Any ideas on the 173rd and 75th Ranger combination? and Company N? any significance?....As you can see, the guys name was Bonvillains so not a very common name....

 

I'm new to the forum; will this uniform be for sale or trade in the future? I collect Ranger items and am very interested in the top.

Gents--while cleaning out some boxes in the attic I found this shirt and some 101st jungle fatigues that I had stashed years ago when I changed focus to WW1.

Its a permaprest fatigue shirt that the original owner had transferred all his patches (except the major leaf and 5th Army) from another shirt---as you can see there are some very worn ranger and 173rd Inf Brigade patches on the right sleeve and 5th Army and ranger tab on the left...the name and US Army are equally worn as are the CIB and Para badge.

 

Any ideas on the 173rd and 75th Ranger combination? and Company N? any significance?....As you can see, the guys name was Bonvillains so not a very common name....

 

Bonvillian was my CO in 1976. Is this blouse going to be avaliable or may it still be?

Bonvillian was my CO in 1976. Is this blouse going to be avaliable or may it still be?

 

 

Judging by this thread, I'd say it's not currently for sale.

Frank Bonvillain and I were in jump school and the 82d together from summer of '68, until early 69, and we still keep in touch and exchange visits. I'm a lawyer in El Paso, and he just retired as a small arms instructor at Fort Huachuca. He and his wife Dorothy still live on their small ranch just outside Sierra Vista. Geography makes it easy for us to meet in person. He used to come to nearby Biggs Army Airfield for small arms desert training, and we'd get together for dinner. I'll send him a link to this page and urge him to join and share his experiences.

 

A poster below served under him. If anybody wants to renew a former acquaintanceship with Frank, send me an email (elpasomike13@aol.com), and I'll forward it to him. He's a dead ringer for Yosemite Sam, right down to physical appearance, cowboy dress, and surly attitude. By the way, he's a Texas Aggie political reactionary, and I'm a Texas Longhorn liberal. We have some fun discussions, while our wives sit there and roll their eyes.

Mike---if you ever think on it and get a chance, you might ask him how he thinks his uniform shirt came to be found at a central Virginia flea market...I think I must have had it for at least 10 years now but before that who knows where it might have travelled...

regards, Al

In 1968, I went through the Officer Basic Course at Benning with a Frank Bonvillain. As I recall, he was FB III. I notice the newspaper account of the court martial says FB II, but then the name is spelled differently there too, as in some of the posts here. Gen. Sherman said that the fate of the soldier is to die on the battlefield and have his name spelled wrong by the newspapers.

 

In 1969-70 I was at LZ Betty, outside Phan Thiet, in the 1st/50th Mech. which was part of the 173rd then. There was a Ranger detachment there too, part of the 75th, but I don't remember what company it was from, and I never saw Frank there, so I don't know if we unwittingly shared the same fire base or not.

 

Rumor had it that either Frank's father or grandfather was or had been a Lt. Gen. I never confirmed that.

 

Anyway, it's a small world when you get on the WWW.