The KGB at Sea

[PaulR]

We did a lot of work with the Russian Border Guard last year. They are some very proficient sailors. Those men do not transfer from ship to ship ever three years, like we do. I hung out with their engineering officer, who was on his ship for 14 years!!

I was able to trade for a nice fur cap and some uniform patches.

I would kill for some of those uniforms. If you ever sell...

[PaulR]

Here are some of the photos I have from the present day Naval Border Guard, on one of their visits.

[PaulR]

Another couple of uniforms(these photos were greatly reduced, so I am sure that it is possible to get more detailed uniform photos, if needed. I remember seeing a lot of mixed insignia, especially on the caps... some were Communist era and some were modern Russian.

[PaulR]

Here are the patches.

I did a close up of the blurry one from the first photo. It is the one you will see on the dress uniform sleeves.

[MASSOUD]

Here are pics from a Dembel album (Border River Unit on the Amu Daria at Termez in 1986-1987)

[MASSOUD]

[Bill D.]

GREAT photo album !

A superb display of badges and awards in wear, and nice shots of a variety of camouflage clothing being worn.

It's also interesting that virtually all of the sailors are wearing their caps perched on the back of their heads so that the caps are at an angle, as opposed to regular Soviet Navy seamen who always seem to be wearing the caps flat on their heads.

[PaulR]

Thank you for sharing those photos. It is great to see what awards these lower ranked sailors received.

Do you think that the photographer had the men wear their caps up high, for the sake of the photo? All of the portraits seem to have been taken by the same photographer.

[MASSOUD]

The caps are worn (save 1) in a typical dembel fashion....Nothing abnormal...
In another field,after Nikolai Chepik (pothusmously hero of the Soviet Union) died in 1984 in Afghansitan,all VDV guys adopted his way to wear the beret: the same way these MTchPV are wearing their caps ,up high.....

[PaulR]

With the help of a fellow collector here on the forum, I was able to add this beautiful flag to the Naval Border Guard(Coast Guard) display.

Thank you again Bill.