Whats the best site for South Vietnamese and Cambodian army stuff

[Beezman]

Interesting info indeed.

So if we consider that these badges are indeed Cao Dai, one question remains: what would a non-Cao Dai ARVN soldier (enlisted or NCO) wear on his beret in the 1955-1966 time frame?

[Richard Woods]

often

Very often; nothing

[hochiminhtrail]

Hi NTS

well i think with the testemonies of "my veteran" and the ones from thefallenbuddha, we might have to reconsider or opinion , but a few more (testemonies) from Bob and you will close this chapter for all of us on this forum and we can move on and open another can of worms with some more heated discussion.


Alex

[Bob Chatt]

NTS-Here is a quick shot of one of my cases of third series VNAF wings.

[nguoi tien su]

Bob,

Thanks a lot for this photo ! This one plus the caps on the laotian thread, you nearly killed me !

I have bought a few wings in VN, but not that much !

Here are some example for the flight suits :





NTS

[nguoi tien su]

To add to the controversy of the "black label" inside the early headgear, here are two photos of typical 1962/1963 ARVN cap.





This kind of cap is also pictured in one of Miraldi's book with a different stamp (no triangle).

NTS

[nguoi tien su]

And as for the Dien Toai number on Hung Dao's labels controversy, here is a cap label, sewn. There is no telephone number.



NTS

[hochiminhtrail]

beret original or copy, the silk liner is on the crown only, the rest is made of textile.

Alex

[hochiminhtrail]

bb

[hochiminhtrail]

inside textile and silk liner

[nguoi tien su]

It looks legit to me.

NTS

[hochiminhtrail]

well beret is so mint that s why i had some doubts.

Alex

[Beezman]

It looks good to me too. Probably a vet bringback that was never worn.

[hochiminhtrail]

yes you are right, it s from the USA and it s brand new (never worn)

Alex

[Jeff Ashenfelter]

Ebay surprise

Just recentlythere was an ebay auction for an ARVN col's steel helmet with painted on rank blossoms. Many red flags went up when I saw the photo but I decided to take a chance on it anyway. The same vendor also had a VC flag and a beat up NVA canteen on separate auctions. Well as it turns out I won the auction for something like $68.00. I expected to get a recent made helmet so was quite surprised when the helmet arrived and I really liked what I saw.
I decided to email the vendor to ask him just where he actually got this helmet and really did not expect a reply. This is where it gets interesting. As it turns out this guy was a AP combat reporter/photographer who covered Vietnam,Laos and Cambodia from 1968-1973. I did a google search on him and found out that he has extensive coverage all over the internet. So he actually turns out to be legit!
Anyway this was his reply about the helmet { I picked up the helmet at an ambush site during the NVA invasion of SVN's Quang Tri Province in 1972. When the NVA crossed the DMZ with tanks,artillery and infantry everyone was caught by surprise. A long column of SVN civilians mixed with fleeing ARVN troops, some on foot,others in vehicles of every description, fled Quang Tri city, the province capital, south toward Hue on Hwy 1. But the NVA had a ambush waiting and the slaughter covered more than 5 kilometers along the Hwy. I was not in the ambush, only arrived onscene about 3 days later and my jeep promptly suffered two flat tires from all of the ammunition littering the roadway.I found a jeep with two good tires with the dead colonel and his driver still inside, took the tires to replace my flats and "liberated" the colonel's helmet since he had no further use for it!}
Here are a few pics of the helmet. Jeff