Whats the best site for South Vietnamese and Cambodian army stuff

[Jeff Ashenfelter]

Hi Alex, I guess about 10 years more or less. My goal is to put out a book someday! I have around 200 or so pics of headgear and berets being worn in country so far. Unfortunately most of them have not held up to time too well and or you cannot see the beret insignia well enough to reprint. Marine corp troops wearing berets in pics is very hard to find for some reason.
Airborne and Ranger seem to be the easiest. But even quality shots of these being worn are becoming quite scarse. Please keep me in mind if you ever find any! Jeff

[Patrick Dempsey]

Here is one of my favorite berets. Can anyone identifty it?

Hi Jeff,

i was foxed by the beret question too. Are you aware of any others in collections?

Also, does the bullion denote a higher rank/grade or is it simply due to higher quality workmanship do you think?

closeup of rare 4th mod enlisted army flash in hand sewn cotton!

That is a great piece of insignia, when did this style start to appear on berets?

I will try to photograph a few of my (common) berets over the weekend along with a few other ARVN items and add them to the thread.


Patrick.

[Jeff Ashenfelter]

Hi Patrick, I am afraid I have no answer to your question about the Rural Development beret. I have never seen another or even another picture of these in use. The photo that I have was given to me by my friend Gary Brenz, who by the way has one of the largest collections of Vietnamese cloth insignia that there probably is.
The hand sewn last model of the army enlisted beret flash was first introduced during president Thieu's era and was kept in use until the end in 1975.
I look forward to seeing your other beret's, Jeff

[Jeff Ashenfelter]

As long as I had my flashes out I thought I would contribute a few more very (rare) flashes that I actually purchased from a fellow forum member! Enjoy,Jeff

[Jeff Ashenfelter]

another, know what these are?

[Bob Chatt]

Those two are ARVN Armor General's beret insignia. Also on the rural beret badge there is also a black wool shoulder board that has the same stalk / plant done in bullion on it.
Bob Chatt

[hochiminhtrail]

i would have guessed general, but i have never seen one before.

i think the Rural Deve.Prog. beret is ranking number one on the rarity list, as far as i know, or put it that way as far as what i have seen at the moment .

Jeff,

do you have war times pictures of berets, but actually never seen them in real or that you cant identify.

Just by curiosity, maybe there is some unknow ones out there.

Alex

[Jeff Ashenfelter]

Bob, you win the cupie doll this time. But since you probably know more about Vietnam insignia than most of us here, then it really was no challenge to you!
Alex, in answer to your question, yes I do have photos of flashes that are unknown to me. Sometimes it is just the angle of the shot, but in others I just cannot make out the flash either by uniform makeup or knowledge of the type. I will try and dig out some! Jeff

[Jeff Ashenfelter]

Here are a few pictures that I dug out for review. Most of these flashes are unknown to me or I just cannot make them out! The first 2 pics are of some Vietnamese Naval troops on a plane. The two male nco's have the usual 3 leave naval insignia for nco's on their ballcaps. The female Lt Com has some sort of either O.S. cap or beret with a strange device.

[Jeff Ashenfelter]

closeup

[Jeff Ashenfelter]

the next picture is of an armor enlisted troop with a very strange armor qualification type of beret badge. The size of this flash is quite large, as the usual qualification badge is quite small.

[Jeff Ashenfelter]

closeup

[Jeff Ashenfelter]

This picture shows a group of soldiers in formation, perhaps a graduation ceremony! At first I thought this might be a police insignia, but I just do not think so!

[Jeff Ashenfelter]

closeup of group shot

[Jeff Ashenfelter]

The next pic is of what appears to be a marine but his flash is blurry. It looke like the first model of marine flash in some respects!