Vietnam
Gallery 11
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"Wild Weasel" patch worn by LTC James Gorman. The letters "YGBSM" on the bottom scroll stand for the semi-official motto of the Wild Weasels: "You gotta be sh*tting me!"; these were the first words spoken by Jack Donnovan (the first Electronic Warfare Officer) when he was told that he was going to ride in the back seat of a F-100F and attack Surface to Air Missile (SAM) sites. |
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This packet of souvenir postcards was mailed home in the summer of 1966 by Airman First Class LeRoy Pyle, a member of the 1876th Communications Squadron based at Tan Son Nhut Air Base. Note that in place of a stamp, the word "Free" was written; service members serving in combat zones were permitted postage free mailing for letters and postcards, a practice that continues today. |
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This NVA aluminum belt buckle was cut from a leather belt as a souvenir. These buckles were produced in several variants, such as multi-piece buckles, or with red enameled stars instead of the engraved style shown here. |
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Originally adopted for use in 1941, the M1 helmet continued to be worn (with minor modifications) in Vietnam. The cloth helmet cover (sometimes called a "Mitchell" cover) was designed with a disruptive camouflage pattern to break up the outline of the helmet. Reversible with leaf patterns in green or brown for fall or winter operations, the cover also contained small slots for inserting natural foliage. A camouflage helmet band could also be worn to hold foliage in order to blend the helmet shape and color into the surrounding terrain. In Vietnam, this band was more often than not used to hold cigarettes, insect repellent ("bug juice"), or an extra rifle magazine. Soldiers routinely wrote or drew on their helmet covers, usually with nick-names, names of wives and girlfriends, names of their home states or towns, or hash marks counting their days in country. The cover on this helmet dates from 1969. |
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"Duck Hunter" camouflage shirt. This camoflage pattern was loosely based on the frog camouflage worn by Marines in the Pacific during WWII, and was produced by commerical companies for the sportsman's market. In the early days of the confluict in Vietnam, the U.S. had no official camouflage uniform, so soldiers bought these before deploying to Vietnam. The colour combination provided effective camouflage in the Mekong Delta area, but was of less use in the dense jungle environments further north; "Tiger Stripe" uniforms became increasingly popular with Special Forcers as the war progressed. Local tailors, however, continued to produce shirts, trousers and hats in the spotted camouflage (which the Vietnamese called Beo-Gam or leopard), and as a result several variations of the pattern exist. They became so popular that many Asian companies began producing them, and the pattern was adopted by Republic of Korea units and ARVN Rangers. The field gear worn was usually WWII or Korean War vintage, or a combination of the two.
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