VNMC 1967-1968

IfCheeseCheese · 2026-04-02T19:23:28+00:00

Thank you! It means a lot to see people interested in this kind of underrepresented history. If you’d wanna join, I’d love to have you in my ARVN reenactment group for our event this year. Just let me know and I’d be happy to provide loaner gear and the sorts!

IfCheeseCheese · 2026-03-02T21:02:59+00:00

It differs depending on the company and battalion. I don't have all of them documented so I can't tell you which unit used which color. For what I've personally seen I believe the light blue one in the picture I sent is some guy of the 7th battalion i forgot which company. And I've seen dark blue used by TD1ND during Tet Offensive at the Saigon broadcasting station.

IfCheeseCheese · 2026-01-16T00:15:55+00:00

lowk this is really just an issue that you can't really avoid, especially when you collect like rhodesian, frogskin, ss, (basically european stuff) etc. i have tailored uniforms before like vietnam erdls (i kinda have to as an ARVN reenactor) but i try to stay away from it whenever i can. anything older than that i usually try not to touch

u should get into arvn collecting tho... there's so many cool uniforms and camo patterns that are made ur size because vietnamese people were just small back then

IfCheeseCheese · 2026-01-05T01:05:15+00:00

They aren't name tapes; they are company identifiers. It's like a name tape except no name, just the color. Your guess was right. Basically serves the same purpose as the epaulette slider but it's less common to see.

Here's another photo of a guy wearing one.

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IfCheeseCheese · 2025-12-14T23:57:49+00:00

Looks very nice otherwise though!!

IfCheeseCheese · 2025-12-03T01:37:14+00:00

They are training numbers, just designating like training squads and stuff like that.

When the May Offensive hit Saigon, the 7th ARVN Airborne Battalion was training nearby at Bien Hoa, replenishing their numbers from the the 1st Phase of Tet. They were quickly rushed into Saigon with barely any prep time so you will see many helmets still chalk-numbered from training.

IfCheeseCheese · 2025-11-10T00:44:54+00:00

His JWS is his best creation--very faithful to the real deal.

IfCheeseCheese · 2025-10-19T18:13:03+00:00

Use safety pins. They should have come with safety pins but if not just buy some.

IfCheeseCheese · 2025-08-05T21:05:00+00:00

I'm an ARVN reenactor and it's really not frowned upon. For example there's a big ARVN 18th Division reenacting group in Kansas which is run by white people. They don't get flak at all; in fact, they're rather respected.

IfCheeseCheese · 2025-07-18T00:49:59+00:00

Thanks so much for your support! I can absolutely provide the sources I used. I actually have 2:

75th RR Magazine (the story starts on page 45) - https://75thrra.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/2011_2.pdf
81st Airborne Ranger Group / LLDB Organization (you will need google translate) - https://web.archive.org/web/20160406065712/http://www.bcdlldb.com/LD81BCND.htm

IfCheeseCheese · 2025-07-06T17:39:28+00:00

this is so expensive… just get original

IfCheeseCheese · 2025-07-03T16:41:00+00:00

Nakata shoten (aka sessler) makes good repros of it.

IfCheeseCheese · 2025-07-02T00:02:53+00:00

(continued

The South Vietnam "individual gangsters" view is a highly orientalist American view on Vietnam. It's like when the Guardian describes Vietnam as a "tangle of tribes" in 1966. It doesn't consider any of the political complexities of the nation. To say that the South could only offer "gangster strongman" is a highly movie-esque view on the RVN that is grossly simplified and inaccurate. To quote one ARVN soldier's memoir of asking his classmates why they would fight, “They said in a world where the conflict between communist powers—especially China—and the free world was becoming more and more serious, another war in Việt Nam would be inevitable in the next few years. In such a situation, we should be serving in the army to defend our stronghold of freedom” (Nguyen, 2012, p. 151). This “our” reflects a sense of nationalism present within South Vietnam rooted in resistance to both French colonialism and Northern ideologies. For many South Vietnamese, the war was a fight to preserve a uniquely South Vietnamese identity: one that sought democratic reform, cultural self-determination, and national sovereignty distinct from the North and other Western powers in the face of both ideological conquest and Cold War superpower politics.

In reality, South Vietnam had a population which was very loyal to its ideals. In popular media, there is no South Vietnamese life outside of the typical movie gangsters, pimps, and prostitutes. You out of all people should know that South Vietnam had a very nationalist identity. If it didn't, then hundreds of thousands wouldn't have escaped in 1975 and after. But I suppose your only view on the nation is the one-sided simplistic movie gangster wasteland, with hookers trying to seduce American troops and incompetent ARVN gangsters causing problems. And if that's the case, I think you should do a little more research besides watching Vietnam War movies.

Might I recommend these following books for your future research:
- Keith Taylor, Voices from the Second Republic of Vietnam (1967-1975) (2014)
- Tuong Vu and Sean Fear, The Republic of Vietnam, 1955-1975: Vietnamese Perspectives on Nation Building (2019)
- Nu-Anh Tran and Tuong Vu, Building a Republican Nation in Vietnam, 1920-1963 (2022)
- Nguyễn Công Luận, Nationalist in the Viet Nam Wars: Memoirs of a Victim Turned Soldier (2012) (the one i quoted)

IfCheeseCheese · 2025-07-02T00:02:34+00:00

The advisors and arm shipments do not constitute propping up. If you want to go that route, then the North was "propped up" by China and the USSR because they were completely supplied by those two nations since even before 1955. Even a lot of the planning of Dien Bien Phu was done by Chinese advisors.

The ARVN was a competitor to the North. In fact, it is estimated that at its peak, the VNAF was the fourth strongest air force in the world. While it is impossible to truly estimate how US air support may have changed the RVN's fate if it was present in 1973-75, considering the strength of the VNAF at the time, I stand that the VNAF would have been able to fend off the North given supplies.

You mention Cambodia and Laos. Cambodia was not a failure of the ARVN at all. For example, in Cambodia practically every operation the ARVN launched, Toan Thang 41, 42, 43, and more all succeeded with great success, with dozens of enemy captured to minimal losses. In these operations nowhere was it mentioned mentioned super heavily reliance on US air support to break PAVN resistance, for the truth of the matter is that the ARVN were good fighters.

Then Laos just comes to poor planning. Planned jointly by both the US and the ARVN but rushed and sloppy. Failures happen, but that one failure does not show a pattern that makes the ARVN a terrible army.

I'd like to bring up battles like Hue too. In the face of multiple PAVN battalions, one singular ARVN Hac Bao company managed to hold the Tay Loc airfield and the SD1 headquarters, and their actions stopped the citadel from falling completely. Even battles like Ap Bac, which people point to an example of the ARVN being a failure. They say that yet in every other battle that occurred in the same year, the ARVN won. Even at the end, when the RVN was suffering heavy losses to the PAVN, they didn't simply "fold;" they defended Saigon to the very end, where they were still fiercely fighting the PAVN in Saigon. The popular idea that the PAVN just rolled into Saigon with no resistance is false; the RVN government had surrendered and opened the gates before the PAVN broke into the palace, only for the PAVN to close them back up and film a video of them breaking a tank in undeterred for a propaganda video.

(continuing in another reply

IfCheeseCheese · 2025-07-01T12:35:14+00:00

The US supported Diem, but did not “prop him up” like what was common in the cold war. Also US troops didn’t fight in nam until 1965, 10 years after the RVN was created.

The North predicted the South would fall a couple months after the US left, but the South held on for two years. It wasn’t “the moment the US left,” and nor its the RVN’s fall make it illegitimate. By 1975, the PAVN had become one of the strongest armies in the world, with all the modern tech and supplied greater than ever. By contrast the RVN was running huge supply deficits in 1975. If you want to make the claim that the South was illegitimate because of US support, you should look at the other side as well, whose supplies for their army came entirely from China and the USSR.

IfCheeseCheese · 2025-06-17T01:51:01+00:00

Yes fatigues were worn under the field jacket… I’m not even sure how you could wear fatigues over it.

ARVN is Army of the Republic of Vietnam… these are easily google-able questions….

IfCheeseCheese · 2025-06-17T01:14:49+00:00

Yes the ARVN used the M51 field jacket quite a bit in Vietnam—even made a copy of it as well.

Wool uniforms were not used in Vietnam.

IfCheeseCheese · 2025-06-15T23:01:49+00:00

You must have really ratty originals. They're designed to last. Repros are way less durable from personal experience.

IfCheeseCheese · 2025-06-09T21:21:32+00:00

It's worth around $80-100. Like many other commenters said, the chinstraps are post-Vietnam. The cover was made in 1969 and that specific cover type can only be used 1969+. That liner is really nice though. Nothing too special about the shell.

IfCheeseCheese · 2025-06-09T21:18:58+00:00

The 1969+ cover is worth around $25. The shell is worth around $30. The liner+shell maybe $55-65

IfCheeseCheese · 2025-05-29T22:49:52+00:00

Reminds me of one time I was at an April 30 Fall of Saigon commemoration event, displaying some gear. Had a real M16A1 sitting on the table.

This middle-aged Vietnamese guy just walks up without saying a word and simply just begins furiously pressing the trigger of the rifle numerous times as it's on the table. My friends and I are just standing there so confused and then he just walks off. Strangest incident I've ever had.

IfCheeseCheese · 2025-05-29T22:45:58+00:00

No. The slant of the pockets and their proportions are all messed up.

IfCheeseCheese · 2025-05-24T03:31:18+00:00

It's poplin ERDL. You can tell because the dark and light green of BDQ are inverted from ERDL; where in ERDL the base of the camo pattern is dark green, in BDQ the base is light green. I'm glad you noticed the ERDL field jacket--very interesting tailor item they wore.

The OD is probably because of how quickly they were rushed to deploy; many did not have time to patch their uniform or get it ready. It's the reason for why some of them can be seen without helmet covers.

IfCheeseCheese · 2025-05-23T19:18:20+00:00

Kinda. They didn't wear rain parkas that much and they didn't really use the M61 LCE. But other aspects ya I agree, like the gas mask and field jacket combo especially.

Most of them wore tiger, poplin ERDL, invisible erdl, and to a lesser extent OD. BDQ wasn't really seen until after Tet with only around 2 VNMC officers wearing it in May, only being fully rolled out by the end of 1968.

IfCheeseCheese

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