My Inland goes nicely with my Retro AR

Recent threads caused me to get my carbine out for a quick, affectionate fondle (don't tell my wife, she'll get jealous). I have been so preoccupied with my 1962 vintage Colt Model 601 repro, I have been neglecting my little Inland! Looking at old early 60s Vietnam pictures, I realize that my "duck hunter" pattern advisers camo I have coming would look just as correct with the M1 Carbine with upgrades, as a 601 Model Ar15!

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...2514x472-1.jpg

This is the type of early green stocked AR I am doing...
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...2437x357-1.jpg

Those are some tough looking guys. Very early 60's I would think.....Frank

They are AR-15 Model 601 (1/14" twist), project AGILE 1962, and Model 602 (1/12" twist) from around 1963. Advisers from the Pre-MACV/SOG days. Many were armed with M2 carbines because the indigenous forces. I knew one (my company 1st Sgt. in 1974), and he was a very tough man.

Dang, I could be looking at my biological father and not know it. Very strange.

J, here's some more. what's the story? Was your dad in country 62-64?

More of the early advisers with duck hunter, M2 Carbines, and 601 & 602s.

Attachment 25463Attachment 25464Attachment 25465Attachment 25466Attachment 25467Attachment 25468

Four more...


Attachment 25469Attachment 25470Attachment 25471Attachment 25472

The story is that I'm a "war orphan" that was put up for adoption after my father was killed in Viet Nam '62 or '63. Never got much more detail than that. I reckon I could find out more w/o hurting feelings now, but have just never felt a real need to pursue it. Just idle curiousity for me, and there's the possible stress imposed on any biological relatives at this late date. So...

It is never too late. My wife did not know for sure who her real father was. She finally found out at 54 years old, confirmed it with DNA, and met her brothers and sisters she did not know she had. (They look just like her). They did not know about her, either. It worked out awesome. In fact Debbie's entry into her biological father's family has been a uniting effect. Siblings that had not spoken in years are now involved with each other on a daily basis. A dysfunctional family is now unified. PM me, we should really talk. It has filled a void my wife never admitted she had. I've gotten pretty good on ancestry.com....

I turned 18 in '63 and had no idea what was going on in the 'Nam. I sure found out on Dec. 22, 1965: Greetings from the president of the United States.... Amazingly, even though I was drafted, I wound up in a stateside outfit and never went anywhere. And at that time, I was very much okay with that.

I am building an M16A1 replica like the guy in the second picture is holding (guy sitting down)
Interesting to see an M1 carbine next to it in the first picture, I have one of those also and never thought they were used side by side.

Here are some retro resources:

AR-15 / M-16 Retro Forum - AR15.COM

Retro Black Rifle www.retroblackrifle.com

Here's mine: a reproduction of a 1961-62 vintage Model 601
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo.../07/601a-1.jpg
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo.../07/6011-1.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by INLAND44

I turned 18 in '63 and had no idea what was going on in the 'Nam. I sure found out on Dec. 22, 1965: Greetings from the president of the United States.... Amazingly, even though I was drafted, I wound up in a stateside outfit and never went anywhere. And at that time, I was very much okay with that.

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You are 4 years older then I am. Drafted back then could have sent you anywhere. Stateside or Germany was the place to be then. I turned 18 in 1967, and enlisted. As luck would have it, I made it to "the Nam" just in time for Tet. Quite the learning experience.

I have this as a reminder
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...7/ColtAR-1.jpg

Nice SP1 Jim!

I was lucky. When I enlisted in 1974 at age 22, I ended up at Oakland Army base where they were offloading material and caskets from back there. In 1975 I was at the MP station there when Saigon fell... At the MP school in 1974, they were looking for MP volunteers to go over for duty in Saigon and Ton Son Nhut Air Base. Both my wife and my older brother (an O-3 who did two tours there) told me if the Viet Cong didn't shoot me, they would. I stayed stateside.

Smart choice

when the big Ia Drang fight happened. I was drafted in 8/65. Nobody knew squat about Vietnam. Our Captain had just returned from a tour there but it was vacation time unless you were in SF. Captain told us about eating monkey brains and drinking himself out every night. When he found out I was going he said "You'll love it there". Well by May 66 the cat was out of the bag about how bad the 2/7th was shot to pieces at X Ray/Albany. Everyone got interested in Vietnam by that time, interested in how to not go there. By the time I got there in May 66 it was full throttle war not some adventure. By the way, in May 66 you only had an M16 if you were in a mobile Infantry Battalion and even some of those outfits didn't have them yet. They were not seen at all. M14s, carbines M1s.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by imarangemaster

I realize that my "duck hunter" pattern advisers camo I have coming would look just as correct with the M1 Carbine with upgrades, as a 601 Model Ar15!

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I've got some "woodland green" Camo pattern Army clothing that I got from my brother. I think he retired in the late 70's. Question is whether it's the same as the "duck hunter?" In the pictures, the "duck hunter" pattern looks more brown than what I have. Thanks! - Bob

Quote:

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Originally Posted by frankderrico

Those are some tough looking guys. Very early 60's I would think.....Frank

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Frank,

I just received my VFW magazine. The second picture of the guy sitting on the boat is on page 30. Caption says " A U.S. adviser accompanies South Vietnamese soilders on a river patrol near the Cambodia border in June 1964." So you have a date.

And they told us to say we never went into Cambodia. I know we ran up river there a few times. They copped out saying "near". Funny.

Jim

Jim, those early guys were realy tough men. I had a first sargent that was there then, as an adviser to SVN rangers. He could be in those photos.
With your three tours I can't imagine that you were not in "Cambode" more than once.
I have a good friend that went there by trail and made it back. Now when we get together and crack a few it is remembered as as hell of a good time. "GEEEZE" how time softens the exprienece.....Frank

You are correct, more then a few.

Good time my a**. I can't consume enough beer to feel that way. Don't talk particulars about it with many people either. Kind of a personal experience thing. I get together with two guys from my boat. One a couple times a year, he lives 500 miles away. The other lives 3,000 miles away. We get together every other year or so. Occasionally we might bring it up.

All these guys going back to visit. Not me, I never want to go back there.

Duck hunter camo was not standard government issue It was either commercial duck hunter camo made by Kamo or Ranger and bought from stores like Western Auto or Sears. Some was also manufactured in theater by tailors. They called it "Beo Gam" (leopard spot) camo. It was issued late 50s to early advisers to about 1964 or 1965

Here's some originals I bought. Kamo brand

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...10_52_01-1.jpg
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...02_29_01-1.jpg

My late buddy Ray Barrios who was in the 50th Inf in '68 was always after me to go back with him. I told him, Raybo...remember how hot it was, how that sun was out there waiting for you every day? Remember the smell, the crap, the beggars, the poor unfortunate people? You can't give everyone money, you can't fix it. Up in the highlands it was beautiful, but who wants to walk up in those hills and find some jungle junk? No thanks. I couldn't wait to get out of that place and have a real bed, toilets that flush, all the food and water you want. Why relive that?