Vietnam era patch legit?

[Peter Laidler]

Sarge and others will well remember some of the most gaudy silk embroidery stuff that was available.......... in the moist hideous colours, with fearsome badges, dragons, logos etc etc. Some of the blokes used to send this hideous stuff/crap home........, as did my pal George Lxxxxxx from 4 RAR........ I mean............ what dad in his right mind, living in the wilds of Ballarat would want a red silk (?) smoking jacket adorned with gaudy dragons with a half eaten VC fighter in its jaws? Yep, That's what Georgie sent home as I recall. The true irony was that Georges dad had really been to war and had fought the Soviet occupiers during the Hungarian uprising, had a price on his head, escaped from Hungary to Austria carrying George, his smaller sister along with mum. We're still in touch and I'll forward this thread to him, now living in Bendigo. Have a chuckle George........

[armabill]

Are there many U.S, Veterans going back to visit Vietnam now in recent years, now that it's opened up to tourists?

I have heard that some went back but I'm not sure what the procedure is. I, myself, haven't went back. Would I? I don't know. I imagine cost would be a big factor and the accommodations.

[Peter Laidler]

My friend from 7RAR/RAEME went back and was welcomed BUT it was suggested that when he did go around (Vung Tau and East of Saigon) to just act like a tourist and not a veteran. Accommodation........, cheap as chips but not like living under side-less tents in the monsoon!

[Sarge]

Yep, I sent the wife a bright dark green dragon covered set of pajamas.
When we split I kept them just for the hell of it. Still buried around here somewhere?
There was everything imaginable, and then some, to be found in the shops in any of the towns in SVN. I had good picking because I had access to Nha Trang and Cam Rahn Bay. Also got into Saigon once.
Sarge

[Peter Laidler]

Oh, you made me chuckle with that Sarge. Yep, loads of this gaudy stuff went home. I wonder what the folks really thought of this stuff. But when you're 20 or 21........

[matthanne1]

I can say that as a 6th grader in 1972, living on Ft Ord (or any Army/USMC base for that matter) you were NOT cool if your dad didn't send you one of those 'Phu Bai' or 'Nha Trang' stitched cheap jackets. Especially as they said 'hell' and no one would take it away from you ('I'm sure to go to heaven cause...')! Now, my dad loved me and I am fortunate to still have him around, but he was an Advisor and they didn't have access to the cool stuff where he spent his two tours. So they were appreciated. All he could bring home was a 91/30 sniper with the brass and red-laquered plaque that was handed to him on the tarmac by his ARVN team. Will never leave the family!

[Peter Laidler]

Talking of which........ Does anyone remember those what we used to call 'VC sandals'? sort of shoe things, made from the treads of old lorry/car tyres, and shaped into sort of something you wear on your feet? I don't know where they found tyres with tread on them because all the old trucks and lorries seemed to have tyres that were as bald as a badgers arse! To be honest, you couldn't really describe these 'shoes' to anyone in words alone

[Flying10uk]

I don't think that making footwear from vehicle tyres is unique to Vietnam; I've heard of it before in other parts of the world.

[Peter Laidler]

It is when you're 20, never seen or even heard of anything like it before and when even flip-flops were a novelty

[Flying10uk]

I would imagine that Vietnamese people are resourceful people and when you have nothing probably the next best thing to a pair of "over the counter" footwear is to make your own from truck or car tyres. I believe that one of the other places that I've heard of it being done before, if memory serves me correctly, is Russia during WW2 and perhaps before. It is easy to understand why poor Russian civilians may have done this at a time when their country was being torn apart by the Nazis. The Russian civilians must have suffered greatly during the German onslaught.