Sunday, March 10, 2019

Dated 1971 with an Unusual Helmet (Identified as an American)

Via Quang-Hieu L

Image may contain: 1 person, outdoor

14 comments:

  1. He appears to be an Airborne Ranger (or equivalent) showing off captured equipment for the folks back home.

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    1. He may well be simply *using the AK, it's the helmet that got me.

      * Not uncommon among allies. http://tinyurl.com/yc3qdws9

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  2. That is a photo shop of a SOG re-enactor, from the SOG/LRRP re-enactor web sight. AGAIN this is a 100% fake made in the last several years. The guy in the photo(name unknown) has dozens of full color and B&W , some photo shopped into real Vietnam war photos, but most at events taken since 2005. THIS WAS NOT TAKEN DURING THE WAR or even in Vietnam.--Ray P.S. This guy like posting himself so much his photos are easy to find. It took me less than 5 Min. to find ten.

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    1. So they photo-shopped the date also, correct?

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    2. Yes he does that a lot.(fake dates) The helmet everybody is on about is in one of his color photos. It is one of the "NVA" style pith helmets that sell on the re-enactor web sights for about 20$ US. They are pushed as "NVA ISSUE". His shirt(and probably his sun helmet) comes from a re-enactor supply web sight named "Moore Milataria" He(T. Moore) carry's a large selection of Reproduction "NVA" uniforms and equipment. But again: YES this guy regularly posts fake dated photos, and real Vietnam war photos with himself photo shopped into them.---Ray

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    3. "NVA" style pith helmets

      Maybe it's the angle, but doesn't look right to me.

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    4. The sun helmets are actually Chinese. Sold to venders in Vietnam. Then sold to venders in the US. There must be 10 web sights + E-Bay that carry them. Colors range from "French Tan" to Chinese forest green and anything in between. They also come with a nifty Chicom or NVA party badge on the front that most Re-enactors remove before they play army. Popular lately is the French "m1949" cowboy hat. Most of them are actually made in Vietnam.--Ray

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  3. At the very bottom of the picture, note the G.I. issue canteen covers with no canteens, as Airborne Rangers (i.e., "LRRP"s) used them to carry M-16 magazines.

    Also note the heavy-duty snap rings at the shoulders of his webbing, which is how Airborne Rangers would connect to helicopters for rapid insertion and extraction.

    This was probably also common for Special Forces and SEAL teams.

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  4. G.I.s were officially ordered not to ever use captured AK-47s, for two reasons.

    First, their distinct sound could mistakenly attract friendly fire.

    Second (and this was HIGHLY classified, only recently revealed), surrepticiously discovered enemy caches of weapons and ammunition would be secretly booby-trapped and then abandoned in place by Special Forces, with individual AK-47 rounds rigged, when fired, to explode in the weapon's chamber.

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    1. I've got a Vietnam veteran friend who lives close by. He told me about finding and boobytrapping lots of caches of ammo as you described. He told me it wasn't just 7.62X39, but almost every type of rifle ammo from WW2 including M1 Garands. He also told me they'd find caches of Mosin Nagant rifles, K-98's, British Enfields, and submachineguns from most allied and axis fordces, etc. and they would "blow them in place". An interesting thing he did tell me was that he nor his team members could ever pack enough high explosives into a German 8mm round to destroy the receiver of a Mauser.

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    2. I'm sure there were many that were blown in place and/or bobby trapped but there were also many that came in from the field and traded. I had a few and the grease gun was my favorite.

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