This knife is almost mint, it looks unissued, has original sheath with repaired brass prong to hole the strap in the locked position . the first issue knife has two rivets, the ones I see now have nails holding the wood on, these are being rehandled by the yards today and sold as original
Found this on eBay, there is a web site for the F/51st, I had never heard of them, its worth a look to read about this rare unit, They were only in theater for 438 days. The knife is out of site cool, looks to be made from a file, sheath is hand made and original to the knife
Opposite side of the knife with markings on handle
This came out of Laos recently, I have one that is a huey target model to train the Viet Cong to shoot at a moving helicopter, I have not ever seen one of twin rotor type as this one is
Taken from captured vc who captured it from a village, radio is in original captured condition, has Vietnamese language on radio. This came from the vet that captured it and brought it back
Rare original captured pair of bamboo hand made sandals
Only ones I have ever seen, brought back by a 173 veteran, found by John O'Conner in a Missouri consignment store, note was left for family to contact John with vets information. I purchased these from John
THIS FLAG WAS ACQUIRED BY A VETS BROTHER THAT TOURED VIETNAM IN THE EARLY 90'S
This looks to be gideon for the south vietnamese army, during one trip when there truck broke down and they had to walk, they stopped at a small village, the group wanted to ask questions about the war and the village, One of the villagers brought this out and sold it to one of the men. The reason i like this piece is i have never seen another, and until the late 90's this flag was banned in vietnam.
The man who brought his back brought back some really neat stuff that no one I know of has ever brought back. He is a real historian of this war and went to every battle field he could talk or bribe the guides to take them, some were closed and off limits to any visitors after he was in vietnam
THE GRENADES ARE HEAVY AS ORIGINALS, FILLED WITH SAND
One of the best display pieces I have ever found, this set was on display in my office for years, it was made for a vietnam display in a museum. They wanted it to look authentic, it is very real looking ( it has fooled some real experts over the years ). Made to look like a jungle workshop ration can grenade with jungle made pouch. No this is not real, never was, never will be (inert ! )
Plastic Vietnamese made pith helmet covered with us camo parachute silk, one side has the seam that was part of the parachute. looks to have had some insignia or start glued on the silk at one time
I have only seen one other of these in all the years of collecting, the helmet if rare but the glow in the dark tag if super rare. I have one other in the collection, helmet is named inside and shows the early mounts for the suspension, it still glows in the dark
Back has translation of poster into English, This is the only one I have ever seen, I have owned it for 20+ years, if you have one in your collection please contact me, I would love see another
Uniform is in very nice condition for a war time uniform, no rips are tears but its blood stained on the back and pants show lots of stains on the seat /one of the best I have had