Outstanding and very rare items from Vietnam special f0rces vet , the uniform is extremely rare, i believe it was only produced for 6 months and then discontinued, special forces experimental light weight BDU, shirt and pants, shirt is direct embroidered with (captain's bars) (the south Vietnamese senior jump wings ), (CIB), and (us master jump wings). The shoulder insignia is all early 1960's cut edge. The rifle was a captured item that was used as a presentation piece, it is a mas 36 /39, rare to be found in Vietnam, the 39 has a grenade site. Gun has also inscription on the butt for the presentation and describes its capture. The items come with two letters to document the items from Jason Hardy.
THE VET AND UNIFORM
Both the uniform and captured weapon were brought back from Vietnam by the vet , in October of 1964, Simon Ecklund was a captain ( 0-3) assigned to the 5th special forces group (ABN) as the xo of b-51 located at Dong Ba thin , later transferred to headquarters company in NA TRANG as the assistant (s-4) officer . He returned to Vietnam in the fall of 68 as a major (0-4) with the 5th special forces group (ABN) on loan to the CIAS (phoenix program ) national training center special activates department at VUNG TAU. During his first tour in 1964 he acquired the light weight uniform top and pants , he rebadged them and wore them on his second tour, if you lift up the collar you can see the captains bars under the majors insignia ,
THE CAPTURED WEAPON
The weapon was presented to captain Ecklan on his first tour by his Vietnamese counterpart , the weapon has a paper label in Vietnamese describing its capture. I will add the information that is on the paper here when i can translate it
Translation of presentation rifle from a good friend in New Caledonia , thank you Thierry
Luu Niem = Souvenir
Chien loi pham = trophy
Tich Thu = confiscate - seize
Trong =inside
Cuoc =things
Vung = zone
Han quan kubu = During operation zone Kubu, sector B
