Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting Overview.- A collection of Well-captioned photographs., October 7, 2000
A major collecting field today is clothing and equipment.
This is the third edition of a book I have had in my library for a number of years. It is an excellent set of images of models wearing the clothing and equipment recreations of soldiers as they appeared during various time periods of the Vietnam War.
Vietnam servic3 for the typical serving soldier was a one year tour, he would be not be cognizant of the changes that occured over the war's course. And the vast majority would not have cared about them.
In the early sixties, when major units begsn to arrive to. troops were wearing garishly tricked out cotton utilities of the post Korea Cold War which had color shoulder sleeve insignia, xonspicuous white name tapes, golden U.S. Army strips, and bright yellow stripes, making them easy to spot. When in the early seventies the last ground troops left the changes were considerable. The insignia for all combat uniforms was dudued, mostly black on OG, or black pinons.
Both the regular design green utiliy shirt and trousers set, and the khaki service uniform sets once made of cotton needing to be starched to look presentable for a rew hours before they were sweat-soaked, were vy the end made of wash-and-wear cloth known as Durapress.
The tropical combat coat had undergone two design changes, the tropical boot was ubiquitous. Individual equipment had changed considerably in design and in material, from cotton webbing and duck to nylon goods.
It is said iwtnam was not one eight year long war (twice as long as we were in WW II) but eight one year wars in a row. Thus it is not enough to state that a soldier was in Vietnam in order to know how he appeared; also you must know when and where and with whom he served.
There were lots of limited issue, mission-specific items used by special operations troops. These object alone form a major collecting field. Aemy aviation items are another. The largest Vietnam era collecting specialty nowadays is the clothing and individual equipmntof the ground troops--The "grunts". Major changes also had been made in the design and color of insignia worn on the field clothing. and in the cut, colors and materials of the clothing itself.
This book is far from definitive at its length but it is useful to show indicating the vast variety from time to time and place to place.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Book for Its Price. Lots of Colour Photos., April 17, 2002
First of all, the book's subject matter is far more focused than its rather general title would suggest. Although this book does contain a few photos of helicopter crewmen, it should really be entitled "Vietnam: US Ground Forces Combat Uniforms in Colour Photographs." The book contains 92 colour photos. All of which are nice clear studio photographs. The book features 43 different uniforms. Unlike some uniform books, the models wearing the uniforms are well selected. The uniforms are displayed with full or close to full field gear. Each model is photographed full-length from both the front and back. The book attempts to illustrate how soldiers actually wore equipment and web gear in the field. The text accompanying each set of uniform photos is very concise. The opening paragraph provides the historical context: the remaining paragraphs serve to identify the equipment and field gear. The book also includes two photos of sleeve insignia and three photos showing the contents on a soldier's pack. For its price, this book is a very good reference. It gives the reader a good sense of the overall appearance of the Vietnam combat soldier. However, it does not provide any detailed information, nor does it feature any close-up photos. It is not a good book for militaria collectors, but it is a good book for scale modelers.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
My Soapbox review...., July 26, 2001
This book , in my own opinion was quite good. It does what most reference books don't.....show the uniforms(or items of interest) in perfect light and studio conditions. Don't get me wrong,I know it is good to see true-to-life photos, but they usually don't give you an idea, or visual picture like this book. The only bad part of this book is that it shows too few examples of variants during this conflict. The thing that make up for it is the price of the book!
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by HP Enjames
by Martin J. Brayley
by Richard Denis Johnson
