[irish]

I wanted to take a moment to circle back around on this post. As mentioned in the OP these pieces were brought home by an individual who had been in and out of Vietnam in the 1960’s. He had served in the U.S Merchant Marine on ammunition ships.

This individual had penned an article in the magazine Military Advisor on these exact pieces. The article had just been published prior to his passing away in this last year. He had been a regular contributor to the magazine. This article appeared in Fall 2107 edition of the Military Advisor. (Volume 28 Number 4) The author of the article is Clem Kelly. In addition to many articles in this publication, Clem had also been the editor of the Vietnam Insignia Collectors Newsletter. I was fortunate over the years to know Clem and to buy many pieces from his collection.

Anyway, in the article he featured several of the FFL pieces shown in my OP. In Clem’s own words he had found these and others in a shop in Saigon. The shop had Legion items in the window . He also noted in the article that the shop keeper was displaying these insignia long after the Legion had left Vietnam. Clem felt the pieces conformed to the 1946 Regulations. He too was also a bit unsure as to the exact usage of the red striped “ecusson”. He wrote that it was in the shape of “ecusson’s” used by Vietnamese Police and Military units. A few photo’s from the article are attached that better explain there possible useage. Pending further information we will not know for sure. He notes in the article that the red striped ecusson used a metal grenade but shows an embroidered example in the photo. I have the metal grenade version to which he referred. I do believe Clem when he said they were made and purchased in Vietnam during the war.. I also have a Legion Kepi he purchased from the same shop. Thanks to the Military Advisor magazine for the use of the pictures.


[URL="http://i877.photobucket.com/albums/ab334/agugu1/IMG_20180709_114125037_zpslflz2eqa.jpg"]http://i877.photobucket.com/albums/ab334/agugu1/I







http://