Jim Hooper

Many thanks, Pride-- the Cuban buckles were fairly rare and so were grabbed by one of the operators as soon as they were lifted from the cache. I still have a pair of the more common Soviet-style buckles used by Swapo, with nothing on them - no star, no letters, just plain brass. Quite a few of the Ovambo trackers wore them as trophies - as did a few of the whites. Even more prized were the tan Soviet bush hats, which were rarely issued to the insurgents.

Thank you, Riker87-- had I researched a little more diligently before posting the photo, I'd have found the Cuban coat of arms. I spent five months embedded with Koevoet, the South Africa COIN unit that hunted Swapo insurgents on both sides of the Namibia-Angola border. Many of the black and white members wore the plain Soviet buckles taken after contacts.

I'm trying to confirm the origin of these buckles, which were recovered from an insurgent weapon cache in Angola in 1987.