Hugh

Yeah, we had a few days like that on another visit. The 'roos sure look silly when they get wet. H

Assuming infinite funding availability, 32 of these hulls might begin to make a difference. Seven is a laughable number, and three is just plain silly. With three hulls, you might be able to maintain one ship on station continuously somewhere. Just hope that's where the war starts. In this case, quality does NOT trump quantity. Let's see, how long is the Chinese coast? Hugh

Close-up photos, please! Hugh

Why not? But when your lance corporals start to look like South American generals, you're in trouble. We're almost there. The Brits and Aussies have been making fun of us for years. Hugh H

I'll be brief- Please add my name to the list of old farts who think this is the dumbest idea I've heard in decades. Hugh

Interesting that they don't even bother to name the regiment with which the badge originated - 17th Lancers. Hugh

I know from personal experience how frustrating it is not to be able to achieve a good translation, and I'm sorry that you are experiencing this. I'm just sorry to miss understanding your messages. Hugh

Welcome, Spent a hot, dusty time in Pucka a few years trialling a new navigation / pointing equipment for the Artillery. Our reward was spending time on the Majura range chasing kangaroos and the occasional blue-tongued lizard in a Land Rover with the same kit. Lots of fun. Best, Hugh

To JCWater: There aren't many of us who can read Chinese. Can you please post in English? Thanks, Hugh

Thanks to those who steered my conjectures toward fact. H

Look what I just found on the OMSA website! They identify it as "CHINESE RED CROSS MEMBER BADGE". The similarity of the ribbon suggests to me that your cross is a different class (higher?). Maybe the Grand Panjandrum? As I said, the hook and eye is reminiscent of of Japan. Perhaps an obvious question, but was the recipient Chinese? or ???

The French reads (approximately) "The monument of the holy ground" "This monument contains a bit of the sacred land of France."

Owain, I'm no expert, but that has never prevented me from having opinions. Based on a little bit of knowledge, my speculation is as follows: 1) The medal doesn't appear in Peterson (the basic source), the current MND website nor in the MND ribbon chart I got in Taipei in the '80's. Hence, I think it is not current MND issue. 2) It includes the map of China which appears in several other Chinese medals shown in Peterson, hence definitely Chinese from one side or other of the Strait of Taiwan. I can't read Chinese, but can recognize the name "China" and the number "10" on the top line in the center. I doubt that it's warlord, probably central government. 3) The hook on the back of the ribbon is not typical for most Chinese medals. I've never seen it on Chinese medals before. However, it is typical of Japanese medals. Suggests a wartime occupation issue. 4) If forced at gunpoint, I would date it between mid '20's to 1949 (Mao's takeover). Is there anything unusual about the top of the ribbon? Best, Hugh

Glad the contact worked for you. H

Love these Chinese ODM!

Excellent, thank you, dmiller. Although I'm very far removed from the ranks of the knowledgeable on German stuff, I do have a very nice frackspange picked up in my magpie days. See att. Hugh

Not sure what you want to know. The Japanese swords started to appear in the '60's, I think, as a cheaper alternative to the US made officers swords. Mine was US -made (Hilborn-Hamburger?). I think it cost about $150 US in 1961. Best, Hugh

In the US Navy, it is possible (but unusual) for a leading seaman in the deck division to be called upon to use the bosun's pipe.

Thanks, I've located the book. I've certainly heard the name Sanche de Gramont, but never Ted Morgan. I look forward to reading the book. Best, Hugh

Gordon Alone Rust was a pilot in the American Army Air Force assigned to flying supplies from Burma to China across the Hump in World War II. I assume that he received the medal during or shortly after the war. He gave me the medal in 1957, when I was impersonating Prince Ranier of Monaco (another long, different story). I have no photographs or documents. He was a tall man married to a local socialite, a member of the Du Pont family. He actually looked a bit Chinese himself - sallow complexion, narrow eyes, dark hair (what was left). He was a good teacher, but mostly didn't seem to have a sense of humor, so we were all surprised when he let me have the medal. It was one of the first in my collection. The ribbon has been replaced, of course, but I still have the original. I have no sources to research data on the award, but if anyone else does, I'd love to hear more about it. TAIWAN - Order of Cloud and Banner, 6th Class (Resplendent Banner –Lieo Deng Yun Huei - Magnus 4), reverse numbered 2156/, inscribed in Chinese Gordon A. Rust, Wilmington, DE, 1957 I agree, the confusion about the name is quite likely due to the newspaper writer. Best, Hugh

First of all, my sympathies for the loss of your friends in Viet Nam. It was a hard place. No paras in the U Minh? Very interesting. Of course, even if you tell a lie 100 times, that doesn't make it true. It's just interesting to me that I have heard the story every since the '60's from such a wide variety of sources. I wonder if perhaps there was some other type of unit which disappeared in the U Minh which was confused with the paras? You've aroused my curiosity, but you clearly have access to better sources than I do. I remember reading Dr. Fall's books and being very depressed about our (US) potential in Viet Nam. I immediately did a search for Valley of Death, but all I could find was the listing below, which seems to be about the Korean war. Is it an English language book? Best, Hugh Valleys of Death: A Memoir of the Korean War Richardson, Bill; Maurer, Kevin

Interesting that they should refer to this medal as "Order of the Clouds". I see the photo, but it makes you wonder if somehow they're referring to the "Order of Cloud and Banner" which was widely awarded to US AAF pilots. For example, the attached photo shows the Order of Cloud and Banner which was awarded to my English teacher in high school for flying the Hump in C-47s. (See attachment) It's also sometimes referred to as the Order of Resplendent Banner.

Thanks, Bernhard, Just a small point of clarification. I don't know that the paras were dropped into the U Minh. I suspect that they would have been inserted like conventional infantry. The story seems to be around in enough different places that I suspect that there must have been some para presence in the U MInh, but dropping into a forest would have been insane. Best, Hugh

Bernhard, I've heard the story about the Groupement Mobile. Here's an article from the NY Times which makes brief reference to the paras in the U Minh. We (US Navy) set up an afloat base to support our boats operating in the Ca Mau peninsula, and after some nasty fighting, we were able to assert some degree of control there. I seem to remember that most of Bernard Fall's books focused on the North (Tonkin) and to some degree Central (Annam). For example, La Rue Sans Joie. It's been forever since I read them. I remember a little song called La Petite Tonkinoise. Was it popular when you were there? MEANWHILE : Closing the circle on Vietnam - By James Pringle Published: March 13, 2004 U MINH FOREST, Vietnam— During the Vietnam War, the impenetrable "forest of darkness" in the far south seemed to be the most menacing region of Vietnam. This was a Vietcong base area where U.S. troops seldom ventured. Then defoliants were sprayed to thin the jungle, and there were B-52 bomber strikes against the ever elusive Vietcong. Old hands remembered that in the French war against the Vietminh, 500 paratroops dropped into U Minh in 1952 and disappeared forever in mangrove swamps said to be the largest in the world outside the Amazon. The Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry sometimes operated his navy Swift boat PCF-44 near the forest. The other day I hired my own boat and headed to U Minh in the western Ca Mau Peninsula. Better to talk to the former hard-core Vietcong here, instead of meeting officials in some local Communist Party headquarters to hear the official line over tinkling teacups. Nowadays, there's a large bird sanctuary for waterfowl nearby, but it's currently off limits because of avian flu. At the small U Minh township, I asked the boatman to turn north east into a narrow waterway, misty and muddy, with bamboo fishing traps. Finally, I jumped ashore. This was not thick jungle any more, but the vegetation had become lush again. Agent Orange dioxins had washed away over the years. Eucalyptus had taken the place of native trees and shrimp ponds had been created to feed the American market. On a pathway, I met Tran Van Troi, 77, a former Vietcong officer who assisted North Vietnamese Army troops arriving via the Ho Chi Minh trail. He told me the North Vietnamese Army, male and female, had tattooed on their arms: "Born in the north, to die in the south." This was an American psychological warfare project that backfired. The United States bombarded North Vietnam with leaflets showing dead northern troops under this warning, but the North Vietnamese Army then used the phrase as their own motto. Thoi was with his three grandsons, the oldest being Hao, 15. They all glowed with health. Thoi described the air compression from B-52 bombs as so intense that their bunkers were flooded with swamp water and they thought they would drown. Life nowadays, he said, was "99 percent happy, 1 percent poverty." He was going home to eat snake soup prepared by his 75-year-old wife. "I used to eat eggs, but no more," he said wryly. "Even the chickens and ducks are prohibited since bird flu." At a spacious wooden hut, Tran Thi My, 47, wife of a former Vietcong fighter, described watching her grandmother die after being hit by hostile fire. Another time an American helicopter swooped in just above the trees. "I saw the faces of the Americans as they fired on my sister-in-law as she ran for shelter with her two babies," My said. "They were blown into the water, and died still clutched in one another's arms." My said she felt no hatred and didn't want revenge, but she still clearly felt anger and sadness. Her husband, Nguyen Van Giup, 51, was already a Vietcong fighter at 16 when Kerry operated near U Minh. Short but sinewy, he said he clashed several times with U.S. troops on the forest fringes, fighting with his AK-47 rifle. These men and women contributed to winning the war, but had enjoyed few of the fruits of victory. The indigenous National Liberation Front, or Vietcong, was sidelined by Hanoi's apparatchiks. They remain poor, unlike many party fat cats. Nowadays, Vietnam is a country of boy bands and Harry Potter translations. Socialism has been abandoned for a market economy. But Vietnam is independent — the foreign troops have gone. Finally, I asked Thoi if it had been right to hold South Vietnamese officials and officers for years after victory in "re-education" camps whose inmates were sometimes tortured, and he said: "It was correct to punish them." "No, it wasn't right!" butted in his grandson Hao. Thoi shook his head, and sharply exclaimed: "This boy does not know anything!" What was this? A grandson talking back to his Vietcong grandfather? Family differences over the Vietnam War? It reminded me of the clash of generations in America during the conflict. It had all come full circle. ** James Pringle covered the Vietnam War for three years as a correspondent for Reuters. [Not to be reproduced without the permission of the author.]

Fascinating! I've never seen nor heard of it, but the ROCAF insignia is unmistakeable. Best, Hugh