Hannibal Rex

Oops...I also forgot to ask people's opinions about what I should do ABOUT the ribbons. Leave em on? Take em off?

Hey guys... I was wondering what folks here think of a grouping I have that I've been trying to research out. Awhile back (I think a couple years now) I purchased a small grouping to a US Army EM who served in Vietnam. The group consisted of a EM cap, dress uniform with the brass and so on intact, as well as a ribbon bar that included a PH and a Green Weenie. It also had his name written in the jacket and cap, as well as a dog tag! I have zero doubt about the authenticity of the uniform and the tags, but I am not so sure about the ribbons... I fired off a request to the NPRC for his records. I got the usual "Information Releasable Under FOIA" craptacular page of info, but interestingly enough under the medals section, it has all his stuff listed EXCEPT the PH and Green Weenie. Amazingly, they actually did send me a photo of the guy with the records as well, along with a basic sheet of his assignments. So I was reading down the list of his assignments. From 8/31/69 to 1/28/70, he served in Co D, 1/52nd IR, 198th IB. From 1/28/70 to 5/10/1970, he served in Co B, 1/52nd IR, 198th IB. Then something apparently went bad for him, and he ended up shipped back home and apparently court martialed! I cannot read his last unit, but under it, dated 5/15/70, he is listed as having received a "Undesirable Discharge". So basically, I have two questions for our Nam researchers out there: 1) How would I go about running down this guy's court martial info (if it is even available), and 2) Can a Undesirable Discharge result in the retraction of an award (or awards)? I was under the impression this is a no-no, and that once they're awarded they're pretty much there to stay. Right now, I am leaning towards the thinking that either the soldier or the guy I bought them from slapped on some unqualified ribbons. Am I right? Wrong? Maybe?

I wonder what his WW2 service was...shuffling papers, or something else...

Yeah, Nam medals from Purple Hearts and up (Silver Stars, DSCs etc) have become tougher to find. But we are approaching the 50th anny of the war, so it should be interesting what pops up within the next decade or two. Here's a link the main bit of info I found for you in regards to the above entry. It has more info, including map coordinates for the island, the names and info on the other American KIAs that day and so on. Should have posted this in the original post, but I forgot. Sorry. Roberts' Virtual Wall Entry

Hi Scott! Did you get more info on 1431848 SGT Clifford A Roberts yet? I love Nam ODM... I'll post what I've found online about him (that hasn't been mentioned). He was single, white, and a Protestant. His USMC serial number was 1431848. He served in the Korean War previously. His MOS was 0369 (Infantry Unit Leader). His hometown is listed as San Bruno, CA. He was indeed KIA on July 9th, 1965 on Ky Hoa Island, South Vietnam. At 0905 hours, the Junk Fleet HQ (whatever that was) on the island was attacked and overrun by roughly two VC companies. Company A was alerted and at 0909 loaded onto LVTs to the west of the island. They moved north to the hamlet of Binh An, then to an easterly point where they were engaged by heavy small arms and automatic weapons fire from Hill 12 and the hamlet of Xuan My. The Marines called in arty on both of these positions. Two platoons laid down covering fire while 3rd Platoon on the left assaulted Hill 12. One squad took heavy hits from 81mm mortar fire, and a second squad received MG fire while cutting barbed wire at the base of the hill. 3 KIA and 14 WIA suffered on the side of the Marines. Some type of armored support (Mules apparently) came on scene and started to fire M-60 and rockets at the hill which silenced the enemy fire. Hill 12 and the hamlet were quickly secured and six VC KIA were found. Company continued the attack east, discovering two more VC KIAs. They then formed a blocking position while Company B landed via LVTs at 0914 and commenced a sweep northwards. At the Junk HQ, 16 Vietnamese and two USN Junk Fleet Advisors (from 15th RVN River Assault Group, NAG) were found KIA. Company A left via LVTs after dark as Company B provided a defense perimeter for the evening. Roberts was, of course, one of the three KIA from the Hill 12 firefight. He is listed as having been KIA by small arms/gunshot wounds. Hope this helps. Let me know what you find out. :)

Here's a pic of the jacket. Sorry for it's small size, but I'm still learning how to resize by digital photos to appropriate sizes for the forums.

It certainly does look like a VFW convention badge. Can you give a closer scan of the reverse of the medal? Don't know the signifigance of the ribbon; it could be a Florida based award due to the color, or perhaps some type of Dutch association?

What exactly are the dates we're using for this theme? IE to what date after June 6th? The "Normandy" campaign continued for some time, but I wanted to check before posting anything. Thanks!

Hey Dave. On the cabinet top there's a framed photo. Is that of one of the actual former owners of one of the tunics, or is that flavor for that particular exhibit? I think it's the photo to the lower right of the 19th IR Corporal's tunic. What's the photo in the LW/Polizei room, the one in the watseband of the shako type cap uniform set? Hard to make out. Actually sort of looks like a guy holding a bat (baseball, cricket etc...not the flying kind)?

Amazing collection! Do you have any attributed/documented singles or groups? Keep collecting!

Thanks to David & Rick thus far! I will definantly request Bert Landau's service papers from NRPC...hopefully they will bare fruit. Does anyone here collect VN era uniforms? Perhaps we can narrow down the dates a bit more. Does the color combo of the patches indicate anything? I know at some periods in Vietnam, color patches were worn in the field. Of course, this guy was an arty officer, & perhaps they wore their field uniforms differently than the grunts. Unfortunantly the jacket has no tagging to it. It isn't a OG-107...it's a heavier jacket, maybe cotton. I can try to post it for the boards, but I'm new to posting pics to forums and am not positive on how to shrink the photos to fit the forum limits. David - Are the Officer Registries available in a book/collected copied document format? Available at military bookstores & so forth?

OK. Late this spring, I sent in the "special form" for research at the NPRC in St Louis. I'd requested info on the same WW2 USAAF guy several years before. Have things really gotten better, or was I just sickly lucky? The first request was made in late 2001. I did not get a reply on that one until 2/24/2003. The reply was the standard NA Form 13164 that pretty much everyone gets via FOIA. I'd only sent a simple FOIA based request, not a form of any type. That Form 13164 listed his date of service (as an officer only), a couple of units (his bomb group and one training group stateside), his bombardier's course training location, his decorations and awards (with no GO listings or the like), his place of entry & seperation, place of birth & date of death. That's it. Enter early April of 2007. I decided to try the official form this time. Instead of the "it will get here once I'm dead" wait time that the last one took, this one arrived on 5/3/2007. And boy was it a change in content from the first. The standard NA Form 13164 was there, but with more info. It listed his enlisted SN & period of enlistment, but ironically did not list some of the previous info. But this was not a bad thing, as there were more documents! Along with the Form 13164, I recieved: three pages of lists of his USAAF schools, TWO WD AGO Form 0707s (for two purple hearts that he was not even known to have from the two NA forms!), a WD AGO Form 079 (the entire citation for his DFC!) & the four WD AGO Form 079s for his four Air Medals, all with full citations! Meh! Had I known... Anyone else noticed a difference of that nature with the official forms versus just making a written FOIA request?

Hey folks. My first post! I was wondering if anyone here's had any success researching officer's jackets from the Vietnam era. My main area in clothing is WW2, but I've recently branched out into Vietnam era items. I have a green fatigue shirt to a Captain Landau of the 4th Infantry Division artillery. The tunic has a color 4th ID patch, a color US RVN patch, a subdued arty cannon collar patch & a subdued captain's bars collar patch. Both the name tape & the US Army tape are also subdued. Anyone got a clue who this might be? Shot in the dark, but you never know!!!