Acting Vietnam:
Captain Jim McDaniel “The Green Berets” Fillmed at Fort Benning, Georgia 1968:
The Green Berets is a 1968 American Film, featuring John Wayne, and based on a novel written by The film follows Colonel Kirby from Fort Bragg where he interacts with a cynical newspaper reporter George Beckworth at a briefing at Gabriel Demonstration Area (Named for SGT. Jimmy Gabriel, the first Special Forces soldier killed in Vietnam), includes a demonstration and explanation of the whys and wherefores of participating in the Vietnam War.
Skeptical civilians and journalists are told that multinational Communism is what the US, is fighting in Vietnam.; proof: Weapons and equipment, captured from North Vietnamese Communist Forces, and Viet Cong Gourellas, manufactured in various communist countries. Despite that Beckworth remains skeptical about intervening in the Vietnam Civil War. When asked by Green Beret Colonel Mike Kerby if he had ever been to Southeast Asia, reporter Beckworth replies ‘No’ he had not, prompting a discourteous acknowledgment of his opinion. Realizing his ignorance, Beckworth decides to go in-country to report on what he finds there so he may make a better argument that America needs to stop participating in this un-winnable war.
Colonel Kirby is posted to Vietnam, with 2 hand-picked A-Teams of Special Forces Troopers. One A-Team is to replace a team at a base camp working with South Vietnamese and Montagnard Tribesmen and while the other A-Team is to form Counter-Guerilla Mike Force. While selecting his teams Kirby intercepts a Specialist. Petersen’s skills Kirby promotes him and brings him into his Special Forces Team.
Arriving in South Vietnam, they meet Beckworth whom Kirby allows to join them, at the base camp where he witnesses the humanitarian aspect (irrigation ditches, people getting bandages, shots, and candy for the children) of the Special Forces Mission in RVN. Still, he remains skeptical of the need to be there. He changes his mind after the first observation of a Vietcong Terror attack on a nearby Montagnard Village in which the daughter of the village chief and most of the male villagers were tortured and executed by the VC for cooperating with the Americans and then followed by a ferocious attack on the Special Forces Camp itself, that is overrun, and the last troop evacuated. Beckworth admits to Kirby he probably will be fired when from the new paper for filing a story supporting the US. Involvement in S.E. Asia. During this period, Peterson befriends a young native boy named Hamchuck, who has no family other than his small dog and the soldiers in the base camp.
After the battle, Beckworth temporarily disappears from the story, while Col. Mike Kirby leads a team of soldiers on a top-secret kid-nap mission to capture a very important NVA Field Commander, who lives, eats, and drinks very well, in a guarded mansion, while the common people go hungry, cold, and naked. Kirby’s ARVN counterpart Colonel Cai uses his sister-in-law as bait for the General. The raid is successful with the captured general extracted by a sky-hook operation, but at a high cost to the patrol; many of the men were killed and left behind, including Petersen.
Near the end of the story, Beckworth watches as Hamchuck awaits the return of the helicopters carrying the survivors of the raid. He realizes the toll of the war as Hamchuck runs crying towards the helicopter, searching for Petersen. Beckworth then stages out with an infantry platoon heading to their choppers. Kirby, in a touching moment, walks over to the boy and tells him the sad news. Hamchuck asks plaintively, “What will happen to me now?” Kirby places his Green Beret on the kid’s head and says, you let me worry about that, and the two walk away holding hands along the beach into the sunset.
The film was shot on location, at Fort Benning, Georgia with uniforms, equipment, and extras supplied by the US Army. While most of the original camp was destroyed during the filming other parts of the set were preserved, and used to train soldiers bound for Combat.
Captain MacDaniel wears the 1st pattern Jungle Fatigue Uniform. An Infantry Officer who is now an A-Team Leader he wears the crossed rifles branch of insignia as well as Airborne Qualification Wings. The non-subdued Special Forces Arrow-head shape is a tradition to the First Special Service Force of WWII. Green Leadership Tabs are slipped over his solder straps, indicating his status as a Team Commander. With this uniform, he wears the Green Beret with captain bars pinned on over the 5th Special Forces Flash on it. He wears the nylon and leather jungle boots in place of the polished Corcoran Jump Boots. Combat Load Bering Equipment is the mid-1950s type which was the norm at this point of the war the film portraits which is the mid-60s.
Stalones’s - Rambo:
And then we have “RAMBO”, with Sylvester Stallone, acting as an Army Special-Foces Veteran, trying to come home and find peace. Again, Mr Stalloe is kinda stuck in his “Italian-Stallion” casting, but it was a good attempt at how America had been looking at its Vietnam Veterans,, who were nothing like this, and it portrayed sPecial Forces as super-ment and not the what they really where, their mission early on was to observe the goings on in other countries, and training of indigenous forces, in Vietnam, in Support of the Sigon Regime. The locals did not treat these people very well, and they did an amazing job, now we see Army Soldiers that actually do have body-builder bodies, and work out on the post, but not then, they were highly trained in all kinds of stuff, communications, and medical, and weapons, etc. And had experts in all those fields, they did do reconnaissance missions, but they fought to keep their people alive. It was a new spin on a different kind of war movie.
Captain Willard in Saigon RVN / MACV Compound:
Captain Willard (MACV) in Cambodia:
Well gosh, lost this story, bet we all know this story, a very famous, and controversial movie, so I’ll get something in here at some point again.
Leutnant Colonel, Bill Kilgore 1 Battalion, 9 Cavalry Regiment, 1st Division, RVN:
Apocalypse Now was filmed mostly on the island of Luzon in the Philippines with the equipment hired from the Philippine Army. The sight of the scenes of the 1/9th Air Cavalry Attack on ‘Charlies Point, and the Surfing was along the Baler Beach Coast. During the shooting, the aircraft were often called back to active duty for the ongoing battle against terrorist revolutionary factions and emergency flights in the wake of Typhoon Olga that had swept the region. At that time the set was hit was much lost, missing, and stolen property, in fact at one point the complete pay role for the crew was stolen. So it’s not a huge surprise that some of the items to be used possibly for Robert Duvall’s character “Lt.Col. William ‘ Wild Bill’ Killgore‘ came up a few years back. It was said Duvall was scheduled to do two separate shoots, and close observation seems to show this, while the footage from different seen was cut and put together, you might notice where his hat has a feather in it and sometimes different insignia, as well as other uniform details, these items still having the tags, likely, were never used getting liberated before the main scenes re even shot, taken right out of the prop trailer.
The early pattern helmet shows loss of wear that was organic prior to the prop artist’s paintwork. The Visor cover has actual metal insignia added to it. For all, we know the helmet may have been a rainy project, or even in the aftermath of the storm. The helmet in the show has decals of the silver oak leaf and crossed sabers, the surfboards look the same as the back of the helmet but may have been too much for an officer that is completely tracked. The helmet had been marked Duvall helmet, with / surf graphics. He wears the standard 3rd pattern jungle fatigues that use metal and cloth insignia applied to it, much as the one used in the film, though likely never used in the movie. The character of Killgore is a ‘high speed’, low drag’ officer who has been in and graduated from a number of military training schools including Airborne, Ranger, as well as aviation. He even has the Vietnamese ‘Airborne wings’ on the uniform, defiantly a groomed lifer. He has a prior tour and earned the Combat Infantryman’s Badge, and matching 3re pattern trousers to the jacket. He wore black Corcoran jump boots spit-shined to perfection, along with his black leather cavalry belt, with its gold buckle. He hears only the helmet and stetson hat in the film.
As mentioned before, he is seen in two different stetson hats, with two insignia setups. One has smaller crossed sabers with 1/9 stamped in place, with the Lt.Colonels oak leaf with yellow flash on the side while the other hat has only a set of large crossed sabers on the front., The probability of misplaced prop caps and helmets is high.
The Lieutenant Colonel Killgore character is a composite of several real life army commanders in including Colonel John B. Stockton, General John B. Stockton, General James F. Hollingsworth, and George Patton IV. All of these men had aggressive Vietnam Combat records. While portrait as somewhat of an absurd, surfing, swashbuckling commander, unflinching in combat and with the best interest of his men at heart his character has been emulated by many ‘Active’ Cavalry Officers to the present day. His ride, Death From Above, A UH1H Huey, I think represents a real aircraft, but the chance of the surfboard slung on the sides is a bit of a reach.
