"Fearless Men, Who Jump and Die?"

--Found this today. The flash, and the embroidery look bang-on, as does the condition of the beret *in general,* however-- the fact that the sweatband and the backing for the flash are not only vinyl, but appear un-weathered gives me reason for pause. The stitching around the sweatband looks as if it could have been a replacement, but the flash-backing is of similar quality, and it has definitely *not* been replaced.

Take a look:













Real, or HUMBUG?

Probably one of the 100s of different modern fakes coming out of Vietnam at the moment.

Well, it is no great loss... $3.17 at the second-hand store. Sorry if I came off as a bit harsh with regard to the helmet-question, Gary. It seems that everything I wrote last night was a bit more heavy-handed than I had intended.

Cheers,

--D.

Modern repo .

Cool. It would have been *really* cool, if it was real, but meh. I'll miss out on a cup of coffee for the expense. =]

Oh, and as an aside-- I really am not adverse to researching things myself, but the thing about this subject is that a search for fake Green Berets brings back nothing but results for *people* who fake being SF vets. Even the terms "replica green beret" bring back those results. I'd say it was funny... but it ain't.

Rule of thumb with Vietnamese made berets.
I have literally handled 100's or original Vietnam and Vietnamese made berets. Never once have I found one with a patch just sewn in the liner. They will usually have a completely seperate liner that is sewn in with direct embroidered inisgnia.

Thank you for that [extremely] useful point of information, Bob. Simple and direct guidance like this is hard to find via Google.

Oh, for what it is worth-- this particular specimen *does* feature direct embroidery, into the liner, however-- it isn't added fabric. What they did was to strip off the sweatband, then add the needlework, then re-attach the band. I wondered why it looked the way it did; why the sweatband looked "replaced," and this answers that question.

Sneaky... but clever. I was totally duped, and didn't start asking myself hard questions until I was out in the parking lot-- *because* of the direct embroidery.

And I gotta' be honest-- it was such a rush, finding something like this for three-dollars, I didn't take the time to scrutinize as much as I should have. But then again... the rush was kinda' cool. In the end, the experience was worth three bucks, and the subsequent education, worth a great deal more.

Thanks again,

--Dan