New Zealand Forces in Vietnam

In May 1965, New Zealand announced its decision to deploy a combat force to Vietnam including a 105-mm howitzer battery, replacing an engineer platoon and surgical team deployed the previous year. The unit was attached to the US 173rd Airborne Brigade under MACV command, with the primary mission of supporting Australian forces in Phuoc Tuy Province. 

In November, 1967, New Zealand and Australian forces entered a working arrangement to reimburse the United States military for services and support including base camp construction, transportation within Vietnam and military postal facilities that included a closed pouch system for all personal and official mail.

The illustrated cover, sent via the US APO postal service was sent to England, under-franked with 10-cents postage and assessed 3-pence postage due.
 The sender was one of 18 members of the New Zealand Army Detachment headquartered in Saigon. Total in-country strength of New Zealand forces at this time was 534. 

The small number of personnel in Vietnam makes mail sent by NZ units less plentiful than that of their Australian and Korean counterparts. It should also be somewhat less plentiful than mail from Thai allied forces. I have not found that to the the case, and it is reflected in the significantly higher market prices for Thai material related to the Vietnam War.

Strength of Military Assistance Forces in Vietnam in 1967 (US Department of the Army):

Australia: 6,818

Korea: 47,829
New Zealand: 534

Thailand: 6,005

Philippines: 2,020

Republic of China: 31

Spain: 13

Seasons Greetings

Seasons Greetings from the Kingdom of Laos....Bob Burns was the Intelligence Officer attached to United States Information Service in Vientiane, Laos when this card was mailed in 1958.

Best regards to everyone for happy holidays this year!

Joe Cartafalsa R.I.P. 2010

Joe Cartafalsa passed away on December 7th, 2010.

In August, 2000 I attended the APS Stampshow in Rhode Island. I had the good fortune of meeting Joe in front of his Vietnam Military Mail exhibit. I had started collecting this material a couple years earlier, but was finding it difficult to understand what I had. Joe spent a lot of time with me that day, walking me through his exhibit, identifying and commenting on the covers I had brought along, and introducing me to dealers at the show who carried Vietnam material.

Over the subsequent years, Joe continued to build my enthusiasm and knowledge in the military mail of Vietnam, and expanded my interest into revenues. We kept in touch via email and an occasional phone call, meeting up at NAPEX when his health allowed. We collaborated on a CD-ROM and talked about items we had found and articles we were writing. I caught up with him in Philadelphia one year to borrow books for an article I was writing, and of course to browse his stock.

Joe was a long-time member of the Society of Indo-china Philatelists, and a prolific contributor to philatelic publications, including three articles in the Congress Book.

Rest in peace, Joe. You will be missed.

Vietnam Studies Monograph / Havre De Grace Bookstore

Driving home from NAPEX, I stopped in Havre De Grace, Maryland for lunch and discovered a terrific bookstore, Washington Street Books & Music. They have one of the best selections of military history books I have found anywhere, not to mention games, role playing books, comics, music, dvds and an excellent selection of science fiction - all of which are right up my alley. I definitely recommend checking it out if you are in the area.

At the store I picked up a copy of a Vietnam Studies monograph I didn't have, The War in the Northern Provinces. Turning it over, I saw the book, which is around 1/2" thick, was sent through the mail as evidenced by the mailing label.

My Anthony Wawrukiewicz book on US postal rates isn't handy, so perhaps someone can explain why the monograph qualified for 3rd class mail, which is typically used for advertising or "junk" mail.  Printed in the upper right corner of the label it clearly reads "Special Fourth Class Rate Books."

In addition to a useful book I got a nifty piece of postal history, not to mention a new destination to visit each year.

SP 4736 Cachet / NAPEX

This cover has a neat oval 4-digit Secteur Postal 4736 handstamp and would have made a nice inclusion in the presentation I gave at NAPEX last year. This is an example of a transitional marking with French text but that includes a 4-digit Vietnamese Khu Buu Chinh zone number. Note the use of the KBC abbreviation in the address line. The recipient appears to have been at KBC 3011, the Vietnamese Air Force general headquarters in Tan Son Nhut.

Speaking of NAPEX, I am looking forward to seeing everyone at the Society of Indo-china Philatelists annual meeting in McLean, VA next Saturday.

Le Minh Dao Cover from KBC 4027

In January 2009, I illustrated two covers sent by Le Minh Dao. I was fortunate to acquire another cover (two-thirds of one at any rate) sent by Le Minh Dao from KBC 4027, the National Military Academy in Dalat, to Le Hoang Minh via the Quan-Buu military post. The postmark year date is illegible, but I am going to guess it is November 1956. The blue KBC cachet is unusual in both its color and size.

The envelope contained several small portrait photos. Can anyone confirm if these depict Le Minh Dao as a young man?

Below, Le Minh Dao is shown in this photo together with Ho tan Phat at the opening ceremony of the Cho Gao Electricity company.

Vietnam RAN Helicopter Flight

The formation of the Royal Australian Navy Helicopter Flight Vietnam was announced in July 1967 to be integrated with the United States Army 135th Assault Helicopter Company (AHC). Based in Vung Tau, the initial flight consisted of eight airmen flying Iroquois helicopters, and their requisite staff.

On January 12, 1968, just four days after the postmark date, the cover's recipient, Keith Wardle, was injured when his gunship was forced down in the jungle. The wreck caught fire, detonating ammunition and rockets. Wardle was seriously wounded and evacuated to Australia.

RAN pilots ceased flying June 8, 1971 as the United States was disengaging from Vietnam.

Details about the RAN Navy Helicopter flight may be found on this excellent site: http://www.navy.gov.au/RAN_Helicopter_Flight_Vietnam

North Vietnamese Cover to China, 1958

I pick up interesting covers when I come across them, realizing I may not understand all of their aspects until later.

An example is the depicted cover that bears a nice "Hai Quan" hand stamp and is postmarked Hanoi, 1958. Thinking this might potentially be a North Vietnamese naval military cover, I put in a bid. If nothing else, the fact that it was sent to China was interesting.

As it turns out, there are no accent marks on the term Hai Quan in the hand stamp, so it translates as "customs organization" as opposed to Hải Quân, meaning "navy"

The sender (and recipient) however, held a surprise for me. Rewi Alley, a native of New Zealand, was a writer, educator and member of the Chinese Communist Party. It isn't clear what he was doing in Vietnam in 1958, but it could have been related to his works published in 1956, Spring in Vietnam, a Diary of a Journey and Buffalo Boys of Viet-Nam. Alley is credited with coining the term "gung ho".

So, it turned out to a be a worthwhile cover after all (the stamp isn't bad either...)

VNAF Insignia Cover

I enjoy collecting insignia on Vietnam War military covers, so was pleased to recently find one from the Vietnamese Air Force (VNAF). The handstamp on the cover, shown at right, was obviously applied by hand from a rubber stamp - once on the front and three times on the reverse of the envelope. I'd love to find an example of a pre-printed, full-color insignia like the one on the left, but I'll take what I can get (this is the first example of a VNAF insignia I've seen after 12 years of collecting this material).

The cover was sent from KBC 3198 that served the Vietnamese 1st Air Division in Da Nang. From the return address, the sender was with the 41st Tactical Wing (Khong Doan Chien Thuat), 512th Flying Squadron. This is the first reference I've seen to this squadron.

The postmark is illegible, but the cover is probably from 1966 or 1967 based on the stamp.

Remember the Year of the Monkey

The red hand stamp on this 1969 cover ominously warns, NHO TET MAU THAN / DE PHONG XUAN KY DAU - "Remember the Year of the Monkey / Take precautions for the spring holiday" (year of the Rooster) .

The Year of the Monkey, of course, was 1968, and Tet was when the Vietnamese Communist forces launched a full-scale offensive against the Republic of Vietnam.

A smaller version of this hand stamp exists with the same text and there is a third version that specifically recommends uniting against the Communist enemy. They are all illustrated in Richard Aspnes' excellent Commemorative Postal Markings catalog.

The rectangluar KBC 4416 cachet is also interesting. I haven't seen one quite like that and I didn't previously have a record of this KBC number.

Update June 8:

I received a response from knowledgeable collector/dealer, Anh-Tuan Tran, who specializes in cachets and markings on Vietnamese covers. He believes both cachets on this cover are fake. There is not a lot of fake KBC material on the market, so I admit I did not consider this possibility.

The back-stamp postmark in Vinh Long looks good - the March 2 1969 date is late for Tet, but it's logical this marking may have been used for a couple of months to keep people alert. The QUAN -BUU postmark is illegible. Like I said, I haven't seen this type of KBC cachet.

Anh-Tuan provided a scan of another "Remember the Year of the Monkey" cachet for comparison - this one an M3 First Day Cover. As you can see, the letters in the hand stamp are much more precise and clear.


Is the KBC 4416 cover a fake, or was the hand stamp regionally made and applied during the contemporary period?

Based on the available information, I think the underlying cover is genuine but I concur the two hand stamps appear to be a fake.

1958 USOM Laos Cover

Here is another cover I picked up at the NAPEX show. I couldn't resist the lovely franking, despite the cover's awkward size - it took two passes through the scanner to capture it and I'm not sure how to store it (click the image to make it larger).

It looks like there may be a stamp missing near the bottom based on the partial postmark, so it's probably not possible to accurately identify the rate paid. It presumably contained documents or photos that were not to be folded.

The return address is the American Embassy in Laos. The cover was sent in May 1958 by a member of the US Observation Mission (USOM).

USOM Laos was established in January 1955 to provide foreign aid.

NAPEX, ROK Forces, APO Number List

I just got back from NAPEX in Virginia for the Society of Indo-china Philatelists annual meeting. As always, I had a great time catching up with other SICP members. I gave a presentation titled, "South Vietnam at War 1952-1956," Peter Corson talked about the North/South Family Postcards and Howard Daniels showed some interesting financial instruments and other material from the region. I am sure Jack Dykhouse will do a full write up for the next issue of the ICP.

I picked up a couple of items from dealers, and a group of KBC material from a fellow collector that I will be scanning.

I bought the cover shown here because it is the first I've seen from Republic of Korea (ROK) forces in Vietnam that references a US APO number (96240). I'm not sure why it was added, since the Koreans ran their own military postal service. [I've talked about ROK forces a couple of times on this blog ].

At any rate, I've had a difficult time figuring out the locations or dates for these covers, so having an APO cross-reference helps. In this case, the APO was located at Nha Trang Air Base.

While APO 96240 was easy enough to Google, a lot of them are difficult to identify. This prompts me to inquire if any reader can point me to a list of 5-digit APO numbers used in Vietnam. I have the excellent Numbered Army & Air Force Post Office Locations produced by the Military Postal History Society, but it only covers through 1964 when the 3-digit numbers were still in use.

Even a partial list of 5-digit APOs would be helpful.

Update June 9

John Carroll pointed me to a 1994 MPHS publication, United States Numbered Military Post Offices Assignments and Locations 1941 to 1994, edited by George Cosentini and Norman Gruenzner. It is out of print, but I found a copy from Phil Banser.

NKP Airbase APO 96310

Shown is a cover from APO 96310 located at the Nakhon Phanom (Royal Thai) Air Base in Thailand, on the border with Laos. The United States flew reconnaissance flights over the Ho Chi Minh Trail and covert ground support missions over Laos from this base during the Vietnam War.

NKP Air Base also corresponds with Operational Location 23-27 as shown in the address ("OL 23-27"). The postmark reads Jun 20 1969.

Thanks to a reader, "CMR" in the return address has been identified as "Consolidate Mail Room"

Map image source: http://aircommandoman.tripod.com/

Postcard from Vietnamese Marine Training at Quantico

Given the Presidential Inauguration this week, it seems an appropriate time to share this postcard.

It was sent on January 10, 1965 by a Vietnamese Marine, Major Minh, training at Quantico, Virginia. The machine postmark reads, "Marine Corps Schools, VA."

The recipient was a Warrant Officer in the Vietnamese 1st Marine Battalion, headquartered in Saigon. A receiving cancel in Vietnam marks a transit time of eight days.

General Le Minh Dao

The two covers illustrated with this post bookend the military career of Le Minh Dao, the South Vietnamese General who is perhaps best known for leading the ARVN 18th Division during the waning days of the Republic of Vietnam.

The first cover takes us back to February 1956, when Le Minh Dao was stationed at Fort Benning, Georgia for military training. It was sent home to his family and the enclosed letter mentions his recent visit to Washington DC during Tet. He writes that he is attending school regularly and expects to be home in June.


After a long and decorated military career, Le Minh Dao was captured after the at the Battle of Xuan Loc by PAVN forces and was sentenced to live the next 17 years in re-education camps where he became weak and nearly blind from malnutrition.

The second cover was sent from Le Minh Dao from a re-education camp in Ha Son Binh province in April 1982. When he was finally released, he received political asylum in the United States where he lives today.