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Project Jenny KLIK - 1st Inf Di v Women in Vietnam RELATED-- To AFVN To Saigon To Vietnam Further Afield Index
From: Steve Sevits
Date: December 9, 2019
Subject: Fake Artifacts
My wife doesn't allow cable so I don't get the History channel, she's rightly afraid I'll stay up all night watching the desert channel.
I wish they'd come look in my barn I've got a mint 1977 Plymouth Volare sedan with only 30,000 miles on it.
Steve
From: Marc Yablonka
Date: December 9, 2019
Subject: Dog Tags
Steve and Rick,
Thank you for your kind words. There is a post script to my dog tag piece that I had the chance to write about elsewhere a few years ago. Several years after returning from my last trip to Vietnam and writing that piece for Stripes.After reading a very extensive article in Vietnam magazine about the DPAA, which Rick mentioned, and the efforts they are making to substantiate the real dog tags from the fake ones, I contacted the DPAA about the remaining dog tag I still possessed, which the USN had deemed a fake. They agreed to receive it and research it. The better part of a year went by, as I recall, and the DPAA wrote, telling me that they had located the family of what turned out to be a KIA Marine, written the family, offering the dog tag, but that the family declined to receive it--and they sent it back to me, Not long after that, my wife and I were in Virginia and stopped by for the second of three visits we have paid to The Wall. With the help of a Park Ranger, I located the deceased Marine's name in the log book at The Wall, found the panel where his name is and placed his dog tag at the foot of the panel.
Marc Phillip Yablonka
From: Rick Fredericksen
Date: December 8, 2019
Subject: Fake Artifacts
Steve, you are probably familiar with another very cool TV show about old and valuable things: American Pickers. Two guys who grew up in the Midwest and travel the country going through barns, museums and collectors' homes. They seek out rare cars, motorcycles, toys, military gear and Americana in general. History Channel has it. They discover it, bargain for it and take it back to their antique stores in Iowa and Tennessee. The characters they meet are a hoot. Worth checking out.
Rick Fredericksen
From: Steve Sevits
Date: December 8, 2019
Subject: Fake Artifacts
Desirable antiquities, including fakes, are and always have been a booming business, originally in non-military artifacts. My father who furnished my parents’ home with American antiques once bought a desk which turned out to be a “married piece,” part of one piece of furniture mated to parts from another.
I love watching “Antiques Roadshow” especially when they turn up articles which are not as genuine as thought.
Military fakes is just a newer category of created artifacts to join the galaxy of things created to meet the demand of an unsuspecting public willing to pay. With the passage of time since Vietnam, it is inevitable that a thriving industry of “created” artifacts will occur. In my mind trafficking in inauthentic "war souvenirs" is just plain immoral. I do remember fake Viet Cong flags (sewn up in Saigon tailor shops) with "fake bullet holes" (burned with a cigarette) being sold to newly arrived troops as far back as 1963. Today one of those fakes would bean interesting social docume nt in itself.
Steve
From: Steve Sevits
Date: December 7, 2019
Subject: VN Era Zippo Restoration
The Zippo lighter restoration was an amazing piece of craftsmanship to watch.
Not too long ago I had a Ronson “Variflame” (butane) lighter from the late 60s restored by a fantastic craftsman. As I understand it, butane lighters are fairly complex. It works like new.
For those who might need lighter repair or restoration service:
"Richard Weinstein" repairs@lighterrepairs.com
Steve Sevits
AFVN Group Conversations
Cigarette Lighters, Artifacts, Dog Tags, and Cu Chi Tunnels
December 2019
The emails for this array of topics blended from one subject into another.
From: Jim White
Date: December 8, 2019
Subject: Fake Artifacts
Fake artifacts have been common throughout the Far East and South East Asia for many decades. When my wife and I were in Taipei in the early 1970's we bought a few things. But, one day, we were out looking around and in one we found what looked like a very old bronze statue of a sitting Buddha for sale for $450. The clerk swore that it was an original Ming Dynasty item but we didn't bite. Glad we didn't because at a similar store two doors down, we found the same thing for only $25. The clerk admitted that the "aging" process included peeing on it and then burying it in the ground for a few weeks. I don't think we ever bought another "artifact" or souvenir during the rest of the time we were in Taiwan. I swore that even if I was offered a store's entire stock for $10, I would have merely asked "What's the catch?" Jim W PS: The same problems existed in Japan and South Korea in the (40's?) 50's and 60's but Japan began to clean up its act from around the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. I haven't been to Korea for years, but am sure it hasn't changed.
From: Steve Pennington
Date: December 7, 2019
Subject: VN Era Zippo Restoration
Still have the Zippo I carried. It is sitting on the book case in my den. It has not been fired up in over 40 years, but is still a reminder of those times. I see Zippos advertised on E Bay as Vietnam relics. Most are recently produced, probably in Vietnam. I guess they don't teach History there because I have seen lighters engraved with Khe Sanh 73-74, Long Binh 74-75 and one that had a B-52 silhouette with 80-81 and Vietnam. The chrome is buffed off and they are artificially aged. Also saw a pair of dog tags with Elvis Presley's name and service number. Some industrious folks out there.
Steve
From: Bob Morecook
Date: December 9, 2019
Subject: Cu Chi
Hi Marc, I was at Cu Chi tunnels in July. No dog tags or AK47 opportunities were presented. Things were very small scale and very professional, though polished. Much like a national park in the USA though on a smaller scale
Bob M
From: Ann Kelsey
Date: December 9, 2019
Subject: Cu Chi
Really? They’ve gotten rid of the choose your own weapon (M16 or AK47) target shooting?
Ann