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Beercanus Fakus Long, long ago, in a land far away, under the very roar of cannons, little native tinkers made badges for the allied army there to fight for their freedom. How noble, even if the while allied effort failed. But now it can be told: a whole bunch of these badges (aw heck, beercans) are fakes. They were made by collectors for collectors and, in defense of those who made them, it couldn’t have been for great profit since beercans were 15˘ – 25˘ items at the time. I think it was more that every unit in Vietnam authorized a DI should have had a beercan DI. And these guys were on a mission to that about. I found four letters written to me in the early `70s by the two principals in Vietnam. Both admit DIs were made from oversized pieces (plaques and pocket danglers). One, (#1) says he never made up DIs from non-BCs (drawings or enameled pieces), just from oversized pieces that were reduced in size. The other (#2), says BCs were also made from drawings and BCs were copied from existing BCs and that most of the BCs in the Transportation Catalog were repros, and some made from drawings. #2 further said that, “most of the work (was) done by Phoc and they kind of skimped on the metals”. (This is an indicator of a fake beercan – but not all thin BCs are fake). He then listed 17 aviation pieces that were made from jacket patches, plaque pieces, sketches and originals. I also believe there was another participant (#3) in the US, who furnished precise drawings of authorized DIs of units in RVN who were believed not to have a beercan, to insure there would eventually be a beercan. These were for authorized DIs, not locally designed pieces. Since some units in Vietnam had a BC made without the knowledge of #1, #2, and #3, there exists a fake BC and a real BC. (This is a vast simplification as some units in RVN had eight different BCs). Here are two cases: 173rd Airborne Support Bn. (one real; one fake) 61st Medical Bn (two real; one fake)
All this was along time ago, thirty years, and people's memories are fallible even after several years. But in 1971 and 72 , I queried #1 on which BCs were fakes. Most of the list he furnished contained support/service unit insignia. It is incomplete, but here are the units he listed for me, and you can agree these are fakes, or not. And some did have real beercans. Hell, after 30 years, they are real! Medical
QM/Support
Signal
Ordnance/Maint.
Transportation
Psyops
Engineer
Infantry
Division
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