← BACK TO VBC BLOG Why Didn't Marines Wear Helmet Bands in Vietnam? The Army called it "Band, Helmet, Camouflage, US" and issued it to soldiers in Vietnam. The USMC didn't. Why? Left: 17-year-old USMC Private Richard Coggins waits on the beach during the Marine landing at Da Nang, 1965. Right: Army Sergeant
← BACK TO VBC BLOG When Veterans Stormed the Capital: The March of the Bonus Army of 1932, part 2 On July 28, 1932, General Douglas MacArthur, with Majors George S. Patton and Dwight D. Eisenhower, drove thousands of protesting World War I veterans out of Washington, DC, by force. The trauma
← BACK TO VBC BLOG In last week's VBC Bulletin, we linked to a War History Online story on drop tank canoes: detachable light-metal external fuel tanks that US fighter jets dropped by the thousands over Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. These tank halves made nifty canoes that locals still use fifty
by James Donzella, The War HorseJune 15, 2022 James Donzella worked, for a while, as a colonel’s driver in Pleiku, Vietnam. Photo courtesy of the author. Somewhere between my 14th and 15th birthdays, my dad taught me to drive a stick shift. He thought it was important that I knew how. My first car was
Written by Dave Lozier Last year, in our fall 2021 issue of VBC Magazine, we ran a story on the Navy’s phase-out of the venerable Navy peacoat in favor of the “Black Cold Weather Parka.” We received many responses, including this moving story from Army veteran Dave Lozier. Sailors with the
Written by Galen Peterson Galen Peterson in Iraq, 2008 Galen Peterson is a foremost expert on modern tank combat, having learned the subject first-hand as a tank platoon leader and company commander in Iraq. Galen is author of the memoir Strike Hard and Expect No Mercy and has lectured
