<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: Great Book for Its Price. Lots of Colour Photos.
Review: First of all, the book's subject matter is far more focused than its rather general title would suggest. Although this book does contain a few photos of helicopter crewmen, it should really be entitled "Vietnam: US Ground Forces Combat Uniforms in Colour Photographs." The book contains 92 colour photos. All of which are nice clear studio photographs. The book features 43 different uniforms. Unlike some uniform books, the models wearing the uniforms are well selected. The uniforms are displayed with full or close to full field gear. Each model is photographed full-length from both the front and back. The book attempts to illustrate how soldiers actually wore equipment and web gear in the field. The text accompanying each set of uniform photos is very concise. The opening paragraph provides the historical context: the remaining paragraphs serve to identify the equipment and field gear. The book also includes two photos of sleeve insignia and three photos showing the contents on a soldier's pack. For its price, this book is a very good reference. It gives the reader a good sense of the overall appearance of the Vietnam combat soldier. However, it does not provide any detailed information, nor does it feature any close-up photos. It is not a good book for militaria collectors, but it is a good book for scale modelers.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book for Its Price. Lots of Colour Photos.
Review: First of all, the book's subject matter is far more focused than its rather general title would suggest. Although this book does contain a few photos of helicopter crewmen, it should really be entitled "Vietnam: US Ground Forces Combat Uniforms in Colour Photographs." The book contains 92 colour photos. All of which are nice clear studio photographs. The book features 43 different uniforms. Unlike some uniform books, the models wearing the uniforms are well selected. The uniforms are displayed with full or close to full field gear. Each model is photographed full-length from both the front and back. The book attempts to illustrate how soldiers actually wore equipment and web gear in the field. The text accompanying each set of uniform photos is very concise. The opening paragraph provides the historical context: the remaining paragraphs serve to identify the equipment and field gear. The book also includes two photos of sleeve insignia and three photos showing the contents on a soldier's pack. For its price, this book is a very good reference. It gives the reader a good sense of the overall appearance of the Vietnam combat soldier. However, it does not provide any detailed information, nor does it feature any close-up photos. It is not a good book for militaria collectors, but it is a good book for scale modelers.
Rating:
Summary: My Soapbox review....
Review: This book , in my own opinion was quite good. It does what most reference books don't.....show the uniforms(or items of interest) in perfect light and studio conditions. Don't get me wrong,I know it is good to see true-to-life photos, but they usually don't give you an idea, or visual picture like this book. The only bad part of this book is that it shows too few examples of variants during this conflict. The thing that make up for it is the price of the book!
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting Overview
Review: This is the third edition of a book I have had in my library for a number of years. It is an excellent set of images of recreations of soldiers as they appeared in various time periods. Since Vietnam for the typical serving soldier was a one year tour, the changes from the early sixties to the early seventies when the last ground troops left were considerable. It is said it was not one eight year war (twice as long as we were in WW II) but eight wars in a row. Thus it is not enough to state that a soldier was in Vietnam but when and where and who he served with. There are a lot of mission specific items that were never general issue especially among special operations troops. Major changes were made in the tropical uniforms, the cut, colors and materials of the khaki service uniform and the standard utility uniform worn early in the war and later by rear area troops. The major interest is in the clothing and equipment of the ground troops The "grunts". This book is far from definitive at its length but it is useful in indicating the vast variety from time to time and place to place.
<< 1 >>
| 
