This sealed bag of ammunition came in an assorted box of ammo I purchased some time ago.

It appears to be .30 carbine and all of the rounds look to be complete except they are all missing the primers. The plastic bag is sealed and has Vietnamese wording.

I know we have quite a few vets on here that can probably fill in the blanks for me.

Anyone translate the package lettering/markings?

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This just a guess. The phrase " Chieu Hoi" was a program where NVA/VC could surrender and be given food and treated fairly and some eventually became " Kit Carson Scouts" for the US. Any weapons and ammo was seized upon their surrender and possibly this is some of the seized ammo { looks like 30 carbine ammo}. There is a date on the bottom right that I can not read might help shed some light on this mystery. The M-1 Carbine was very common among VC.

The date is 4/25/69. Thought it was strange that the primers are gone.

No primers, very strange.

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Freedom is never free!!
SWCA #3437

Their version of snap caps? Drill ammo?

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No baby we aint

What is headstamp on the cases? Also is there actually powder in the cases and do they have Boxer or Berdan flash holes? The silver color to the bullet jackets has me a bit stumped. Perhaps old French ammo from the Indo-China war of the early 50s and thus the headstamp info would be informative.

It's been a few years since I was in VN, but I think that the plastic package was part of a ration pack. It's something about a crab sauce I think.

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Keep your powder dry.

I tried a translator site, it comes up with hybrid father me son in the guard of the soldiers of the khmer viet. It kept some of the Viet words, then English, then Viet.

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U.S. Coast Guard, retired CPO

Goodbye, help you meet your parents and children in the serenity guard of a Vietnamese ethnic minority group

This is the most intelligible translation I found.

Notice the package marking on lower left is all English.

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GOA
USA Shooting Supporter

The PSYOPS folks had all kinds of leaflets, pamphlets, pictures etx to try an induce the NVA and VC to defect. The ammo bag, after it had been opened by an ARVN soldier would be litter left behind. Hopefully found by a VC who became convinced he could avoid getting his ticket punched to the see his family in the afterlife by changing sides.

Chieu Hoi Program - Psychological Operations

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The cases are WRA 44 and the primer pockets are the single hole type and are all empty.

I had a couple of similar bags that were in a vets estate our store bought years ago. He had a lot of odds and ends of military gear, pouches, souvenirs of all kinds. If my memory is right the bags were longer with a top that could be sealed and two separate areas of printed info. Think that one may have been cut off.............. Wonder if someone used a bag he had to store some homemade dummy rounds?

WRA 44 would have been WWII contract ammo made by Winchester. They did produce factory dummy rounds but those had undrilled primer pockets and holes through the case walls. The OP's cases would have been made from live (or fired) rounds.

Thanks for all the informative responses.
Greatly appreciated!

I regularly frequent Vietnam and have seen a few of these bags of ammo, usually old Vietnamese vets who like to show me their collections of war memorabilia from the, “American War.” These bags of useless ammo were distributed as propaganda. The whole meaning of this paragraph is started from the Former South Vietnam Government (before 1975). It came from a special unit of the CIA working with the former South Vietnam Government. Based on the info of issued date printed on the outside of plastic bag - April 25, 1969 => It tells you this is the second year of direction the South Vietnam of President Nguyen Van Thieu


It basically says, Surrender and you’ll see your parents, wife, children again in the peaceful atmosphere, and free Democratic country of Vietnam.

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213th FBINA

"All your bases are belong to us"

LOL!!!! Have not heard that one in a while!

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VCDL, GOA, NRA

Someone set us up a bomb.

"Kenneth, what is the frequency?"

Yea those could be just dummy rounds. The bags were used to hold ammo and I assume that the discarded bags from the ammo were used as propaganda, as I understood it from a posting I saw once. They originally had M 16 ammo in them. There were trillions of those bags surplused after the war. A gunshow where I used to go had them. One seller used them as parts bags for purchases. They were cheap or free, like ziploc baggies are now. I have some of those bags around here somewhere. I suspect those might be just dummy rounds and the seller used the throwaway VN baggies to package his wares. No actual connection the war probably. My bags have a metal strip imbedded in the top for sealing.

"Me love you long, long time GI"

Cam on ban GI - boom boom!

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213th FBINA

I wonder how far I am off-target in this post.

I was In-Country from August 1966-September 1967 (Pre-Tet, thank goodness). I don't disagree with the information in any of the above posts. I am also familiar with our PSYOPS programs.

If I assume that no enterprising young Marine was standing in a rice paddy passing out these packs, I wonder if they were air dropped in to the targeted areas?? If so, the spent cartridges in the plastic bags would serve as ballast weights for the package thus ensuring that the packs went in to the intended areas (i.e. the Vietnamese villages, etc) and not carried by the wind somewhere else.

Am I close? My squadron air dropped illumination flares at night, but I don't remember dropping these items.

Bill

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That's what we do!

Give that man a cigar! The program was loosely known as Open Arms. Both sides were doing that stuff. I believe I have posted this VC/NVA leaflet before. They new as much about English as we did about Vietnamese.

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These are various leaflets I found in various central parts of the country (VietNam) over a 1 year period. I have no idea what they say.

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	Leaflet-4aa.jpg (126.6 KB, 19 views)

A few more leaflets.

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	Leaflet-7aa.jpg (226.1 KB, 14 views)

You numba one, GI.

We would pick up a PSYOPS mission on occasion. Leaflet drops over hamlet, villages, etc.