Gentlemen - May I relay my story here -

I hope you all enjoy it as much as I have - Thank you to all the veterans you all have blessed me for being here today -


About 4 years ago I was searching the web for Vietnam bring back and came across an ad on Guns Int. – It was for a chromed Chinese Tokarev with bring back documents from Vietnam - Saw the local phone no. to me - Called and schedule to meet with the gentleman - Was a bit skeptical due to the details or lack of - But stayed hopeful –

A few weeks pass and the gentleman call and "reminded" me if I still like the pistol - **** I had forgotten about it -

We arranged for a meet up – I had requested pictures of documents but the seller instead “faxed” them to me – I couldn’t confirm if documents are original -
So off to seller’s house to meet up -

He showed me the pistol after a bit of chatting - He was with the 716th MP Battalion in Saigon/Tan Son Nhat – They were tasked with policing the airport and around parts of Saigon -

https://www.facebook.com/716thMP

He got the Tokarev from his Vietnamese counterpart as a gift - During Tet of 1968 - 2 sappers were riding on a motorbike at a police sub-station - The station commander shot both sappers and took 2 Tokarevs off them and gave them to his boss -

The boss had them both chromed and gave one of them to the station commander and this one to Major Vasey his American advisor -

I am floored with our conversation - He then offered a Chinese SKS to me - Then he pulled out a bag of ammo - Period Chinese Tokarev 7.62x25 and 7.62x39 rounds were in the bag –
He said the ammo was captured in a cache in the Cu Chi area -
The Tokarev and the SKS had all sorts of bring back documentations along with the ammo –
He also have a Ho Chi Minh trail script – The trail was long and populated with a lot of folks and this was the way they paid soldiers and to be used in “Shops” along the trail -

He then brought out a paper bag - Inside was a Chinese chess set - Sad but all the pieces had fallen apart from the animal glue failing thru the years - It was wrapped up with the front section of an Oregon newspaper dated 1968 -

There is a small brass plaque engraved:

"Presented to Captain VASEY - S.A. 1st Sce - Bn - From Major BUI NGOC ANH - C.O. 1st Sce - Bn"

In Vietnamese we write Last Middle then First name -

Mike also have documentation to bring his S&W Model 10 service pistol back but unfortunately it was lost sometime during his moving about -

I went home happy after making a new friend -

The following day I went to my Dad for dinner - A bit of history about him - Former ARVN - Served about 16+ years until 1975 -

I told him about my new friend then pulled out the brass plaque and showed it to him - He looked at it then slowly turn to me and smile -

Dad said that he knows the Major Anh and they talk about once a month -

Holy **** - My hair is tingling -

He said he'll call Mr. Anh tomorrow -

The next day Dad called me to tell me his conversation with Anh - He asked Anh if he lost some pistols a long time ago - Then he told Anh that his son (me) found his old American counterpart/advisor -

I called Mr. Vasey with the exciting news and asked if I can forward info so the 2 old war horse can talk - He was so happy that I found Mr. Anh for him -

He said he looked him up after 1975 but didn't find anything – Pre-internet days -

They talked again after all those years -

Mr. Anh reside in Tennessee taking care of his wife – Sadly Alzheimer has changed her -

Mr. Vasey is in California with his wife – After the war he completed his Psychology degree – Now retired and enjoys tennis and he still shoots on a weekly basis -

I am sorry that my writing skills are lacking - Every time I relay this story my eyes welled up and hair tingles -

Thank you for reading my post -

Luong / Saigon1965 –



SKS Type 56 –

There's a bit of damaged to the rifle -

Mr. Vasey made me promised to him that I wouldn't attempt to fire the weapon – The damaged is only to the stock –






He had electro his name and service number to the weapon -




SKS DD603 –




SKS and ammo doc –




Chinese Type 54 –










Tokarev documentation –




Type 54 Tokarev doc -






7.62x39 ammo –






Tokarev 7.62x25 ammo -






Doc for ammo –




S&W Model 10-5 doc –




Ho Chi Minh trail script –






Front page of newspaper –






Presentation plaque –




Ribbons –




Diploma from Command and General Staff College –

Great story, fantastic provenance - ya can't beat the deal!! Thanks for sharing.

Amazing! You've got what's left of MY hair tingling.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

Amazing story and great guns. Being a huge fan of the SKS, I would love a bring back. Just curious, what Arsenal was it produced at?

Thank you Gentlemen -

@Flundertaker - Here's a shot of the arsenal stamp - Appears to be factory 26 and 12 million series so that would make it a 1968 gun -

By the way sir - What do you have in terms of SKSs? It's my other collecting passion -

Great story and pics ... Thanks for sharing !

Found this Chicom Tokarov a few years back in a local shop, Sadly no provenance like your awesome package.

Hi,
Being a cartridge collector, I brought home some Chi-com ammo from Viet nam but I had to deactivate it first. Yet, it brought back memories to see photos of the ammo with that warm, coppery look to them.

Thank you - Superb find! Type 51 -


Thank you and Welcome Home Federali -

Am sure you noted the headstamps - Mike brought back a total of 500 rounds - He shot most and gave away some - What I have are the last of the ammo -

Could you tell me why it was de-act? I've heard of some of the guns had to be de-act also -

Outstanding story thank you for sharing!

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NULLI SECUNDUS

Thank you - I wanted to add that Mike gave me these items since his kids have zero interest - I had only taken photos of his ribbons and diploma -


A quote from another forum -


The International Hotel in Saigon - The 716th HQ was right next to it - They were also tasked with security for the hotel -




MPs from the 716th and 527th getting ready defend the US embassy in Saigon Tet of 1968 -




Silver Star Awards -

What incredible provenance. You made a truly once-in-a-lifetime find.

Thank you Cyrano and Texas Star -

It is truly a wonderful course of event that happened -

Mike Vasey have some pictures from the era but I need to go and visit him to help him digitized them -

QUOTE=Cyrano;138277811]What incredible provenance. You made a truly once-in-a-lifetime find.[/QUOTE]



I'd enjoy it greatly to see some of the war trophies that were brought back too - So please post them -


Luong / Saigon1965 -

I didn't bring anything back, but when I got stateside again, my boss had this Chicom Tokarev. He had been a District Senior Advisor somewhere up in the Parrot's Beak area. He picked it up from the body of what turned out to be a NVA 2d Lt, killed in an ArcLight strike. His young son was getting into it and he wanted to get rid of it. He insisted on not more than $75 (this was back in 1970).

He had the capture paper with it. The paper was getting yellow and soiled so I put it away for safe keeping. It's safe enough; I forgot where I put it and haven't seen it for 25 years, despite turning the house upside down and shaking it.

Attached Images

L1020824.jpg (67.8 KB, 100 views)

W-O-W ! ! !

What an amazing find and story.

I think, if possible, the entire S&W Forum would send thanks to Vasey, Anh, and your dad for their individual and collective service, as well as extend wishes for a happy holiday and New Year.

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I'm with the banned ...

Wonderful Cyrano - What year is your Type 54? I've several Type 54 bring back a 2 M20 -

I'll post them later -


Thank you Mc5aw - I will relay it to Dad and Mike - Mr. Anh have not been returning Dad's call - Last time they talked was at least 6 months ago - He has his hands full with his wife -

Happy Holidays to you sir -

Awesome story you really connected the dots.

I have a case of that copper washed military 7,62x39 ammo somewhere on the ten round stripper clips wrapped in paper tied with string. It's 30rds per pack. It's the original Chinese ammo. It's the very first military surplus ammo that was imported in the US for the sks.

Hi Bill - Mike brought home the ammo to shoot the guns with! No ammo at the time -

It's great ammo - Collectors items now -

I have a friend that brought back Chi Com type 68 it looked like a SKS with about a 15 or 20 rd mag it had a switch on and he would say here fast and to dam fast he ground some little hook off so semi only . he had pro vost papers I saw them . he died and it was sold as a sks at a sale

What a great story! Really enjoyed reading that one. Glad you shared it here.

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America First

And the now missing pictures from this interesting thread is the best reason I can think of to make sure Photobucket never gets a dime of my money.
Jim

You can download a free add-on from most of the browsers to "unblock" and see the old PB attachments. I can see all the pix in this thread fine. I use the one from Firefox, but the other browsers (Opera, Chrome, etc.) have them also.

Love these old threads.

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Mike
S&WCA #3065

Those dead Photobucket links are very frustrating, too bad the OP can't be contacted and he could reload the pictures using another free hosting service.

Just get the unblocking add-on.

Very good post, gentlemen. Perhaps we need a new thread that details events & happenings that change life. Good & bad.

What is that?

Just get the unblocking add-on for your browser.

And for those of us who are NOT tech savvy, how is this done??

I believe every browser has a menu button you can click to bring up a list of available add-on functions. There may be hundreds of these add-ons to do various things, and are usually searchable. Just perform a search on "Photobucket" and you will find the add-on(s) and a description as to what it does. Normally, you just click on it and it will be added to the browser functions, just like you might add an add-on for an ad blocker. After doing that, it will stay there running transparently in the background unless you later choose to disable it. I cannot be specific as every browser (Firefox, Chrome, Opera, etc.) does things a little differently. I use both Firefox and Opera, and have the PB unblocker add-on activated on both.

Once installed, the Photobucket unblocker add-on will automatically open all those blocked PB images on any website you are viewing just as though they were never blocked. You don't have to do a thing to make that happen, you'll just see them. Almost like magic.

Happy Holidays Gentlemen -

I'll update all the photos soon -

Mr. Vasey is doing well - Just chatted with him over Thanksgiving -

Mr. Anh's wife passed away a few years ago and my dad have been in contact with him again -

Cheers!

The photobucket work around does good. I completely missed this morning the age of this thread because I got engaged in the great story and could immediately see the photos.

Glad for the update Saigon, thanks.

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America First