General notes on Vietnam underwear
By November 1965 the US Army reinstated the production and use of Olive Green under wear clothing as well as towels for men assigned to Vietnam .
The white under clothing was still used but under kaki and tan dress uniforms.
During this interim period field units were asked to commercially dye OG-107 their white underwear clothing prior to deployment to Vietnam.
The new Army Issue Olive Green underwear started to appear from 1966 and comprised of:
*a boxer short designated boxer style drawers in Olive Green Army shade 107
*a T-shirt which was designated underwear cotton quarter – sleeve undershirt and came in OG-109 (an Olive Drab)
*socks which were the wool stretch-type, cushion-sole in OG-408, (OD shade). These are often seen full of cans and hanging from rucks.
The US ARMY OG-109 shade is an Olive Drab green but variation in its colour did exist from new with some been a little more brown or green than others,this of course faded away under the harsh climate, sun and washes, so the colour is very difficult to pin point exactly.
Worth knowing is that Vietnam PX did supply commercial brands T-shirts from “Fruit of the loom”, “Otis” and others. These type of PX T-shirts were supposed to follow closely Army specifications in shade and construction. In reality, this was not always the case and colour variations were found on PX ones as well as on US Army issue ones.
The US army did carry on using the same T-shirts into the late 70’s and only the DSA date can tell them apart.
Each soldier were issued with five drawers and undershirts.
Vietnam Army issue T-shirts, the one on the left is the “crew neck” and on the right “U neck” designed not to show under the uniforms.
You can see how the OG-109 turn to an OD mustard colour after use, specially when compared to an un-issued example, see last photos
Un-issued 1970 DSA Stamp “Crew neck” T-shirt, Stuart Beeney private collection
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PX issue Vietnam T-shirt by OTIS, as you can see, same construction as Army issue ones,
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How to ID the year of your “Fruit of the loom” T-shirt
Brake down of labels used.
Rolling Thunder is fully aware that War time US issue T shirts are not easy to get, but as you know, we strive on realism and accuracy so,
all we ask, is for your T-shirt to meet the construction and shade of Vietnam Issue t-shirt.
COLOUR ( OG-109 an OD type green)
COLLAR CONSTRUCTION (crew or U shape colar, no V shape type, study the photos please)
SLEEVE CONSTRUCTION (study photos)
Please note photos of genuine items have been taken with different camera and lighting so may not represent 100% the true colour of the item!
We will advise you if you are unsure, to check with one of us at a show or ask one of your buddy who has got a real one.
To be fair due to the harsh climate in Vietnam, sun and laundry procedures, the shades did vary a lot, but they are all an OD shade
and not the modern Army green found in European armies.
Also worth noting that some T-shirt seen in original photos appear a little grayish green, this is can be explained by the lighting or poor quality photo processing as well as by the fact that in 1965 units been deployed to Vietnam had their white T-shirt commercially die to OG-107 which is a whiter shade of green explaining that this type of T-shirt may have turned a grayish green after a while in country.
In obtaining a T-shirt you need to pay more attention to its construction!
| Photos taken at Dong Ha Combat base in 1969 You can see the white and OG-109 crew neck and the U neck T-shirts been worn by Seabee PO3 R Holmes, this is also demonstrate that the white T-shirt was worn in bases sometime as a utility T-shirt. |
Unknown units and dates below but all showing the “U” neck T-shirt, photos thanks to Kieran Rizzotti
Article written by JL Delauve for “Rolling Thunder the Look”
Some photos provided by Kieran Rizzotti (RT) and Stuart Beeney (RT) and thanks to Seabee Veteran R Holmes for intrusting me with some of his bring back.
L
The information published is to our best knowledge and may be altered if new information is uncovered.
All photos are from our collection and nothing should be re-use without our prior consent! please contact us first.
Uniform and Equipment Standards Team (Alex, Jean-Luc, Jack, Paul )