THREE HUNDRED AND SIXTY FIVE DAYS. HE COUNTED EVERY ONE.

 

A man standing in the elephant grass at last light with his weapon slung and his back to

you, because that is how most of them remember it.

 

THE HISTORY

The Army tour was 365 days. The Marines got thirteen months. Everybody knew his DEROS the

day he arrived, and men marked it on short-timer calendars, some of them drawn on a helmet

cover or the back of a letter, one box filled in per day.

 

That single number shaped the whole war for the men who fought it. Unlike every American

war before it, men went over as individual replacements and came home the same way. You

joined a unit already in the field, learned the job from whoever was left, and when your

year was up you got on a plane and left people you had bled with still standing there. No

regiment to come home with. No ship full of men who had been through the same thing. Just

a seat on a commercial flight and a country that had no idea what to say to you.

 

The ground in the picture is real too. Elephant grass runs ten feet high, cuts like a

blade, holds the heat and kills the breeze, and men humped through it in web gear that

soaked up sweat and never dried in country. Ask a veteran what he remembers about the

terrain and heat and grass come up before anything else does.

 

They called home the World. Everything else was in country.

 

WHO IT'S FOR

Vietnam veterans, and the families looking for something to give a father or grandfather

that treats his year like it mattered. Welcome home.

 

Right sleeve carries the VDG Militaria logo. Available in Indigo Blue, Black, Sand, Heather

Military Green, Graphite Heather and Heather Navy.

 

THE SHIRT

Gildan 5000 Unisex Heavy Cotton Tee. 100% cotton, 5.3 oz mid-weight knit, classic fit, crew

neck, tear-away label. True to size, size up if you like room. Machine wash cold inside

out, tumble dry low, keep the iron off the print.