What writing instruments...

[Guest JohanO]

Just curious; there must be some veterans here....

[Guest JohanO]

http://www.vhpamuseum.org/badguys/images/mvc017f.jpg

[RLTodd]

All I recall were service issued ballpoints, mechanical pencils, and wood cased pencils. It has been a long time (1966-1969) but I cannot recall seeing one fountain pen during my service.

[Guest JohanO]

hmmm, it seems that the sixties were really the ballpoint era. Can these service ballpoints be bought on e-bay?

 

more stories?

[BillTheEditor]

Government issue ballpoint pens (black plastic biros), wood pencils, mechanical pencils, grease pencils (mechanical and spiral-paper cased). Viet Nam was not a fountain-pen-friendly place, unless you had a desk job in Saigon.

 

I have one each of the ball point, mechanical pencil, and grease pencil around here somewhere. If I find them, I'll post a photo.

 

My experience was on a destroyer escort doing Market Time and Coastal Group/Riverine support in 1968-1969, and on an aircraft carrier 1971-1972. (No fountain pens on the carrier, either, unless maybe the admiral had one.) Shipboard environments are not very fountain-pen-friendly, either, especially not destroyers.

[OldGriz]

I did 3 tours with SEAL Team I and don't ever remember seeing a FP all the time I was there...

Plenty of ballpoints and pencils though

[lallin]

I was a medic with the 1st Cavalry in Vietnam; I do not recall any specific pen, but they would have been whatever was government issue ballpoint at the time. Ink, vs. pencil, was necessary for writing the tags I attached to the wounded documenting their wounds/illnesses and treatments received. Fountain pen was impractical for many reasons, climate conditions being one and multi-part forms being another.

 

For much of my tour I was either in the field or on an LZ and had no place to "shop"; thus, the pens had to have been delivered to me - most likely in SPs (sundry packs) that contained - tahdah, sundries - such items as shaving cream and razors, candy (loved the Chuckles jellies), tobacco products, combs. I'm sure they also must have contained writing tablets and pens. I could also request resupply in the field for anything I needed to do my job.

 

My father kept every letter I sent home during that time and I quickly scanned the huge stack of letters for clues; all I can offer is, all were written with ballpoint, most often blue ink, black perhaps one-third of the time - fine point in all cases.

 

I also found a Christmas card one of my buddies sent to my parents; it too was addressed and signed in blue, fine, ballpoint.

 

This would have been March 1968-March 1969; too long ago to recall the details of the pens. One thing for sure, government issue would not have been memorable.

[Guest JohanO]

Nice stories!

 

any more?

[randyholhut]

Not having been there, I would guess they were probably Skillcraft retractable ballpoints and Autopoint mechanical pencils -- the standard government issue pens for all federal employees. You still see them around today if you go to the Post Office or any other federal building.

 

And, as was drummed in to me during my Army service, you can write in any ink you want, so long as it is black. Woe unto you if you ever filled out an official form in anything but black ink.

[RLTodd]

Not having been there, I would guess they were probably Skillcraft retractable ballpoints and Autopoint mechanical pencils -- the standard government issue pens for all federal employees. You still see them around today if you go to the Post Office or any other federal building.

I think some of them may have been assembled by the "Lighthouse for the Blind," or one of the other organizations that was set up to employ the handicapped.

[lallin]

Not having been there, I would guess they were probably Skillcraft retractable ballpoints and Autopoint mechanical pencils -- the standard government issue pens for all federal employees. You still see them around today if you go to the Post Office or any other federal building.

 

And, as was drummed in to me during my Army service, you can write in any ink you want, so long as it is black. Woe unto you if you ever filled out an official form in anything but black ink.

Though that may have been true in certain MOSs and locations, that certainly was not a requirement that I recall (or followed) as a combat medic. A very large percentage of the letters I wrote home were in blue ink, and am absolutely certain I did not have one pen for letters home and another for tags and supply requests.

 

However, only 2nd lieutenants ever tried to get us to follow silly reg's and everyone pretty much ignored 2nd lieutenants. Of course nobody (on our side) messed with medics

[Guest JohanO]

I saw a few pics, and I like the looks of these Skillcraft retractable ballpoints

 

Are they reasonable writers?

[WillAdams]

Like all other ballpoints, the Skillcraft pens write as good as the refill one puts in them. The standard government issue was okay. I used to use them when I was younger, since my father always had an assortment of them laying around.

 

William

Edited September 14, 2006 by WillAdams

[FP_Lover]

This is an amazingly interesting topic... Now if you compare to WWII - that one was for sure a FP war - if you could call it such a thing. There is an excellent book, "Love, Jack" by a woman named Emma Sweeny. It's her father's letters to her mother during WWII. On the inside of the book it has reproductions of some of the letters - clearly they were written in FP, thin airmail paper, blue-black ink. And he had such great penmanship. The physical letters are like a work of art and the content is so charming.

 

At that time, people fell in LOVE with each other via letters... just think of it! It's so sad that most people don't write to each other any more. Email is a very poor substitute.

 

Back to Vietnam, another thought. At the Smithsonian Museum of American History, they have a wonderful exhibit of mementos people left at The Wall. I remember seeing letters written from young women to their boyfriends, and vice versa. All in ballpoint ink. And sadly many letters from the army to the families of soldiers, all typewritten, regretting to inform them that their kid would not be coming home.

[Woody]

Hey, where's the cowboy? Is he a part of this group? He's the guy you should talk to....you know, the guy that raises Peruvian Paso horses and tells all those stories about himself and the "Italian Babe."

[lallin]

Though not enough detail to easily identify the pen, this picture from Sept. 1968 shows what I was carrying that day; shown sticking out of my left pocket. It was a long, blue, stick ballpoint (I now recall the blue ones wrote in -- tah-day, blue ink -- identical black pens in black ink) with a chrome clip that could be removed, or moved to the best position on the pen body.

 

Funny how the memory works; having seen the picture, I now recall that when in a rear area (looks like LZ Barbara, near Quang Tri), I carried the pen standing in the pocket, as pictured. When in the field, I carried the pen in the pocket, diagonally, with the pocket flap securely retaining it until needed. Probably carried a spare in my aid bag and another in pants pocket with wound/treatment tags.

Edited September 22, 2006 by lallin

[BillTheEditor]

I now recall that when in a rear area (looks like LZ Barbara, near Quang Tri), I carried the pen standing in the pocket, as pictured.  When in the field, I carried the pen in the pocket, diagonally, with the pocket flap securely retaining it until needed.

It was also a bad idea to have anything shiny exposed when you were in the field, especially right over your heart. At least that was my theory -- why give snipers something easy to aim at? Why let a flash of light give away your position?

Edited September 22, 2006 by BillTheEditor

[James Pickering]

There is a great book ..........

 

Letters from the Front, Judith Millidge, Barron's Educational Services Inc., Hauppauge, NY, 2002

 

.......... that contains letters from all American Wars -- from the American Revolution to Afghanistan and the first Gulf War -- includes numerous scans of actual letters and , especially appropriate for this Forum, photographs of servicemen in WW2 combat situations using fountain pens to write letters home. It may still be available from bookstores -- very inexpensive used copies are available from such online purveyors as:

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResu...t&x=10&sortby=2

 

My personal observations during WW2 (British Homefront), Korean War and Vietnam (USAF, CMS) were that most civilians and miltary personnel used fountain pens (private purchase) and/or indelible pencils for both daily routine writing and correspondence during WW2; mostly ballpoint pens (GI) during the Korean war; almost exclusively ballpoint pens (GI) during the Vietnam war. Of course, as others have pointed out, writing instrument use by military personnel was usually dictated by duty assignment and location -- ordinary mechanical or wood lead pencils (GI) were often used for simple note taking, memos, etc.