COBI Vietnam War Set 2038

COBI's Vietnam War set is built from 26 blocks and contains three figures from three different forces: a Viet Cong fighter with a conical straw hat and an AK-47, a soldier of the American 101st Airborne Division with the division's eagle printed on his shoulder and an M16, and a Marine in a flak vest with a camouflaged helmet and an M16 with grenade launcher. Three display stands and brick scenery are included.

The Screaming Eagles never jumped in Vietnam

The 101st Airborne figure is wearing the eagle patch of a parachute division, and in Vietnam the division did not make a single combat parachute jump.

The reason is the helicopter. By the mid-1960s a parachute drop had become the wrong tool: it scatters troops across a wide area, needs a large clear space, can only be done once, and leaves men on the ground with no way back. A helicopter puts a whole company down together on a spot the size of a tennis court, in minutes, and comes back for them afterwards.

So the 101st was reorganised as an airmobile division, and its men went to war sitting in the doors of UH-1 Hueys. They kept the airborne title, the eagle patch and the parachute wings, because none of that was about the method.

The only American combat jump of the entire war was made by a brigade of the 173rd Airborne in February 1967, and it was largely unopposed.

In the COBI range

Set 2047 is a second Vietnam War figure set with a differently posed trio. Set 2237 is the M41A3 Walker Bulldog with a Viet Cong fighter and a Soviet adviser.

Specifications

Pieces: 26 · Figures: 3 with accessories · Stands and scenery included
Box dimensions: 13 × 3.7 × 10.5 cm (5.1 × 1.5 × 4.1 in)