The vast majority of US Special Forces advisors assigned to train and support the South Vietnamese special forces were US Army personnel. They wore a green beret with this same cloth insignia shield, but with the US Special Forces insignia mounted inside it (for enlisted men -- Army officers wore their rank insignia in place of the SF insignia). A small number of US Navy officers were assigned as advisors to the South Vietnamese Navy equivalent of the SEALs. They wore a black beret with the same shield insignia but a US Navy Officer’s cap badge mounted to the shield, blacked out so it was not a shiny target in the field. An officer’s rank device of the appropriate rank was often worn in front of the shield. This black beret once had a cotton liner which has been removed (traces visible at leather edge), this is typical of period berets which were actually worn. Removing the liner made the beret cooler to wear and it dried faster if it got wet. The metal officer’s cap badge has been darkened with what appears to be boot black with rubbed highlight wear. The Navy Lieutenant rank insignia (same as an Army or Marine Captain insignia) is age darkened and toned. Of Note from the Vendor: This is a rare beret from my collection, this was given to my father in central Pennsylvania in the late 1960’s or early 1970’s. My dad retired to central Pennsylvania after the Navy and worked at Penn State. He was the highest ranking Navy officer in the county, so Navy officers assigned to the Penn State NROTC program would often pay a courtesy call to our house when I was a teenager, and many of them presented my dad with a souvenir of Vietnam like this one.