Collection: South Vietnamese Beo Gam (Duck Hunter) CAMO

A unique variation of the commercial duck hunter patterns introduced by American military advisors in 1961 began production in Japan as part of the Counter-Insurgency Support Office (CISO) program to supply US Army Special Forces and indigenous Vietnamese personnel. The Vietnamese nickname for this pattern was beo gam (leopard), as the spots in the design had some similarity to those of a leopard. Although a number of variations existed, the Vietnamese-issued beo gam patterns can be differentiated from those obtained through commercial sources in the USA or elsewhere in Asia by the concentration of spots (which is denser) as well as the notable purple or mauve tones of some of the spots. The typical beo gam pattern is a multi-colored design with dark blue-green, mauve, maroon, dark pink & olive green spots on a khaki background. This was not a standard issue uniform for any ARVN units; instead, it was sourced primarily for wear by the Montagnard CIDG (Civilian Irregular Defense Group) units. Compared to other theater-sources uniforms such as tiger stripe camouflage, beo gam uniforms were produced in relatively small numbers.