When we received the news from President Johnson in late July of '65 that the 1st Cav would go to Vietnam there was a flurry of activity among the wives to get the men packed up. At that time the Army had no camouflage insignia or underwear so our great concern was dying their underwear (two forest green to one black was the standard formula we came down on - I know the Chattahooche river [sic] ran green for months) - inking out the white name tag and the gold U.S. Army on their fatigue shirts.
This sequence of events occurred when the wives received news from President Johnson in late July 1965 that the 1st Cav would be sent to Vietnam, prompting a flurry of activity as they worked to prepare their husbands for deployment. The primary concern at the time was the lack of camouflage insignia and underwear, which led to our main focus: dyeing their underwear (using a standard formula) - also inking out white name tags and gold U.S. Army logos on fatigue shirts.