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770.831.1257 - 1.800.438.6894

Date/Report Number …..100111.FKRy1Y0.04 Item: 1968 BENRUS MIL-W-38188 GOVERNMENT MILITARY WATCH

Description of item: VINTAGE NOVEMBER 1968 BENRUS MIL-W-38188 GOVERNMENT MILITARY WATCH DESIGNED TO MILITARY SPECIFICATIONS FOR USE IN VIETNAM BENRUS 17J DR 2F2 WITH NATO STYLE DESERT SAND G-18 NYLON MILITARY STRAP WITH KEEPERS CONDITION WATCH IS FINE..

Estimated Retail Replacement Value $ 569.00

Reports are supplied at the request of the customer and it is for the customer's exclusive use. Reports express an opinion of the time of the examination of the jewelry. This report is for customers use only for the following two purposes, indicating estimated retail replacement value to obtain insurance coverage, or for the purpose of providing geological information. goldsmith Works does not guarantee that the appraisal valuation will result in a sale at the price. Estimated retail replacement value is arrived after analyses of what the approximate high retail cash asking price is for labor, materials, and design. These prices may be substantially higher than actual transaction or warranty with regards to any item described in the report, since jewelry grading is not an exact science, this report represent the best opinion of the company. GoldSmith Works is in no case responsible for differences that occur by repeated grading by other experts in the field and/or use of other standards, norms, methods or criteria other than those used by GoldSmith Works. GoldSmith Works is expressly held harmless by customers including, but with out limitation for any claims or actions that may arise out of negligence in connection with the preparation of this laboratory report, or actions based upon the customer's use of the report. The information on the carat weight, clarity grade, color grade on the report is approximate due to the limitations in jewelry grading. The item was tested, graded, and examined under 10x magnification using the techniques and equipment available to GoldSmith Works, including fully corrected triplet loupe, binocular microscope, master color comparison guides, diamond color comparison tools, electronic carat balance, non-contact optical measuring device, and ancillary instruments necessary at the time of Exam

BENRUS
MIL-W-38188

WITH

DESIGNED TO MILITARY
SPECIFICATIONS FOR USE IN VIETNAM

BENRUS
17J
DR 2F2

THIS BENRUS MILITARY WRIST WATCH SERVED A ONE YEAR TOUR OF DUTY "IN COUNTRY" [VIETNAM]-- A PLACE CALLED THE NAM....

TO BEGIN THIS YEAR OF HISTORY I WOULD LIKE TO P[OINT OUT THAT I HAVE SUPPLIED AN INTERESTING TID-BIT OF HISTORY. BULOVA WATCH COMPANY HAD LONG BEEN HAPPY TO SUPPLY WRIST WATCHES TO THE U.S. GOVERNMENT. THAT IS.. UNTIL THE SPECS CAME DOWN FOR A LAND AND COUNTRY CALLED VIETNAM.

DUE TO THE FACT THAT JUNGLE CONDITIONS AND MONSOONS WERE PART OF THE PICTURE, THE U.S. GOVERNMENT ISSUED NEW SPECIFICATIONS. WATCH MAKERS THEN SUBMITTED THERE OFFERS.

BULOVA PROTESTING MILITARY BENRUS

THIS BENRUS WAS BORN AND ISSUED IN 1968
IT TRAVELED TO VIETNAM
DURING ITS ONE YEAR TOUR OF DUTY
THE FOLLOWING EVENTS TOOK PLACE

November 5, 1968
Republican Richard M. Nixon narrowly defeats Democrat Hubert Humphrey in the U.S. presidential election.

November 27, 1968
President-elect Nixon asks Harvard professor Henry Kissinger to be his National Security Advisor. Kissinger accepts.

By year's end, U.S. troop levels reached 495,000 with close to 30,000 American deaths to date.

January 1, 1969 - Henry Cabot Lodge, former American ambassador to South Vietnam, is nominated by President-elect Nixon to be the senior U.S negotiator at the Paris peace talks.

January 22, 1969 - Operation Dewey Canyon, the last major operation by U.S. Marines begins in the Da Krong valley.

January 25, 1969 - Paris peace talks open with the U.S., South Vietnam, North Vietnam and the Viet Cong all in attendance.

February 23, 1969
Viet Cong attack 110 targets throughout South Vietnam including Saigon.

February 25, 1969
36 U.S. Marines are killed by NVA who raid their base camp near the Demilitarized Zone.

March 4, 1969
President Nixon threatens to resume bombing North Vietnam in retaliation for Viet Cong offenses in the South.

March 15, 1969
- U.S. troops go on the offensive inside the Demilitarized Zone for the first time since 1968.

March 1969
Letters from Vietnam veteran Ronald Ridenhour result in a U.S. Army investigation into the My Lai massacre.

March 17, 1969
President Nixon authorizes Operation Menu, the secret bombing of Cambodia by B-52s, targeting North Vietnamese supply sanctuaries located along the border of Vietnam.

April 9, 1969
300 anti-war students at Harvard University seize the administration building, throw out eight deans, then lock themselves in. They are later forcibly ejected.

April 30, 1969
U.S. troop levels peak at 543,400. There have been 33,641 Americans killed by now..

May 10-May 20
Forty-six men of the 101st Airborne die during a fierce ten-day battle at 'Hamburger Hill' in the A Shau Valley near Hue. 400 others are wounded. After the hill is taken, the troops are then ordered to abandon it by their commander. NVA then move in and take back the hill unopposed. A decline in morale and discipline begins among American troops with nearly 25% experimenting with marijuana, opium, or heroin that is flooding places like Saigon and other cities by the Viet Cong. U.S. military hospitals see a rise in drug related cases. Soon drug abuse causalities outnumber war causalities..

May 14, 1969
President Nixon presents a peace plan in which America and North Vietnam would simultaneously pull out of South Vietnam over the next year.

June 8, 1969
President Nixon meets South Vietnam's President Nguyen Van Thieu at Midway Island and informs him U.S. troop levels are going to be sharply reduced. During a press briefing with Thieu, Nixon announces "Vietnamization" of the war and a U.S. troop withdrawal of 25,000 men.

June 27, 1969
Life magazine displays portrait photos of all 242 Americans killed in Vietnam during the previous week, including the 46 killed at 'Hamburger Hill.'

July 1969
President Nixon, through a French emissary, sends a secret letter to Ho Chi Minh urging him to settle the war, while at the same time threatening to resume bombing if peace talks remain stalled as of November 1. In August, Hanoi responds by repeating earlier demands for Viet Cong participation in a coalition government in South Vietnam.

July 8, 1969
The very first U.S. troop withdrawal occurs as 800 men from the 9th Infantry Division, a phased troop withdrawal occurs in 14 stages from July 1969 through November 1972.

July 17, 1969
Secretary of State William Rogers shows that Hanoi of "lacking humanity" in the treatment of American POWs.[of which was an understatement, especially when you read what the communist have done since 1945! just google french prisoners vietnam. They totrured raped and murdered civillian children & woman and totured to death literally over a 4 million people..

July 25, 1969
The "Nixon Doctrine" is made public. It advocates U.S. military and economic assistance to nations around the world struggling against Communism, but no more Vietnam-style ground wars involving American troops. The emphasis is thus placed on local military self-sufficiency, backed by U.S. air power and technical assistance to assure security.

July 30, 1969
President Nixon visits U.S. troops and President Thieu in Vietnam. This is Nixon's only trip to Vietnam during his presidency.

August 4, 1969
Henry Kissinger conducts his first secret meeting in Paris with representatives from Hanoi.

August 12, 1969
Viet Cong begin a new offensive attacking 150 targets throughout South Vietnam.

September 2, 1969
Ho Chi Minh dies of a heart attack at age 79. He is succeeded by Le Duan.

September 5, 1969
The U.S. Army brings murder charges against Lt. William Calley concerning the massacre of Vietnamese civilians at My Lai in March of 1968.

September 16, 1969
President Nixon orders the withdrawal of 35,000 soldiers from Vietnam and a reduction in draft calls.

October 1969
An opinion poll indicates 71 percent of Americans approve of President Nixon's Vietnam policy.

October 15, 1969
The 'Moratorium' peace demonstration is held in Washington and several U.S. cities.

Demonstration organizers had received praises from North Vietnam's Prime Minister Pham Van Dong, who stated in a letter to them "...may your fall offensive succeed splendidly," marking the first time Hanoi publicly acknowledged the American anti-war movement. Dong's comments infuriate American conservatives including Vice President Spiro Agnew who lambastes the protesters as Communist "dupes" [which they were] comprised of "an effete corps of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as intellectuals."

November 3, 1969
President Nixon delivers a major TV speech asking for support from "the great silent majority of my fellow Americans" for his Vietnam strategy. "...the more divided we are at home, the less likely the enemy is to negotiate at Paris...North Vietnam cannot defeat or humiliate the United States. Only Americans can do that."

November 15, 1969
The 'Mobilization' peace demonstration draws an estimated 250,000 in Washington for the largest anti-war protest in U.S. history.

IT HAS A TWO PART STEM
YOU PULL THE CROWN OUT
PULL THE PLACTIC CRYSTAL OFF
AND THE MOVEMENT COMES OUT THE FRONT/TO