Insignia from the long night of the Vietnam War.
Named for the C-130 “Blind Bat” flare missions that lit the Ho Chi Minh Trail after dark, Blindbat Militaria is a curated source for rare theater-made and US-made patches — the death's-heads, tigers, and torch-bearers stitched in-country. Researched, documented, and lit for the artifacts they are.
Not a surplus bin. A field archive.
Blindbat Militaria treats each patch as a historical document. Whether it hangs in the store or rests in a private collection, every piece is photographed in raking light and researched for unit, era, theater, and construction. The grim humor and macabre iconography of these patches — reapers, skulls, Sat Cong — are part of the record, not a costume.
Featured Showcase Lots
Stitched in the jungle, by torchlight
Theater-made patches were hand-embroidered in-country by local makers — wild variation in color, weave, and iconography found nowhere else. Many carry the dark visual language of the men who wore them: bats, flames, death's-heads, and tigers. Documenting them preserves a fragile, fast-disappearing record before it scatters.
Featured Patches
Reading the iconography
New patches, pulled from the dark.
Fresh acquisitions, raking-light detail shots, and research notes are posted first on Instagram.
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