Because using U.S. currency at military establishments was out of the question thanks to the threat of black market trading and counterfeiting being far too great, U.S. troops were issued a variety of Military Payment Certificates (MPC) in several wars, from WW2 through Vietnam. Unlike standard U.S. currency, these notes were issued only to soldiers serving overseas, and were created to be tightly controlled and demonetized at a moment’s notice.
Wow! Guess I need to dig out one of my scrap books and see how many MPC I have. The way the pay was handled in Vietnam was you could receive all your pay in country or you could have it all or part of it deposited to a home account and the remainder paid to you in country in MPC. So, say you received $200.00 in country each month but decided to buy a money order and mail it to your family. You could buy a money order for the full or partial amount of that $200.00 but you could not exceed that $200 you were payed in country. No there were a number of card and dice games going on with winners holding a lot of a lot of MPC. Those guys would get other troops the buy money orders up to their limit and mail it gamblers mother and I'm talking about a lot on money. Being as I was flying most days I wasn't able to get to the base bank. Another little trick was the military would announce a change of MPC color early in the morning and there would be big crowds of civilians with large amounts of the old MPC trying to get someone on the fence line to exchange their MPC which they were not suppose to have. Next dat the former color was only good as a souvenir. US cash was illegal to have due to the fact it was good anywhere in the world and could be use to by weapons for the NVA. And the say War doesn't pay... Government needs to follow those same rules!
ReplyDeleteI wish you and so many others would write your memoirs, autobiographies. I have read a bit about the C days when the money was changed over, and I can't quite understand why... to screw over everyone off base? It was given in trade for goods or services, didn't declaring the stuff useless destroy all trust in the US Military's honesty and integrity?
DeleteMPC was not supposed to be used except in military facilities. We could exchange it on the base came for Vietnamese dong so we could spend it in dars, restraints and other such places. We could also pay our laundry girls and the barber. Crazy financial system but mainly in place to keep US currency out of the black market and weapons market. Pay officer would draw the necessary PMC to pay troops and enough local currency to pay locals that we hired to work in the laundry, hootch maids etc. A number of off base camp places would take MPC money and get it exchanged through the back door hoping the color wasn't changer overnight. Will have to tell you about a friend and myself running loose with US green backs in the Saigon area. He was killed on a gunship while I was between tours. Really bothered me for a long time and I still think of him on a regular basis. Was from your area and a Hells Angle and yes, we did take a few drinks in our day.
ReplyDeleteI want to hear that story! Sounds like a good one!
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