South Yemen - 1st Parachute Battalion Wings. c.1986
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Product Details
SOUTH YEMEN - PARATROOPER WINGS
Peoples Democratic Republic of Yemen.
There were 4 parachute battalions in South Yemen, each distinguished by the color on the disc. This particular badge is white which represents the 1st Battalion.
The arabic number on the discs indicates 10 jumps.
South Yemen placed an order with a Hungarian manufacturing company in 1986 for 800 parachutist badges, with 200 in each of 4 different jump disc colors for the 4 parachute battalions: red, blue, green and white. Each group of 200 badges was to be broken down further into 40 of each color jump disc with 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 jumps in Arabic on the disc at the bottom of each badge. Each jump disc had a distinctive dome. These were South Yemen's first parachutist badges, although North Yemen (Yemen Arab Republic) had parachutist badges beginning in the early 1970's.
The original badges from that first run had domed discs.
In 1989, a Hungarian dealer ordered and paid for a large quantity of reproductions of these original South Yemen parachutist badges from the same manufacturing company that made the originals. Unfortunately for him and fortunately for worldwide collectors, the reproductions were made withflat jump discs instead of the original domed discs made for South Yemen, probably to keep the cost down, so it's easy to tell the difference between anoriginal and a reproduction.
This badge has a flat jump disc, meaning it is a 1989 reproduction made by the original manufacturer as discussed.