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Republic of Viet-Nam Air Force (VNAF) - Indentification
The key to identifying a Vietnamese Air Force cover is the term "Khong Quan" (abbreviated "KQ"), which means "air force" in Vietnamese. At first glance the preponderance of letters and numbers on the cover shown in Figure 4 may seem overwhelming, but with a bit of patience one can ascertain the cover in the example is a VNAF cover. Vietnamese military covers usually offer little beyond a sender or recipient's name and a KBC ("Khu Buu Chinh" or military postal zone) number, so it's a treat to find a cover with this much information. 
Figure 4. Cover from Marine to an Air Force trainee in Tan Son Nhut. This cover was sent 14 September 1974 by a member of the 7th Marine Battalion at KBC 3340, abbreviated "TD7 TQLC," to an NCO Trainee at the Air Force General Headquarters served by KBC 3011 in Tan Son Nhut. Note the abbreviation "BTLKQ" in the middle line of the address. These initials stand for "Bo Tu Lenh" (Headquarters) and "Khong Quan" (Air Force). The series of letters in the last line of the address stand for "Technical Training Center at Tan Son Nhut Air Base." The sender and recipient have the same surname, Huynh - perhaps they are brothers. The cover was charged postage due - note the upside-down "T" hand stamp, because it was sent through the civilian postal service without any postage affixed. Mail sent between military units could be sent postage free, but only if the military postal service was used. The following is a short list of terms and abbreviations sometimes found on VNAF covers or in enclosed letters that may help with identification.
Figure 5. Cover from VNAF 3rd Air Division at KBC 3004 to Air Force Training Center in Nha Trang - KBC 4721. The cover in Figure 5 was sent through the military postal service in October 1973 between two VNAF personnel. Notice that postage due wasn't assessed on this cover even though no stamp was affixed. The words at top center that are partially obscured by the postmark read "Quan Thu" meaning "military correspondence." The blue KBC cachet on this cover is much less common than the red or black colors typically seen. The sender of this cover is a member of the Vice Military Staff, Human Resources / Training Dept. at the 3rd Air Division in Bien Hoa served by KBC 3004. The recipient is an NCO Specialist at the VNAF Training Center in Nha Trang at KBC 4721. The second line of the address reads "Khoa 20B/73 Phi Co Phan Luc" meaning, "Jet Plane Class 20B of 1973". The phrase "Chuyen Tuyen" written below the address indicated that the letter should be hand-delivered to someone named Tuyen (a civilian) since the military post office provided faster delivery than the civilian post. By June 1974, the VNAF had become the fourth largest Air Force in the world, with more than 2,000 aircraft and approximately 63,000 personnel comprising six air divisions and fifteen tactical wings. Tactical wings consisted of several squadrons (Phi Doi or "PD") that were numbered as follows: Observation Squadrons (100 sequence numbers), Helicopter Squadrons (200), Special Missions Squadrons (300), Transport Squadrons (400), Fighter Squadrons (500), Reconnaissance Squadrons (700), Attack Squadrons (800), and Training Squadrons (900). The 600 sequence was reserved for amphibious squadrons, but was never used for this purpose1. 
Figure 6. After 1963, the last digit in a Tactical Wing number indicates military region. The last digit of a tactical wing number corresponds to the corps / military region of operation. For example, the 41st Tactical Wing operated in I Corps. Figure 6 shows a cover sent to the Weapons Group (Doan Vu Khai or "DVK") of the 74th Tactical Wing (Khong Doan 74) based at Can Tho in IV Corps. A 3-dong stamp pays the proper rate for mail sent to military personnel during this period (June 1969). The following table shows the KBC numbers associated with the air bases where the six air divisions were based. These numbers were obtained from military covers and ID cards, as no official list of KBC numbers and locations is known to exist. Different KBC numbers served some Air Force units from time to time. For example the 6th Air Division underwent training at KBC 6169 - the location of which is not currently known. Please keep in mind that while a cover with one of the following KBC numbers might indicate a VNAF unit, other units may have used these numbers so additional information is needed for conclusive identification.
---------- 1Robert Mikesh notes a single 615th Special Mission Flight under the 41st Tactical Wing in 1965 in his book Flying Dragons. < Imnaha Stamps Home Original content ©2008 Andrew Crenshaw  - All Rights Reserved.
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