VHM_0061

This comb was made by Vũ Huy Thâm in 1979 while he was imprisoned at the Gia Trung reeducation camp in Pleiku. Thâm crafted the comb from the wreckage of a South Vietnam Air Force plane that had been shot down in the surrounding forests during the Vietnam War. After shaping and polishing the metal, he asked a fellow inmate to engrave the intertwined initials “T” and “H” to represent himself and his wife, Lê Thị Nguyệt Hồng. He also had his wife's name, Hồng, engraved on the opposite side of the comb. Towards the end of 1979, Vũ Huy Thâm’s family traveled from Cần Thơ to Pleiku to visit him at the Gia Trung reeducation camp, at which time the comb was secretly given to them.