USMC Vietnam War Experimental Body Armor

Gentlemen, thanks for tuning in and welcome to the Brent 0331 YouTube channel So I'm gonna show you guys something today something that's very rare. It's probably something you didn't even know existed okay, but first let's back up to the Vietnam War and Let's talk about fragmentation vests so without a doubt the most widely used vest by Marines during the Vietnam War was the M1955 variant and essentially this consisted of a series of ballistic nylon as well as Several rows of overlapping plates called Doron plates and this vest would give you basic protection against fragmentation The tag on the inside says that 70% of combat casualties were created by fragmentation So fragmentation from exploding artillery mortars grenades things of that nature, okay? So that's what these vests were primarily designed to protect against and they may even offer some Ballistic protection against smaller caliber calibers like pistol rounds Okay, so that was the predominant vest used by United States Marines in theater in Vietnam during the entirety of the Vietnam War The army used a somewhat different vest. Okay, and their vest very similar to the Marine vest Provided essentially just you know protection against fragmentation, but they wanted more they wanted to look into offering their individual infantrymen protection against small arms because let's face it in Infantry combat, you're like, you know infantrymen versus infantrymen They're exchanging rifle fire in addition to grenades and you know RPGs and things of that nature So obviously there's a level of fragmentation involved as well as small caliber ammunition and small arms usage, right so they wanted to give their guys a little bit increased protection and Air crews during the time during the Vietnam War had a vest that was capable of holding These plates these ceramic made plates that were able to stop rifle cartridge caliber ammunition and They wanted to try to incorporate that into the individual infantryman's body armor and it came out with this again The US Army came out with this variable body armor system And essentially guys it looks just like what you would see on the modern-day battlefield. It's a Fragmentation vest. All right, so it has soft armor that's capable of giving protection against Fragmentation and smaller caliber ammunition and then it also Has on the front as well as in the back a pocket that carries a ceramic plate That's capable of stopping Rifle caliber cartridges specifically your 7.62x39 which was used by you know rifles like the AK-47 and SKS That were heavily used during the Vietnam War and this vest also has many modern features that you see, right? It has two panels here on the sides that overlap in the front and that's how it secures It also has a quick release system here So that you know an individual infantryman could get out of his body armor very quickly. So very Modern day looking vest, okay But ultimately the troops in Vietnam when they sent these out to units for testing and evaluation in the field in combat They found hey, the thing is too bulky. It's too heavy and We don't like even though it offers more protection. It was just too much and We even saw that kind of situation in the G1 where you know troops that went into Iraq and Afghanistan You know There was bitches and and gripes about hey the the current armor systems do not provide enough protection to the individual infantrymen And what do they do? they essentially over correct and design these flak systems that were too bulky and You know just the grunts hated them and now we go Backwards, right? We offer less protection in terms of you know, protecting and covering your upper torso However, they're smaller systems. They do provide Ballistic protection they do provide protection against sappy or excuse me small arms fire however they've cut them down to tailor them to the individual infantrymen cut down on the weight made them slimmer and Just more acceptable for infantry use and that was kind of the problem with that vest it just was too big and So the Marine Corps tried to do the exact same thing All right They you know, you had the army with the variable body armor system Marine Corps tried to design a flak vest that was capable of not only offering Protection against fragmentation but also offer protection against small arms and you guys can see there's a cut here This is the Marine Corps experimental system here And I do not know the proper name that they gave to this because again, it was an experimental vest but essentially it was just like the US Army's variable body armor and it had a pocket in the front that was capable of accepting a Ceramic plate, right if you flip around on the backside you see another pocket on the back But this was actually an integrated small backpack. Okay. This was not designed to carry another ceramic plate So the Marine Corps was opting to go the route of hey Two plates is probably too much and not necessary Rather just go with one plate to cut down on weight and we're gonna put this in the front all right offer that protection to the upper torso from rifle caliber cartridges in the front of the Vest itself. So that's what we're gonna talk about today guys. We're gonna talk about this system right here And again, this is a an experimental vest designed during the Vietnam War and some of you may be looking at this and saying hey You know in Vietnam, I thought you know guys wore OD green. Well, you're not correct there Okay in the United States Marine Corps starting in around I believe late 1968 the Marine infantry started to incorporate ERDL uniforms just like the one I'm wearing right now and That's what this flak vest is. This is not woodland camouflage. This is the predecessor of woodland camouflage. This is ERDL ERDL green dominant camouflage and that was what was adopted by Marines In the Vietnam War specifically for their infantrymen. All right, so that's what this vest was made out of so It never saw combat in Vietnam to my knowledge there I've not seen a single picture of this vest in theater The only picture I've seen of this vest is a post on the US military Forum if you guys haven't seen that's a great reference for you know Inquiring about gear from over the years specifically experimental stuff and in that post one of the users shows a picture from Leatherneck magazine from 1971 of a Marine wearing this body armor and that is essentially the only Photo I've ever seen of this gear being used and obviously that's an experimental Photo and a test prototype type photo. It's not used in the theater It's not used in Vietnam, but obviously this vest was designed for use in Vietnam and that's what they were looking at okay, so Obviously this thing never got adopted. There's a lot of similarities. I see in terms of a construction between the m1955 and What would ultimately replace it later on? Where excuse me replace the m1955 and that is the personal armor system ground troop the pass get vest Okay, you guys, you know, this is made popular and you know conflicts like Panama and Desert Storm and yeah, this would serve all the way from the 80s into the early G watt and You know in terms of ballistic protection. This looks very similar to what this is made out of minus your You know ceramic small arms protective plate. So without further ado Let's go ahead and get an up-close look at this guy. So you guys can check this out All right. So here's an up-close look at the vest You guys can clearly see the cutout here for what is a ceramic plate? And this is the same type of plate that's used in the US Army variable body armor pretty tight fit There we go. All right, so you guys can see how that's cut. It's essentially cut and contoured for you know your Individual warfighters upper torso, so See so this armor may save your life It will protect vital areas against 30 caliber ball small arms and shell grenade fragments So again, this is the exact same plate that's worn in the variable body armor if you guys have seen that video I put it But that just slides right in there You guys can see it's got a series of Velcro here Secures like that So this has a small pocket in the front. Oh Look at that Use and carry your body armor fragment aren't small arms protective for ground troops so it looks like You have some sort of instruction manual in here Fragmentation small arms protective vest was designed to protect you against small arms fire ak-47 projectiles and grenade and shell fragments But only if you wear it and use it properly Skip the page there So what's interesting about this vest is it comes in different sizes? In the m1955s, I think no m1955s did have sizes as well But this one has almost like a uniform top It has a you know a size for your torso and then a length so like a guy like me would wear a large long So this is a really interesting guys I did not know that this was in here So i'm just showing it to you guys and then you guys can see that. Uh, it has a little log book here So you put your information? And this actually says us army natic laboratories So I wonder if this is the same vest That was used Let's see this paper says I have no idea about that So anyway guys I had no idea this was in here so that was a surprising find but this fit right inside this little pocket And you guys can see velcro closure. So obviously it was designed for you know, smaller items and uh, You know the little booklet that I just pulled out that you know had stuff on there that you know, you could annotate You know who it belonged to and uh, if there's any defective things associated with the vest so on here we have uh tabs that Absolutely will facilitate the carrying of you know gear that had the same keepers that run m1956 style equipment and the later Systems. All right, so those could be attached to the web gear in that manner you guys can see so it's almost Eliminating the need for an exterior You know utility belt Or web gear like you saw with the m1955 You saw a lot of marines just attaching gear to the bottom of the flag It looks like they're trying to do the same thing with this vest. It also has the eyelets here at the bottom For you know systems like this like the m1910 hanger style equipment so that could be attached right there and There's canteen pouches with m1910 equipment. Um Mostly your older stuff, but obviously our bayonets at the time still had m1910 style hangers so The front also you guys can see it. It secures with velcro And we'll talk about that once I get to the back but you have a velcro closure in the front and then up here at the shoulder area area you have a Canvas material as well as that shooter cord just like on the m1955 style vest So the shooter cord can assist with two different things, you know placing a rifle buttstock in there It helps keep it in that little pocket as well as you're on a uh, like a force march or something And the actual sling of the rifle, you know is coming over Coming over the vest and can sit in there and that helps keep it from sliding off Let's go up here to the top and you guys can see it's got quick release. All right, so two buttons and then a velcro So you can easily get out of your flack that way and that's on both sides But it's pretty interesting to note that you know, a lot of modern body armor Is a is put on by coming over the top, you know Putting it over the top of your head and then securing on the sides and look here We got something that was designed during the vietnam war and that's the same manner of which they're looking at. Um, Going with in terms of you know, their next generation of flack vest So let's flip it over to the side Or excuse me in the back And you guys can see that you have that webbing all the way on the back side And you got the the heavy stitching to incorporate again Your you know, we typically refer to these nowadays as alice style clips, but you know, obviously these predate alice Okay, so the same type of keepers that were used on, you know, your m56 style equipment And subsequently like uh your alice type equipment later on Uh, this is what these are designed for is these type of keepers being able to attach there so So your side panels you guys can see it's got uh, this side has 550 cord. This side has nylon cord I don't know if both sides were supposed to be nylon or this is the way it's actually supposed to be But nonetheless i've got examples of both here on this vest So nylon over here and then 550 cord on this side And then you guys can see the eyelets there it's just interwoven And this is how you attach the the vest if you need more length, then obviously you just undo these And then uh, it will allow you to stretch these out to accommodate, you know a wider user so on the back here is a small pouch and this is a Again, this is a backpack. This is not it's supposed to be for a Ceramic plate you guys can see how it is. Just a small haversack style pouch and then it even has Three drain holes at the bottom so that can help drain out water if this thing were to fill up from going into the water And you guys can see the shooter's cord goes all the way down in the back just again It's for helping uh, one of the purpose of it is for helping with uh, you know Carrying your rifle and that sling staying on there. So Let's go to the inside So on the back panel you guys can see here's the tag A little area behind here, but I don't feel any instruction booklets in there And it just says read your instruction booklet. This armor may save your life and then it has uh, You know some other instructions on there similar to what was inside the instruction booklet Then it says wear your protective armor at all times in combat You guys can also see it's got some eyelets here at the bottom to help facilitate the draining of water again Sometimes as grunts specifically marines we get wet so Here's the other side It's the front side again drain holes And that's pretty much it guys pretty self-explanatory pretty simple And it's just interesting to see how they design this and ultimately This was not adopted obviously it was probably considered too hot and heavy same reasons as the army variable body armor Um, but it was ultimately replaced Or this was not implemented But this was and if you look at you know, the m1955 compared to this this looks more similar to an m1955 um, but even more similar to You know what the army was using at the time with their uh You know three-fourths collar vest and I will say that I feel like the Vest itself the ballistic Panels inside are very similar To what is used on the uh pasgate vest but nonetheless guys Unbelievable to think that during the vietnam war You know, we were looking at body armor like this, which is very reminiscent in my eyes to what we're using nowadays Well, that's it gentlemen that completes this video over this experimental vietnam era marine corps variable body armor If you guys are liking what you're seeing, don't forget to check out my channel like and subscribe I've already done several gear uniforms and equipment videos in the past and I plan to do several more in the future Thanks for watching. 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