USMC 1958 pattern Gomer Pyle utility shirt

[USMCRECON]

This one has been touched on in some other threads, but I thought it was time the US Marine Corp's Gomer Pyle shirt got its own thread.

 

Basically this is an olive drab cotton sateen shirt introduced in 1958. It had covered buttons, a gas flap, and a large inside map pocket with a vertical opening. There was a similar shirt in HBT before this, sometimes called the M1956 shirt.

 

The shirt - which I have seen called a P1958, M1958, M58, and plain " Marine Corps Utility Shirt" - gets its nickname because it was worn on the Gomer Pyle USMC TV program which first aired from 1964 to 1967, starring Jim Nabors in a spinoff from the Andy Griffith Show.

 

 

Here's a couple of the real thing:

 

 

Here's the shirt unbuttoned. That single button on the right is for the inside pocket:

 

 

Here's a label, this one stamped 19 DECEMBER 1958. This is stamped inside, behind the left breast pocket. The size is stamped in the collar. I've seen seven or eight of these shirts in the last two years and maybe one of them had labels you could read.

 

 

In about 1964 the Marines started using the same kind of OD cotton sateen uniform as the Army but the Gomer Pyle shirts continued to be worn by Marines who had them. I have a couple that appear to have been used up until the Marine retired in the early 70's.

 

There are also Gomer Pyle trousers, which have no flaps on the back pockets.

 

When I came back from Vietnam, I had nothing but jungle utilities since my regular issue Marine utilities disintegrated fairly early in my Vietnam tour. I liked this style of utilities and when I arrived at Camp Lejeune, I bought two complete sets of these at a Jacksonville NC surplus shop and I wore them until my discharge in Sep 68.

 

As I remember, while they were still authorized for wear, you couldn't mix and match. The ones seen around in 1968 were not HBT but the material was still of a slightly different style and color than the newer ones and you had to wear both shirt and trousers of the same style. You are right; there was no flap on the back pocket on the trousers and, as I remember, there was only one (don't remember which side it was on).

 

I much favored these over the issued ones and still have one in my seabag, though it couldn't be worn because it's coming apart from the years of storage. Also, like all of my old Marine uniforms, it seems to have badly shrunk during the years in my seabag because none of it fits me anymore!

[craig_pickrall]

Those pants looked very much like the P41 pants except for that button. It was on the left pocket.

 

[nguoi tien su]

The HBT pattern shirt is an M1953. Look here at post # 9.

 

I am very surprised!? For me the HBT was also the M1956 and the OD M1958.

 

NTS

[The Meatcan]

Shazaaam, Sgt Carter! Those are some nice shirts!

[usmc-collector]

latest arrival into my collection. P1958 trousers, unused, size 38x32, dated 1961

[Bob Hudson]

Found this in the new Life Magazine photo archive on Google. It's a US Marine in Taiwan in 1958:

 

[collector]

I have a book called VIETNAM: US UNIFORMS in COLOR by Kevin Lyles

 

on page 16 they show a US MARINE officer circa 1965 wearing the same uniform

 

The Marines M1958 Cotton-Sateen Utility Uniform was unique to the Corps, and was obsolete by 1965, having been replaced by the Army's OG 107 utility uniform, some career officers and senior NCO's within the Corps, however, continued to wear the older uniform, though it would disappear entirely by the end of that year.

 

a 1956 version of this uniform was made in herringbone twill [HBT] material, and though occaisonally seen, was even rarer than the sateen set.

 

 

I have the HBT version and it has the solid EGA.

[Cong An Phap]

 

Hello,

this is a part of my collection.

Here the name tapes are typically early Vietnam.

 

One of the shirts has been modified with a "short timer" tape.

 

CAP

[Cong An Phap]

 

Name tape:black letters and dark background

[Cong An Phap]

 

Shirt in HBT, with cream name tape and brownish letters.

 

 

CAP

[Cong An Phap]

 

Short timer local made name tape and pocket embroidery.

It belonged to T.K.JENKINS, and was worn that way at the end of his tour circa 65.

[jagdpanzer]

I am reading about USMC utilities shirts and find this old post.

In www.vietnamgear.com there are a P57 (denomination of Marine Corps Museum) sateen dated in 1956, the markings is completely different to the other that I saw, I think the shirt in the photos could be an experimental uniform...or maybe the correct name for the uniform will be P56....

 

http://www.vietnamgear.com/kit.aspx?kit=632

 

[VMI88]

Here the name tapes are typically early Vietnam.

I don't doubt that these shirts were used in Vietnam on occasion, but I believe most of the examples of theater-made nametapes on them are from Okinawa. I base this on a discussion with a retired Marine who served both on Okinawa and in Vietnam; he clearly remembered the nametapes as being from Okinawa. I also have some of these shirts and a field jacket with similar nametapes from a Marine who served on Okinawa in the late 1950s-early 1960s, but never served in Vietnam. Again, no doubt some of the shirts were used in Vietnam and maybe even some of the nametapes were made there, but I think this is the exception rather than the rule. If anyone has examples of nametapes that show characteristics of being made in Vietnam I'd be very interested in seeing them.

[jagdpanzer]

Was these nametapes used only by the marines based in Okinawa prior to Vietnam? or was common to all Marine Corps?

[Bob Hudson]

Here's a great Gomer Pyle uniform that came direct from the Marine who wore it to Vietnam (I actually got four such uniforms but only one pair of boots and one or two sateen covers). Everything here is pretty much 1958 issue.

 

 

The covered is marked size XL

 

 

boots in great condition

 

 

These trousers are very hard to find

 

[Desertrat]

I just found this thread, so I figured I would post my only USMC uniform, A P57 HBT.. It belonged to my HS Assistant Principal, Tom Morris. Name tag but no EGA...

 

 

 

 

 

 

[pmanton]

I was issued this type uniform in May 55 when I entered boot camp. I don't remember it being HBT though. I can post some pictures out of the boot camp platoon boot if I can find it.

 

Paul

Salome, AZ

[pmanton]

Here's a page scanned out of my Plt 232 book Summer 55

[graffspee]

Here is USMC P1958 Sateen set I just obtained. Its heavily starched.I like the style of the name tape. The bad part is that the Utility Cover is torn down the center of the bill.

 

 

[Bob Hudson]

The bad part is that the Utility Cover is torn down the center of the bill.

 

 

Most of the Marine OD caps have cracked bills: they were made of a cardboard that becomes very brittle and crack and that tears the fabric. I've had multiple caps like this that had never been worn but still had cracked bills. Yours at least is balanced in the center.

[louie]

I am almost positive those name tapes were only used in Okinawa. I never saw them here stateside. We all still used that cheesy stencil that we had to put together from a kit. These were issued in boot camp. Even in 1970 I still some Gomer Pyle type shirts, mostly on NCO's. Again the Marine Corps will issue stuff until they run out, or it's falling apart. We still had many brown 1911 holsters in our supply system. I pulled a shinola detail, and was given show dye, black, to dye all the holsters. They didn't care if you dyed the backside, but only the front. Overseas there was a lot of new stuff, but here they just kept using up all the old stuff. Most of us also had m51 field jackets, not the nicer m65's with the hood.

[Bob Hudson]

I just found this thread, so I figured I would post my only USMC uniform, A P57 HBT.. It belonged to my HS Assistant Principal, Tom Morris. Name tag but no EGA...

 

 

 

 

That was the last Marine HBT pattern and other the cloth type, it was the same design as the OD cotton sateen Gomer Pyle shirt.

 

I have seen more than one photo from the 60's showing someone mixing HBT and OD, usually very senior officers.

[kammo-man]

 

Short timer local made name tape and pocket embroidery.

It belonged to T.K.JENKINS, and was worn that way at the end of his tour circa 65.

 

[vintageproductions]

Owen, don't you have all his other uniforms?

[ripcord]

I have my USMC name tapes made on Okinawa in 1963. Can post a photo if any interest. Made of the old hbt material as I recall ( buried in my sea-bag for a long time). They rapidly faded to almost white in a very short time. Definitely NOT authorized state-side......I was early-outed upon return to CONUS in June '64 and was told immediately to remove them at MCRD San Diego....never mind I was being discharged in a week. That's my Corps!