June 1966 T65-2 Aircrewman Body Armor

[DiGilio]

Just got this new aircrewman body armor. Its is the June 1966 version of the T65-2 Aircrewman body armor. This is a trial version of the Aircrewman body armor before the Sept 1967 design specification (MIL-C-43544).

 

I had posted a similar vest a few years ago here: http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/59151-early-aircrewman-body-armor-19661967/. I believe now that the vest in that thread has the front and back mismatched. The back is an early Jan 1966 trial version (notice how its similar but slightly different from this June 66 version) while the front is from late 1967, one of the very first made after the Sept 1967 specification.

 

Anyway, I believe the vest pictured below is an unmessed with June 1966 version. Notice how the contract numbers and FSN on these trial versions are different than on the vests made after the 1967 specification. Theres so many slight changes in the different versions of these early chicken plates. There could be some pretty in depth articles just written about the evolution of these vests.

 

 

 

 

[papalei]

RARE ITEM,why there is ink mark already , Then WHITE HANDWRITING ?for test use?

[DiGilio]

I cant figure out what the white handwriting is for. Its odd that the numbers are different for the front and back and the size is already written on it.