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Vietnam USMC belt with Jungle Medical Pouches


shrapneldude
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shrapneldude

This turned up at a flea market a few weeks ago, and have been trying to figure out whether to take it all apart and put the pieces with my other field gear, or keep it all together.

 

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There's a WWII Jungle First Aid kit, dated 1945, a Vietnam Jungle First Aid Kit dated 1967, an M-14 magazine pouch, and a 1952 dated canteen cover, '53 dated canteen, and '45 dated canteen cup.

 

Any chance this would've been worn like this in Vietnam for any specific setup, or is it more likely just a set of random accoutrements stuck on a belt?

Also, can anyone confirm that the VN Jungle kit is specifically USMC issue?

 

Thanks in advance for any help. :thumbsup:

 

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It's on a snapped OD green web belt -- This is also a USMC specific item too, right?

 

post-1424-1313870804.jpg

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shrapneldude

post-1424-1313871069.jpg

post-1424-1313871063.jpg

 

I know WWII and Korean War era gear was used up through the 1960s and some even later. My canteen cups in Iraq were WWII era, but the two Jungle First Aid kits on this belt are kind of throwing me off. Could be just some surplus pieces a kid put on there to play army with or something, but figured it wouldn't hurt to ask.

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The snap belt is a specific USMC item, the Jungle F/A kit is also a USMC item, but recon units and such used them too. Army didn't use them. I would keep it as a set, it's possible a corpsman used it.

 

Edit, a WWII jungle kit would be correct for Vietnam, even with a newer 60's one. I've seen clear footage of Marines with WWII era ones.

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I must concur with Justin. My brother was a Corpsman in VN, 1969-70 and he used a variety of gear from WWII to current issue, whatever was available. Smart corpsman did not wish to look like one, so they threw away the M-3 bag and carried medical gear in pouches, bandoliers, engineer bags, gas mask bags, anything to take away the fact that they were a corpsman. Snipers liked to pick on them. He said he wore two belts, one with his .45 and survival knife and another with several canteens and pouches. If they had to bug out fast, he could dump the second belt and keep his weapons on him.

 

Doc Rick

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combat-helmets

That's a really super set! A also agree with the others. I have been working on an early VN war Marine, and have an abundance of Korea/early 60's gear. I just picked up one of those WW2 jungle kits too, because it was 1943 dated, and I thought there might be a chance it could have been used in early Vietnam and this thread confirmed it. The other jungle packs I saw were 1967 dated, which would have been used later in the war..

 

Also it had wire hooks instead of alice clips... A big hint and that the marines did not really adopt the M56 gear, so chances are something with a hook ( i.e. your canteen covers, 50's era carbine clips, etc) would have a serious shot of having been marine used.

 

Great post! An enjoyable read!

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Here's a basic Marine loadout for Vietnam, all the items on this set are 1962 dated or before. Notice the WWII USMC suspenders, this rig is also missing a Ka Bar

post-2305-1314130841.jpg

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A different rig ( set up the same) with haversack, rain poncho, shovel and shelter half. This set is later 1967 - 1968 era, it's not common to see a shelter half this late

 

Both this photos are about 2 years old and all I can find on my computer

post-2305-1314130930.jpg

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The other jungle packs I saw were 1967 dated

 

There's also 1965 and 1966 dated ones. They are more of a brown rather than the dark green 1967 ones are. I'd post the 1965 and 1966 jungle kits but my stuff is all packed up

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combat-helmets

Outstanding set ups Justin!

What kind of poncho is that?

We all know the marines used up surplus gear, so with so many WW2 era cammo ponchos made, I wonder why hardly any of these ever surfaced in Vietnam ?

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Outstanding set ups Justin!

What kind of poncho is that?

We all know the marines used up surplus gear, so with so many WW2 era cammo ponchos made, I wonder why hardly any of these ever surfaced in Vietnam ?

 

The poncho is 1962 dated. I don't recall ever seeing a photo of a Marine in Vietnam with a WW2 Camo poncho, didn't those get sniff and tear easy?

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The snap belt is a specific USMC item, the Jungle F/A kit is also a USMC item, but recon units and such used them too. Army didn't use them. I would keep it as a set, it's possible a corpsman used it.

 

Edit, a WWII jungle kit would be correct for Vietnam, even with a newer 60's one. I've seen clear footage of Marines with WWII era ones.

 

You are correct in that during vietnam the army did not use the tropical first aid pouch,when you say recon units used them do you mean u.s. army recondo and later airborne ranger units ? The army did however use the tropical/jungle kit in the pacific in WWII, wearing them when ever they first became avilable, these would be the type i think with lift the dot snaps. After the war ended the tropical first aid kit with its pouch was not issued, it may however contiuned to be used in the panama canal zone in the post war period into the 50s, i have however seen this item being worn by soldiers of the hawaii national guard and puerto rico national guard in the 50s, for all i know the most likely continued to be worn well in to the 60s given that the entire national guard in the 60s was always the low man on the totom pole for getting any new up to date newly adopted gear.

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I'm only talking about Vietnam. Marine and navy recon used them. Source: photo evidence. LRRPS and SF also used them.

 

Never seen regular army troops in Vietnam using them, I look at lots of period photos.

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