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WWII C-1 Sustenance/Survival Vest


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Guest lightninghawk

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Attention collectors!

If you have interst in the WWII C-1 survival vest, please take a look at the new C-1 Vest Collectors Site! Here you will find tons of information, and pictures of the items that were included in the vest! Cheers! Michael Minovich

 

http://lightninghawkmilitaria.com/

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craig_pickrall

That is an excellent site. Thank you for the effort required to set that up and for the link to it.

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Michael - Bravo! What an excellent initiative! I have always been interested in every detail of C-1 and now I will be a visitor of your site many times.

 

Thanks a lot for the link at USMF.

 

Best regards

 

Greg

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  • 1 year later...

WWW.warrelics.com has a complete vest. All the gear. it is expensive at 2250 or so. But if you want to buy all at once, this is the only place that I have seen sell it.

Paul

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carrabassett

This is a great site and Michael has done a nice job on it with continued updates. I have also bought items from him and he is great to work with and willing to share info as can be seen from this site. Highly recommended!

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Cobrahistorian

I've got a 2nd/3rd variant Sears & Roebuck vest and to date it is the only one I've seen with four snaps as a front closure instead of the 3 button front. Anyone else ever seen a C-1 with a snap front?

 

Jon

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  • 3 weeks later...
Cobrahistorian
No, only the repro ones. Does yours have a three string tie back?

Jim

 

Sure does. Picked this one up in 1993 when I started collecting AAF stuff. It is an original, of that I'm sure.

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Cobrahistorian

Here's my vest. I added the holster, which is an original, purchased separately. Sewn on with original thread from a 44 dated spool.

 

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  • 2 years later...
lightninghawk

Hello Jon, Yes I ahve seen the vst with snaps on the fron instead of buttons, these were very late more modifications, for more on these vest please visit my new website lightninghawkmilitaria.com sitewill be up first week July 2012 Cheers! Michael

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lightninghawk
Hello Jon, Yes I have seen the vest with snaps on the front instead of buttons, these were very late more modifications, for more on these vest please visit my new website lightninghawkmilitaria.net site will be up first week July 2012 Cheers! Michael
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lightninghawk
post-2611-1206550338.jpg

 

Attention collectors!

If you have interst in the WWII C-1 survival vest, please take a look at the new C-1 Vest Collectors Site! Here you will find tons of information, and pictures of the items that were included in the vest! Cheers! Michael Minovich

 

http://lightninghawkmilitaria.net/

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  • 2 months later...

Hi,

 

I got this C-1 vest from a coworker from his grandpa, I can identify it as the late variation of the 2nd model of the C-1 vest. I'm wondering how much the market price is for such item.

 

Thanks

 

p1040210.jpg

 

p1040211.jpg

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  • 11 months later...

On another topic ( http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/182066-aaf-survival-vest/ ) I mentioned Cobrahistorian's C-1 vest and speculated how it could have been made with snaps instead of the Bakelite buttons.

 

Dustin pointed out that my time line focus was not precisely clear - so I will be very clear before I speculate about Cobrahistorian's C-1 vest with some facts:

 

Fact number 1: in 1947 Congress established the United States Air Force as a separate and distinct branch of the Armed Forces of the United States.

 

Fact number 2: on page 285 of the October 1954 AF Manual 64-4, Handbook for Survival Training and Personal Equipment - "VEST ASSEMBLY - EMERGENCY SUSTENANCE TYPE C-1 Property Class: 20-B" is listed and depicted.

 

Fact number 3: DOD contractors do not "throw out" government property, until the government tells them to "scrap" the material. This includes all procured materials, partially completed assemblies and all "in-process" work etc.

 

Fact number 4: Any incomplete Army C-1 Vest Assemblies that were still in the "government property" storage room at contract end would have to be "scrapped" or DD 250.

 

Fact number 5: Any new Air Force contracts would have required the AAF logo to be removed. (AMF 64-4, Oct 1954, page 285 depicts a first pattern C-1 Vest without the AAF logo.)

 

Fact number 6: Sears was a company still in business when the Air Force was established in 1947.

 

Fact number 7: The Army was hard pressed to provide Army pilots in the late 1950s and early 1960s with aviation life support equipment. (Ref: Aviation Digest)

 

 

Inescapable conclusion: The U.S. Air Force continued procurement of the Army's C-1 Vest.

 

Logical deduction: At least 1 of the original companies (probably more) resumed manufacturing these vests for the Air Force.

 

Speculation: A Sears made C-1 vest with AAF logo that was not completed by the end of hostilities in 1945 when the contracts were cancelled, would have been stored in the "Government Property" room awaiting disposition. These uncompleted C-1 Vests were either DD 250 to the Army or "scrapped". If Sears "scrapped" them - someone at the plant probably took them home. If Sears DD 250 them to the Army - then the uncompleted C-1 vests would have been transferred to the Air Force. So it is possible that Air Force "ST and PE Section" personnel "finished" original C-1 vests.

 

Cobrahistorian's vest is interesting because the AAF logo is clear and there were no button holes made. Cobrahistorian did not indicate whether or not the holster had been removed on his vest i.e., stitch hole marks and fading where the vest had been.

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Error: "Fact number 4: Any incomplete Army C-1 Vest Assemblies that were still in the "government property" storage room at contract end would have to be "scrapped" or DD 250."

 

Should have been:

 

Fact number 4: Any incomplete Army C-1 Vest Assemblies that were still in the "government property" storage room at contract cancellation would have to be maintained until the "government" ordered the material to be "scrapped" or delivered on a DD 250.

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Inescapable conclusion: The U.S. Air Force continued procurement of the Army's C-1 Vest.

 

Logical deduction: At least 1 of the original companies (probably more) resumed manufacturing these vests for the Air Force.

 

 

 

Show me a vest that has a post WWII contract.

Aircraft Appliance vests can be found with missing pockets like the Sears model.

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I am really glad to see some discussion on survival items as it seems some times there are very few collectors that specialize in it. As far as C 1 vests with front snaps and missing pockets one theory is they were just uncompleted vests that were released into the surplus market after the war that were finished up by the surplus dealers to make them marketable. You see this with so many surplus items after the war. Also I am not sure Sears was an actually manufacturer of the vest itself. In other words they subcontracted the actual fabrication of the vests and other components and had them sent to some warehouse and assembled them and shipped them off to the military. I have never seen a vest with a postwar contract label either. Having said that though someone will probably come up with one now. Another point to consider is after 1947 it seems almost all new production for the new Air Force was colored dark blue. Uniforms, the survival radio vests, even duffle bags. They did go back to green later on though.... I believe that post WW2 use of the C1 vest was from WW2 stock left over and not new production.

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Mash, I am trying to open my mind to your thoughts and points you have presented and giving it serious consideration.

First any C-1 vest with contract data you present I can account for Such as Cobrahistorian's vest. This contract was completed in April 1945 and the last deliveries being made the next month. Using delivery and depot logistics large volumes of these late model vests would have been in inventory by VJ day. They would have been delivered to various major supply points then to sub depots. As the AAF downsized and closed or consolidated depots inventories would have been released to the War Assets Administration for disposition and sale. Other vests in major supply depots would have been retained and remained in service.

Another fact to consider is that a rounded total of 300,000 vests were manufactured with the bulk being delivered in the calendar year 1945 (250,000) from January thru VJday and it would have taken 3-6 months for these vests to reach the combat zone unless some were sent as emergency orders in which could take 3-4 weeks.

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Fact number 5: Any new Air Force contracts would have required the AAF logo to be removed. (AMF 64-4, Oct 1954, page 285 depicts a first pattern C-1 Vest without the AAF logo.)

 

 

First pattern vests were void of the screened AAF logo which were purchase orders 33038-45-411 and 412. These vests from time to time can be found with a small black ink stamp of the AAF logo on the left shoulder. In AMF 64-4 they just regurgitated an old photo.

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Fact number 2: on page 285 of the October 1954 AF Manual 64-4, Handbook for Survival Training and Personal Equipment - "VEST ASSEMBLY - EMERGENCY SUSTENANCE TYPE C-1 Property Class: 20-B" is listed and depicted.

 

The vests were still in inventory and issued no doubt.

There is a local guy that sets up at local venues and military shows that was a P-47 pilot during WWII and in the late forties became a personal equipment officer. from 1950 till the early 80's he brought home any and all surveyed survival equipment. If I was a post WWII collector it would be a treasure trove!! He had a bunch of C-1 vest stuff which most of it went to a friend of mine over years past and was all genuine WWII as I have examined it. The retired PEO talked about using and issuing the C-1 vest. So no argument there on use during the 1950's

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