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1980s gear questions


knd643
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Sgt_Rock_EasyCo

I'll attempt to locate an M60 Sling and mount it on an M16 in the future so that people can see how I did it. It was definately a personal thing, and as long as it worked for you, then you're good to go. I have heard stories of guys in the Ranger Batts and LRRP/LRP/Rangers from Vietnam that removed their slings completely and used paracord as a "dummy cord". Some guys in our units removed slings altogether and just used a paracord tied to their webgear.

 

Rock

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Leigh - I can't believe you still have the black and yellow PT suit. We called them the bumble bee suits. Was issued that at basic in Feb 87 and used them when first assigned in Germany. I think we finally got the grey PT around Oct 87. I kept my bumble bee suit as CIF didn't want them, but haven't seen it since 89.

 

As for the field jackets, still have the woodland FJ that I was issued in basic. As mentioned earlier, the uniform of the day was usually defined the previous day and everyone had to be the same. In garrison, if the FJ was worn the black gloves with wool inserts had to be worn. When it got really cold a scarf was added. We were issued the cold weather parkas but never allowed to wear them no matter how cold it got. In the field, I typically wore either the wool sweater or field jacket liner - aka smoking jacket :) - and added the wet weather jacket for an additional insulating layer. Probably wore the field jackets occasionally, but don't recall that happening very often. Seems it was pretty much the same in Colorado Springs in 89-90. I don't recall being issued a GoreTex jacket until joining the Guard in 90.

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Thanks for all of the help, that's a cool sling! I have a new question, I cant help but feel that this was already discussed in the thread already but I can find it. I have seen cat eyes sewn on the allice packs, butt packs, the back of caps, and other stuff, so I was wondering how common this was? Also would I be ok with using an M69 flak vest foe a us soldier in Germany 1983?

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Thanks for all of the help, that's a cool sling! I have a new question, I cant help but feel that this was already discussed in the thread already but I can find it. I have seen cat eyes sewn on the allice packs, butt packs, the back of caps, and other stuff, so I was wondering how common this was? Also would I be ok with using an M69 flak vest foe a us soldier in Germany 1983?

 

 

I will let others add their experience with the cat eyes. But I will say that when I went to PCT (Ranger Training) in Bad Tolz, we had cat eyes sewn on the backs of our PC's (Patrol Caps) and we also had a diamond shaped cat eye on the back of our LBE.

 

As far as the flak jacket, I think you will be fine with the M69. If you recall in my earlier post the Flak Jacket that I wore in Berlin in 1987 was an M1952. This was Korean War vintage, so I think you'll be fine. I would say though that this was an isolated location, so you may want to wait until some of the other members on here who were in units in West Germany to add their input. Every unit was again different.

 

Leigh

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I was with 1/36 INF 87-89 and we had cat eyes only on the helmet camouflage band. As for body armor, we were issued the PASGT vest. The sling Leigh shows with the steel triangle and web loop was also standard issue for the M203 as the standard M16 would work with the tube attached.

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I was with 1/36 INF 87-89 and we had cat eyes only on the helmet camouflage band. As for body armor, we were issued the PASGT vest. The sling Leigh shows with the steel triangle and web loop was also standard issue for the M203 as the standard M16 would work with the tube attached.

 

 

Sgt Peter,

 

Thank you for your contribution to the forum and for your service to our Country. Glad to hear that someone else remembers the "ole yeller" banana suit... Talk about your fashion statements... Oh brother...

 

Leigh

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Sgt_Rock_EasyCo

I remember the yellow sweats as well! We used grey sweats at Fort Bragg, with color, unit specific T-Shirts that were quite decent looking. We also had shorts that matched, if I remember right.

 

I was issued the yellow sweatsuit in Berlin and thought it the most aweful thing I'd ever seen. Usually we ran in BDU Bottoms, yellow top and tennis shoes along with the old Vietnam Era green flak vest- pretty much every day.

 

Rock

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Ok a few more questions related to NBC, first, the chemical suit carriers that are in woodland camo and go where a butt pack would be, are those 80s or 90s? Next, what we you told to do if a nuclear warhead went off nearby? I think I saw somewhere that they dug a hole in the ground and got it the hole and put the poncho over the and wore there mask and suit, but that was I think from the late 60s early 70s so it was probably different in the 80s.

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Also about dog tags, in the 80s the dog tags looked the same as today correct? But the black rubber silencers were not around in the 80s right? Did you have these:$T2eC16ZHJHIE9nyseyvCBRC,WWEubQ~~60_35.J Also what would be on the dog tags?

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Also about dog tags, in the 80s the dog tags looked the same as today correct? But the black rubber silencers were not around in the 80s right? Did you have these:$T2eC16ZHJHIE9nyseyvCBRC,WWEubQ~~60_35.J Also what would be on the dog tags?

 

The black rubber silencers were available, but were private purchase. The silencers that you show are the issue silencers.

 

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Yes, weapons do fall out of helicopters. :) When I was in the 101st in the summer of 1987 I was on an evaluation team evaluating the NYNG at Ft. Drum when they lost a M16 out of a UH1. The NG commander was going to write it off as a "field loss" until the post commander heard about it. After that the NYNG spent several days searching for that M16 as their primary mission in life. It was finally found hanging by its sling in the top of a tree.

 

 

 

You will also notice a green cord on the underside. This is a lanyard or "dummy cord". This was used to attach your weapon to your web gear so it would be secured. During an Air Assault, your weapon had to be tied to you so it would not fall out of the helicopter, (which, yes it has happened).

 

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Yes, weapons do fall out of helicopters. :) When I was in the 101st in the summer of 1987 I was on an evaluation team evaluating the NYNG at Ft. Drum when they lost a M16 out of a UH1. The NG commander was going to write it off as a "field loss" until the post commander heard about it. After that the NYNG spent several days searching for that M16 as their primary mission in life. It was finally found hanging by its sling in the top of a tree.

 

 

Thanks for your input 101CH47 and for your service..

 

We had a Soldier lose his M203 out of a Blackhawk in the back 40 at Fort Campbell because he did not secure his weapon with his dummy cord. He fell asleep and it slipped right out of his hands. The chalk behind us saw it fall, got a good idea where it was and when we landed we had to hump about 8 clicks back to the area. We found it, luckily, standing straight up in some mud, that about 4 months earlier was a flooded ponding area. Very lucky...

 

Leigh

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Ok a few more questions related to NBC, first, the chemical suit carriers that are in woodland camo and go where a butt pack would be, are those 80s or 90s? Next, what we you told to do if a nuclear warhead went off nearby? I think I saw somewhere that they dug a hole in the ground and got it the hole and put the poncho over the and wore there mask and suit, but that was I think from the late 60s early 70s so it was probably different in the 80s.

 

 

I believe the NBC suit carriers came out in the 1990's. We had both OD green and Camo NBC suits. The Camo NBC suits were the "Go to War" stock that we had in Berlin. The OD green were the training suits (these were actual NBC suits but the expiration date on them was reached and we used them for training). I also saw the camo ones being used when their expiration date came and went. After I left Berlin and returned to the states I was not in a FORSCOM (Forces Command = Combat Troops) Unit, I was in a TRADOC (Training and Doctrine Command) Unit. I was not issued chemical suits until I returned to a FORSCOM unit which was later on, so I will let the other members inform you about the camo NBC carrier. I believe it was issued during Desert Shield...

 

We (or at least I) did very little Nuclear training. Our emphasis was on the Biological and Chemical aspects. What I do recall about the Nuclear training is if there was a nuclear detonation you were to turn from the blast, drop to the prone and that is all I remember. If you could find a ditch or a culvert for shelter then you were to seek that shelter, but if you were in the open, you turned and went prone. Since we were in buildings in Berlin, they would have provided some cover. But again the main emphasis for us was the chemical attacks. We did have dosimeters and radiac meters that we used in training. Not too many people out side of the 54 series (NBC) were trained on those pieces of equipment. When I went to NATO NBC school in Oberammergau, Germany I did some training on Nuclear Detonations, but it was more on calculating blast radius safe zones and hot zones. The Grey NBC warning and reporting Card I sent you has some of the Nuclear information on it, but without seeing it I don't recall how much.

 

NBC training was taken very seriously during that time period, especially before the end of the Cold War. Soviet doctrine was to saturate and area with chemical agents, nerve gas and blister agents and before the chemicals would settle, they would attack. You would see 1980's Soviet Training films and they are all attacking in NBC suits and masks.

 

The Gulf War in the 90s was again another very big NBC related conflict. Scud Missile attacks with unknown war heads was Iraq's biggest threat. There was a lot of NBC training and when the ground war started, units crossed the Berm in various MOPP levels, but all were wearing the tops and bottoms when we attacked.

 

Gulf War Two (OIF) was another NBC related conflict, again the assumption of Chemical weapons in Saddam Hussein's arsenal reinforced our training. The new JSLIST suit replaced the old MOPP suit and again we were issued NBC medications.

 

There was not really the threat of Chemical Weapons in Afghanistan, and the mission there was not to seek out chemical weapons but to remove the Taliban from power, so NBC, although still part of your deployment packing was not a top priority.

 

I am sure now with the current situation in Syria, although the Commander in Chief has ensured us no boots on the ground there, there will be an increase in NBC awareness if not training for Saran gas amongst our troops and units..

 

Leigh

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Also about dog tags, in the 80s the dog tags looked the same as today correct? But the black rubber silencers were not around in the 80s right? Did you have these:$T2eC16ZHJHIE9nyseyvCBRC,WWEubQ~~60_35.J Also what would be on the dog tags?

 

 

Beast already confirmed that these were around. I had a pair, used them for a while but did not like them. I eventually removed them and never wore any other type of silencer for my tags.

 

The tags had name, social security number, blood type, and religious preference. Those Soldiers with allergies also carried a red dog tag which had the drug allergy stamped to it..

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I remember the banana suit, only worn at ft. Polk. In Germany and Alaska it was bdu pants ,t-shirt / sweat shirt and running shoes. As for body armor in the early 80's 1/48 inf had about a half dozen per track and as long as you were medium you were good to go. we had a combo of 50's and 60's era jackets with about 20-30 years worth of grime in them.

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Does anyone know a good place to get the old style BDUs with the elvis collar, I also need to find some pants to go with it. Also do you know where to get a MOPP suit, the green one. Also about poncho liners, the one I need is the woodland one right?

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Sorry for 2 posts in a row, I was also wondering if in the early 80s when you still had c rats did you put them in a sock like in Vietnam or no? And didn't you say members of the squad carried ammo for the m60, if so who and how much. And how many smoke grenades did you carry and where did you put them? Lastly how many m67 grenades did you carry, was it just 4 as that's how many can go in the side pockets of 2 m16 pouches?

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We had c rats up until late 84 then we were given the mre's in the dark brown bags. Some of the guys in my unit in Germany had pcs'd from the 101st after doing time in the Sinai and they were issued mre's. The poncho liner would be camo in color. If you want to go to Hohensfeld Germany and look for my dufflebag that got nocked off my track was filled with early bdu's, poncho liner, sleeping bag and other assorted gear. As for carrying c rats I was mechanized when we got them and we walked very little.

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What size BDU do you need? I probably still have some of those old shirts.

 

 

Does anyone know a good place to get the old style BDUs with the elvis collar, I also need to find some pants to go with it. Also do you know where to get a MOPP suit, the green one. Also about poncho liners, the one I need is the woodland one right?

 

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Sorry for 2 posts in a row, I was also wondering if in the early 80s when you still had c rats did you put them in a sock like in Vietnam or no? And didn't you say members of the squad carried ammo for the m60, if so who and how much. And how many smoke grenades did you carry and where did you put them? Lastly how many m67 grenades did you carry, was it just 4 as that's how many can go in the side pockets of 2 m16 pouches?

 

Carried the c rats in my ruck. Took them out of boxes. Did not have room for extra items and extra weight. Always tried to break down the mres as well. Took out or traded stuff i did not eat. Our squads in the field were plused up. The weapons squad would break off and augment the other squads. If lucky we would have anywhere from 8 to 12 people in the squad. On average the amount of people carrying m60 ammo would be about 1/2 the squad. They would normally carry about 200 rounds or rwo boxes/bandoleers. The other members would carry 90 mm recoiless rifle rounds. Smoke genades were usually 4 to 6 each especially those conducting the assault. Hand grenades were also between 4 and 6. Some of us carried 3 m16 ammo pouches so we could carry more grenades. The assault teams would carry the most since they cleared rooms with grenades. We used to use empty cloth bandoleers empty claymore mine bags and m249 saw cloth bandoleers to carry extra grenades.

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What size BDU do you need? I probably still have some of those old shirts.

 

 

 

Any size, the one I wear has no tag, but I just tried on a medium long and that fit nicely.

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WOW! I totally forgot about the banana suit. Sometime around 86-87 we got new t-shirts for the banana suits at Ft.Polk. Some genius decided that they needed to be yellow on one side and black on the other, hence a double thick shirt that was certainly not moisture wicking. Man we hated those things for pt in Louisiana. Of course I also remember the guys who like to have a few too many the night before and how their brown t-shirts would bleach orange when they began to sweat. Nasty stuff I tell you... Scott

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I will see what I can dig out for you. My earlier uniforms may be in storage, if that is the case it may be a few weeks before I can look for them.

 

Any size, the one I wear has no tag, but I just tried on a medium long and that fit nicely.

 

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