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Big Navy SEAL grouping with lots of gear


Bob Hudson
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Bob Hudson

London Bridge made them...

 

There are two different styles - the one shown above has straps to hold the belt to the pad and then a second row of smaller straps. The other pad has one row of straps and I can't find a maker's name on either one

 

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Bob Hudson

There are beaucoups canteens. Some are marked with what I assume is a nickname and some with a mark seen on most of his gear - a letter followed by 3 numbers. One canteen has his last name on it. Some of the canteens have had the cap and top area darkened, presumably to reduce reflections.

 

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A lot of the LBT stuff from that era is unmarked. The owner, Doug McDougal, made all of it by hand on big old rigger sewing machines. He didn't have a line of merchandise per se. He would make whatever you wanted or needed. You could explain it, he would write it out and then sew it up for you. A lot of it is completely customized based on what the customer wanted, so there are many variations on the basic design of his things....

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Bob Hudson

All of this came in "flyer's kit bags" which are huge fabric bags perfect for lots of gear. They all were labeled, based on what they carried when he was on active duty.

 

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This looks like someone's name, but it has nothing to do with this SEAL's name and in fact his correct gear mark is on the bag, so I wonder if ROD refers to some type of gear?

 

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Bob Hudson

Many of the M56-M67 ammo pouches have had the the grenade pockets and sides of the flaps cut off:

 

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Bob Hudson

I'm showing the closeups of this gear so in case you ever run across something like this you won't do what I did my first time: toss it away after cursing whomever messed it up with all that taping, cutting, coloring and other mods. That was some gear that came out of Camp Pendleton. It wasn't until later that I realized this was most likely the gear that had actually been to war, not laid out for a junk on the bunk inspection.

 

Here's two belts and an ALICE harness. Notice the one belt had a strip of velcro attached to it.

 

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Bob Hudson

The packs I got include several LC "ALICE" packs, the one European-made Berghaus pack and the LARGE FIELD PACK. In looking around online it appears that LARGE FIELD PACK was not a favorite when jumping out of airplanes. I shot it side-by-side with an ALICE pack and you can see the size difference - and actually the LARGE pack is not as full as it could be, so the difference is even bigger than shown here.

 

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Bob Hudson

There is one LC pack that appears to have never been used, while another clearly has been in the boonies: it looks like some camo was applied to it, various pockets are labeled, two pieces of a foam sleeping pad have been cut to fit between the frame and the SEAL's back, and a long line with loops at each end has been attached to the top of the frame.

 

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Bob Hudson

I think you are ready for what ever comes your way.

 

WONDERFUL FIND.

I wasn't ready with the space to store all of it! He may have more for me in the future so I will need to have a canteen and kit bag blowout to make room....

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Bob Hudson

Thanks to a forum member I was able to figure out the straps for the London Bridge flotation chest rig:

 

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Bob Hudson

Here's a mannequin setup with a pair of well-worn green jungle boots, something used in Naval Special Warfare long after other services stopped using them. The BDU shirt is modified with the lower pockets placed on the sleeves. Both it and the canteen have his gear mark on them.

 

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Spy vs Spy

Bob,

I must say you are very good with the camera :)

You got some really nice stuff there and your technique with the camera makes it so much more.

 

Again, thanks for sharing.

Regards

Martin

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Bob Hudson

This is an London Bridge universal holster. It doesn't have a label, which was apparently often the case in the early days of LBT, but I found an exact match on worthpoint.com that had a label.

 

 

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Bob Hudson

I have two of the LBT web belt pads: one has one set of snaps to attach it to the belt: the other has two sets, one of which, I discovered this morning, is used to attach it to the bottom of an LBT chest rig: it all lines up perfectly.

 

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Each attachment loop on the vest has a piece of cord wrapped in tape. I suspect that was used to extend the distance between the belt and the vest:

 

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Bob Hudson

The only helmet in the lot is a PASGT and in going through more stuff today I found the woodland cover with his SEAL gear number on it:

 

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Bob Hudson

Bob,

I must say you are very good with the camera

 

Thanks - I now shoot almost everything with the iPhone 5S: I've used Canon Powershots for years (and still do for some of my tabletop studio shots) but the 5S camera with its accurate color rendition, lens quality and light gathering ability is so good that I don't really need a dedicated camera for most things. I use the $3 "Photo Transfer" app to move the photos to my laptop. I have a tabletop studio with a white paper background and fluorescent lamps angled in from three sides (left, right and top), and also a six foot tall white background that uses natural light from the north.

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Bob Hudson

I showed a photo above of two LC-1packs, side-by-side. One has a long line attached to the top of the frame (it's the pack that's been camo'ed and labeled with the contents of the outside pockets). This morning I realized that line is where he would attach the lowering line on the rucksack harness used during parachute drops. The lowering line assembly is the OD bundle in the middle of the harness: 100 feet from the ground that would be let go and the rucksack would lower down so it hit the ground before he did. By the looks of that rucksack I would say it has been in the thick of it.

 

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The website at http://mfwright.com/miljump.html

has some details on special ops jump gear and tactics, plus lots of photos:

 

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