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SRU-21/P & CSU-13B/P


viking73
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Picked up these this week.

 

First is a size medium SRU-21/P vest. I really like the "310" patch sewn on the front. Looks to be dated 1995. All the pockets are empty :(

 

 

post-5482-0-51589500-1453472484.jpg

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And here are the G-suit pants. Look to be dated 2001.

 

I think I may need to put together a full sized mannequin to display all this stuff. Just need to pick up a pair of flight boots and I'll be all set.

 

I can just see my wife's eyes rolling now hahaha! :)

 

-Derek

post-5482-0-05482900-1453472587.jpg

post-5482-0-96742200-1453472595.jpg

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I think your vest is army issue

 

Really? What makes you say that? The neck tag says "USAF Drawing No." on in. Are U.S. Army vests marked the same way?

 

-Derek

post-5482-0-88150800-1453555135.jpg

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please, is there any traces of 'REV. 1' printed after the 'USAF DRAWING NO. 66D1596'? From the photo it's impossible to say.

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Sometime after Vietnam, not sure of the time frame, the army went to a slightly different color flight suit and vest color. I don't know what they call the color but its sort of a brownish / green. The Air Force stayed with the same flight gear color which they call sage green. In your first photo of the vest it looks to me like the Army color. It may be just the photo. The second photo of the vest does look like the Air Force color. I might be able to post a photo later of the two types if I can dig them out.

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Derek,

The Army also used the SRU-21 until they fielded their own version of the vest in the mid-1980s -- same olive color as their flying jackets (OG-107, I think) but otherwise a visual clone. The Army vest had more of a cloth feel to it rather than the nylon feel of the SRU-21.

 

Army version:

http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/uploads//monthly_02_2012/post-12790-1328460655.jpg

 

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Manchu Warrior

please, is there any traces of 'REV. 1' printed after the 'USAF DRAWING NO. 66D1596'? From the photo it's impossible to say.

 

There is a REV. L after the USAF Drawing No. on the tag of the vest I have. May I ask what is the significance of the Rev?

post-1412-0-00902200-1453581037.jpg

 

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northcoastaero

The survival vest looks to be in Army configuration with the PRC-90 radio pocket on the left instead of the right side when

wearing the vest. The USAF also had a version of the vest with sage green Nomex cloth pockets, beginning around 1987-1989.

Flight boots would be the USAF FWU-3/P with laces or zippers or the FWU-8/P with quick donning laces. Hope this helps.

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That vest is the Army variant, however, I don't know what that 310 patch is for. Also, the darker flat pocket on the front is the flare pocket and it should be on he back kidney area of the vest, not on the front. The PRC-90 radio pocket should be where the flare pocket is. It looks as if this vest was repurposed. Maybe used by a wild land fire fighter or something, but that is not Army standard configuration.

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Attached is an E Bay auction of a similar configured vest. The Seller was kind enough to tell me it was one of his personal vests. It was an extra from Life Support that he had reconfigured for his personal use. He was a retired Air Force PJ but when he flew missions he would use a vest maintained by the ALSE shop.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/321992279691?euid=7b3c931b87304fba9b124d60b6517655&cp=1

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northcoastaero

I guess it is possible that your #310 is an Army olive drab green vest used by a USAF PJ. The PJs could probably acquire any

equipment/gear that they needed within reason, like special forces. Also, has the main front zipper been replaced?

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Again, doubtful this is military configured, especially PJ. Why would any operator who would have to get out of an aircraft to do any tactical business have a big red "shoot me here" patch on to simply identify a rack number. Doesn't make any sense. In all the years carrying operators around the battlefield, I have never seen any wearing these vests, they wear equipment that is mouldable to their bodies so they don't jiggle. Having worn one of these for over 10 years, these vests are atrocious for anything other than sitting in a cockpit. I am thankful I never had to escape or evade wearing one of these, let alone think about an operator trying to do anything with a vest that carries very little of anything useful.

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That vest is the Army variant, however, I don't know what that 310 patch is for. Also, the darker flat pocket on the front is the flare pocket and it should be on he back kidney area of the vest, not on the front. The PRC-90 radio pocket should be where the flare pocket is. It looks as if this vest was repurposed. Maybe used by a wild land fire fighter or something, but that is not Army standard configuration.

 

Id have to disagree on that being an Army variant vest if you mean being one of the OD nomex vests that started to be made and issued in the 80s. Those types never had that short horizontal pocket on the middle left hand side as the PRC-90 pocket took up most of that spot when places in the usual front space. The Air Force vests eventually deleted that pocket as well in the standard pocket configuration. To me this vest just looks like a darker Sage AF vest. The USN also used these vests and re designated them CMU-24 Some Ive seen had the flare launcher kit pocket sewn in the front like that, so perhaps that is one of the ones used by the Navy.

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northcoastaero

I believe that all of the CMU-24 vests that I have seen had metal grommets on all of the pockets like the one shown on the vertical rectangular radio pocket in the above image. There could be exceptions to the rule. The USN/USMC SRU-21/P was used in the TH-57 Sea Ranger helicopter, F-16, F-5, possibly T-38, possibly F-21A.

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Hauled out some of my old flying kit to have a look. My USAF vest is sage green, dated 1982, and has a 6-pocket configuration.

 

My Army vest is dated 1987 and was issued to me in 1989 while in Germany. My previous Army vest was a sage green SRU-21 in a similar configuration. The item description reads, "Survival Kit, Individual, Vest Type"

 

VestCompare.jpg

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Note sure of the significance of "Revision L" shown in an earlier post? I does not appear on my 1982 contract vest nor on a 1986 contract vest. The drawing number (66D1596) seems to be on all the sage green vests. Normally, if a change was made to a drawing, it would receive a letter as suffix on the end -- e.g. 66D1596A or 66D1596B.

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  • 2 years later...

Hello, do you still have the vest?

 

Is it possible to get a close-up of the back lacing adjustment setup?

 

Thanks.

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