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Mystery Black Vest Worn by Rangers in 1993, What is It?


Cap Camouflage Pattern I
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Cap Camouflage Pattern I

I've been wondering what vest they were wearing for a while, unfortunately most pictures of them wearing it are pretty bad, as luck would have it there is one at the National Infantry Museum, I'm hoping with these photos someone will be able to ID it.

 

I had to resize the images to fit the forum, if you need higher quality images I can email them to you.

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Cap Camouflage Pattern I

No, it is not TG faust, at least not the Special Forces vest used by 1s SFOD-D or any other version they have on their site. Notice the cumberbund and shoulder areas are completely different from the TG Faust SF vest.

 

Mark Bowdens Black Hawk Down book says the Rangers didn't have enough RBA vests to go around, even after collecting all the RBA from the other battalions so some wore black vests provided by delta.

 

Might be true, maybe an older vest that delta had replaced withe the TG Faust vest, or maybe it came from a soldier misremembered or who didn't take a good look at the differences and just assumed.

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Cap Camouflage Pattern I

It's an A.Z.T. vest made by ZTL. Clay Othic's in particular is a Size Medium dated 1984, when he was evacuated he left his plates behind for other rangers to use.

 

http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/168161-1983-1984-body-armor-plates/

here's an old thread about A.Z.T. /S. plates made by ZTL, I am unsure if these are the plates for this vest, but it seems likely to me.

 

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here are the pictures that no longer embed in that most, one more picture coming in next comment due to forum limits.

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Cap Camouflage Pattern I

Still going on, I'm trying to figure out what company ZTL is and where how the vest got to the rangers.

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Currently trying to find one of these vests for the Task Force Ranger re-enactment I do but information is so sparse on them.

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