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Modified ERDL


shrapneldude
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shrapneldude

post-1424-0-09681000-1502586751_thumb.jpg

 

 

I've got this ERDL coat with a poncho-liner lining. Pockets have been shortened, slanted, and buttons replaced with snaps. I'm fairly certain the original wasn't the later RDF pattern because in some places there's "lime green dominant" ERDL pattern camo, though most of it is brown-dominant ERDL / RDF type material.

 

Anyhow -- I've seen the souvenir jackets done up like this at Okinawa tailor shops, but usually those aren't as over-engineered as this thing is. There's extra snaps, grommets, a zipper, and a piece that seems to go between the legs, something like on a fallshrimjager smock. What I mean to say is, it seems too purpose-built to be a novelty piece, I'm just not sure what that purpose was. Does anyone here know?

 

 

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shrapneldude

That is cool.

 

Love the fact it is cut like a French jump smock.

It IS! I just googled French Jump Smock and apart from the bottom being slanted inwards, this is almost a direct copy.

Thanks.

 

post-1424-0-69934500-1502588235.jpg

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Cap Camouflage Pattern I

Very interesting, any markers mark/name on the snaps that might narrow down when/where it was made?

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shrapneldude

Very interesting, any markers mark/name on the snaps that might narrow down when/where it was made?

There are marks inside the snaps, and stars, but because of the way they're punched through, all I can make out is "AN" -- "France" perhaps?

I don't recognize the maker either. May also be "KANT"

post-1424-0-88303900-1502589005.jpg

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shrapneldude

Snaps could be 'kane'

They could. Kane is a company that makes fasteners like this. Not sure it helps date the piece, but according to the Kane-M website they started in 1987. They operate in China, Vietnam, Japan, Thailand, and the US. I don't see an M on here and the site references a parent company, so it's possible Kane M absorbed a pre-existing Kane operation from one of those countries.
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shrapneldude

Probably; KANE brand snaps are to be found on a lot of Japanese and Vietnamese made hats of the period :)

 

Yours, Guy.

Thanks. I don't really collect much Vietnam era stuff. I suppose the challenge now is to try and figure out why someone had a French jump smock done up with US materials.
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Beau-Brummel

No problem;

 

The jump smock cut was very popular and a lot of US Airborne advisors actually wore them as did SF members. Once the stocks became depleted people were having them made in all sorts of weird and wonderful fabrics. Famously, one advisor had French pattern smocks made in multiple camouflage variations as well as a black one :blink:.

 

Yours, Guy.

 

 

Thanks. I don't really collect much Vietnam era stuff. I suppose the challenge now is to try and figure out why someone had a French jump smock done up with US materials.

 

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  • 3 years later...
Cap Camouflage Pattern I

A2NP24UXZ34BTM8B-M-native-e9e3c.jpg.e4a5cee053c8e83335054ce8126a83f8.jpg

1433813100_AR6G47RCN5DGVH8Y-M-native-f0ae6(1).jpg.67c956236f974cba95b25aa1e8ad7788.jpg

ABXH6XN3MDBSIH8P-M-native-5e0e1.jpg.fc4eb52f3d99ac385b21aa19c7d889d7.jpg

 

Auto Defense Choc Commander Kham Phan at LS-201, Sam Thong, Laos 1969. Photos by USAID Refugee Operations Officer Ernest Kuhn (pictured on the left in the second photo). From the The Ernest and Phaythoune Kuhn Image Collection of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries.

 

Obviously it's not the same but I was reminded of your piece by the zipper, bare silver snaps, epaulets, and the seemingly decorative snaps on the back, like the snaps under the arms on yours.

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