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Army Flight Gear, 1990 vs 2012


Spathologist
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Spathologist

Going through some old files...how things changed. Chicken plate, pickle suits, and XM177s to Air Warrior ensembles and M4s.

 

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What about Hueys to Hawks! Got any pics of the XM-177? Id imagine the H model had 60Ds on it like the Hawk has the 240 Hotels

 

Cool seeing the A2CU worn identical to the one you sent me with the USARSO combat patch. Is the upper pic where you earned that combat patch?

What do you think of those knee boards? I was given a UCP pattern one a while back, keep the 60L CL and MTF in it that Ive collected.

 

Great pics!

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Spathologist

What about Hueys to Hawks! Got any pics of the XM-177? Id imagine the H model had 60Ds on it like the Hawk has the 240 Hotels

 

Cool seeing the A2CU worn identical to the one you sent me with the USARSO combat patch. Is the upper pic where you earned that combat patch?

What do you think of those knee boards? I was given a UCP pattern one a while back, keep the 60L CL and MTF in it that Ive collected.

 

Great pics!

 

That very well might be the uniform I sent you, lol! I only had three.

 

I resisted going to Hawks for as long as I could. I actually had an OH-58D class date while instructing at the School of the Americas, the SOA was going to be my last UH gig. One week before the class date, PERSCOM cancelled it and replaced it with a UH-60 shortfall. I was, um, a little put out. It worked out for the best in the end, I guess. I enjoyed flying Hawks, though. More power and airspeed than the Huey, and a much wider range of available assignment locations. It's a good aircraft.

 

No pics of the XM177 I could find right off the bat. I actually carried a MP5 that I found in the Embassy armory for several months before being told to ditch it for the same thing everyone else carried. The upper pic is from the second time I earned the patch. The first was in Just Cause. The US Hueys were armed with dual M60Ds, the local Hueys were armed with whatever they could hang off them, including Mk 82s.

 

Kneeboards were indispensable. Some guys liked tiny minimalist kneeboards, I liked full-size. I really liked the UCP kneeboard, kept using it in my follow-on job and still have it in the kit bag. It had a strap that hooked to my belt, so I could walk around without it falling around my ankle. I initially kept my UH-60 checklist in it, but it didn't take long for me to just store it in the kneeboard in the kit bag and put it in my calf pocket while flying.

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Spathologist

After digging some more, I found a couple of pics.

 

Here's a pic of the XM177, I think they were marked as CAR-15s on the receiver. Yes, cheesy, but I was young...

 

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I also wore a Vietnam-era two piece there for a while. The Army actually ran out of pickle suits for a bit, and authorized the wear of the two-piece, if anyone still had them. I had been gifted a set by a retiring Vietnam vet in my prior assignment.

 

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MP5! Did you think you were TF160 with that thing! Funny they wanted you to have something everyone had yet 160th used those a bit. Def interesting hearing of its use and seeing it with the "regular" Army. Whats the story on the Carbine? Never saw a XM that had the longer pencil thin barrel vs having the old long suppressor on a shorter barrel. Rambo with the tapped mags haha.

 

Ive heard from a few different guys that started out in the 80s who also said they picked up some Nam style 2 piece Nomex during the mid 80s around Ft Hood. One person found some for sale at a surplus store and grabbed them. My father wore them in Nam 69-70, he didn't really care for them as he said it was more of a grunt look, which is his same thought today seeing the ABDUs, and A2CUs. He wanted the "Air Force Pilot" look with the 1 piece suits. He didn't complain much about being able to take his top off in Nam when waiting around in the awful heat and humidity.

 

Did you carry a pistol in those earlier days?

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Spathologist

I thought I was pretty cool with the MP5. We drew the weapons from the Embassy armory. They had a very eclectic mix of weapons there, and a lot of the short rifles. They had some G3s in there and at least one fugitive Stoner that I think the Naval advisers at La Union had put dibs on.

 

As for the short rifles, we called them XM177s, but if I remember correctly the receivers were marked CAR-15...apparently the carbine version and not the SMG. We drew M9 pistols, most of us carried them in the black leather USGI shoulder holsters.

 

I spent most of my career in very hot and humid environments and very much preferred the 2-piece flight suits. I was, personally, very pleased when the Army returned to them.

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Pic of the UCP knee board I have from Fight and Flight. Looks like it might be similar to the OCP one you were wearing that has the belt strap. Has a pad under the CL.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Spathologist

We had it, but only used it when crossing a hump, usually something like Bagam to Maz.

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mohawkALSE

Do you have any pics of your PSGC setup with the UBD and OPC pockets for the PHODS setup? Or recall how it was setup exactly? Never saw any in country pics of them in use on the OCP vests with all the pockets, just the usual official Army pics from trials of the system and probably at HAATS too. Never saw how the OPC pocket gets positioned with the usual spot of the tourniquet pocket with the short extraction strap.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Spathologist

Do you have any pics of your PSGC setup with the UBD and OPC pockets for the PHODS setup? Or recall how it was setup exactly? Never saw any in country pics of them in use on the OCP vests with all the pockets, just the usual official Army pics from trials of the system and probably at HAATS too. Never saw how the OPC pocket gets positioned with the usual spot of the tourniquet pocket with the short extraction strap.

 

Sorry, no pics. I think I used it only a couple of times, best I can remember is the bottle pouch was supposed to go on the lower left of the vest, and the controller pouch went under the left arm...but in practice, I put it where I had real estate on the vest.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Thanks for pictures Looking great,   Droops out, chalks in ,   ready in back,   I am the crewchief

That’s more like what I am used to wearing. Flight suit, CVC jacket, vest, and a VFR sectional in my leg pocket.

 

I don’t know how 2 people wearing all of that modern stuff could fit into a 58D. We were advised to buy the small kneeboard for the observer school.

 

Here’s what is left of my little kneeboard from the Wings store in Daleville, circa 1990.

 

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Snoopy tool!

 

Some of the later Air Warrior stuff didn't seem to bad looking in the 58D. Some guys wore the armor vest with an overlay over it that had the MOLLE webbing to attach specific survival pockets to. Tried to simplify things vs wearing the armor with a full survival vest over it. Down side to that was losing the full extraction harness, they just made a under arm lift strap with snap link. Some other units, I think from the 82d bought armor vests (CIACS) made by Eagle that already had MOLLE webbing on the carrier that were aviation approved being fire resistant materials. Those vests were being used by the 160th for a bit as well, but different color material. Those vests could have an extraction harness installed or have a lift chest strap. You think its nuts with them wearing all the ALSE, how about them also carrying M4s on the glare shield and also shooting them from the cockpit.

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Snoopy tool!

 

Some of the later Air Warrior stuff didn't seem to bad looking in the 58D.  Some guys wore the armor vest with an overlay over it that had the MOLLE webbing to attach specific survival pockets to.  Tried to simplify things vs wearing the armor with a full survival vest over it.  Down side to that was losing the full extraction harness, they just made a under arm lift strap with snap link.  Some other units, I think from the 82d bought armor vests (CIACS) made by Eagle that already had MOLLE webbing on the carrier that were aviation approved being fire resistant materials.  Those vests were being used by the 160th for a bit as well, but different color material. Those vests could have an extraction harness installed or have a lift chest strap.  You think its nuts with them wearing all the ALSE, how about them also carrying M4s on the glare shield and also shooting them from the cockpit.

What goes around comes around. My understanding is that the M-16 was originally designed as an Aircrew survival weapon.

 

 

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Hello Ed, I had forgot about wings in Daleville. Was your school up stairs over the huey hanger.I was there in 89, but was glad to clear there air space

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Hello Ed, I had forgot about wings in Daleville.   Was your school up stairs over the huey hanger.I was there in 89, but was glad to clear there air space

My recollection was that the first week or two was in classrooms across the street from the Huey hangar, near the old aviation museum, where we learned how to do paperwork and safety wire, then we moved into the hangar. I was there in late ‘87 and early ‘88.

 

For the Aeroscout Observer school BCS (90-91), we did the academics in the buildings across the street, then would take the bus out to Shell Field in Enterprise. Desert Shield was going on then, and Desert Storm came and went while we were flying nights/NVGs. Our entire existence was eat, fly, watch CNN, repeat.

 

Wings is a gun shop now, but a block or so away a store called “The Hangar” is essentially the same. I think some other business made them change their name. I even ordered some of the black cordura nametags there recently, and they were pretty much the same.

 

I still have some sunglasses that I bought at the troop store next to “the hole in the wall”, if you remember that little diner.

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I just looked up the grid coordinates listed for RT-392, which I remembered as a field west of Troy. I don’t know if the MGRS changed, or someone just typed it up wrong, but they have it as EL, and I think it’s in EA. EL is way up by Montgomery, outside of the AO.

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