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unit assembled survival kit?


TexRdnec
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i'm not even a novice collector but I've never scrolled past anything like this before. saw it on ebay, had to have it

 

ok, trying to figure out how to post pictures. it won't let me upload here and I can't copy and paste from my host...

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Very inetersting and certainly a locally assembled survival kit using a medical tin for ointment. Luckily there is some good identification markings to help fill in its background. The address APO 323 is San Francisco so likely assembled there. In doing some basic Goggle searching, the 6000th Operations Squadron was active for some time from the Korean War up to Vietnam. I gathered the dates of approximately 1952-1965 possibly longer and a slightly earlier. Their operational range was quite significant flying C-series large aircraft stationed in Japan with activity over Indochina. The kit is assembled orientated towards the Asiatic-Pacific. In my opinion it is Korean War era based off of several factors. By the late 1950's and into the Vietnam era personal survival kits were in the mainstream with the PSK and SEEK series so assembling a kit like this locally would had not been all that necessary. Though kits were left over from WWII, many of those were modified in the early 50's being a transitional era before the adoption of the above mentioned kits. This fits right in with that aspect, It would be interesting to know if any of the items were from old stock E-17 kits, hold overs from WWII since much of the items on the list match those in an E-17. The Candy jelly bar was an item included in the revised survival rations through development in the late 1940's and into Korea like the SA and ST series ration units. In my opinion I would date this from 1950-1955.

The line item for Container, what is the number ? it looks like "2". This would indicate this container being One-of-Two. Since this list is almost virtually identical to one flask contained in the E-17 I'd be willing to wager that the other one that was suppose to accompany this one contained medical items. This supports my theory of this being a repackaged E-17 kit. The coffee and the candle and a couple other items would be the modified components. The chocolate rations were probably no good and updated with newer jelly bar. Over the years I've seen a few E-3 series and E-17 kits modified from the Korean War and this kit in that consistency.

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awesome information, thank you

 

the seller also had a 10/61 dated part 1&2 kit that i picked up with this, i'll ask if they know anything about a second container that went with this one

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didn't have to wait on a response, from my buyer's page i can tell that the container quantity is 1

 

i did, however, ask the seller if anything accompanied this as it does seem they always issued these things in twos

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Assuming the other container is identical but it could also be something completely different in appearance too. For example, it could be some standard individual medical kit both being issued together with it being modified slightly from the standard list of components or not. Good luck on finding its brother!

This is a pretty neat item if one was interested in the genealogy of personal survival kits. The modified WWII types in Korea, like this one, were the predecessors and stepping stone to the modern era. I believe the PSK-2 was adopted in 1955, it was preceded by the PSK-1 which had a large canvas container like the E-17 but with three lift-a-dot buttons, the insert was a clear plastic insert with dividers, it seemed to had appeared in the 1950-1952 time frame. Somewhere in one of these topics I posted a few images from the Korean War era illustrating re-used WWII acetate flasks and one thing that just occurred to me is the addition of the Wire Snare. The snare was a common item added to new developed kits and seen in updated WWII kits. In survival manuals starting in that era you see much more attention to the use of an actual snare, versus on how to make a snare with one now being provided as standard. Mashtig ? on the forum here seems to have significant knowledge on this jet-age survival stuff. By the close of the 1950's, I've observed a good variety of personal survival kits that had become standard like that of the Part-1 and Part-2 you just mentioned. These seem to show up new in the box from time to time having packing dates as early as the 1958 time frame then the SEEK series generations in a plastic container then vinyl bags. Mashtig has recently began a short bio series on this equipment available from Amazon I believe for Kindle.

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didn't have to wait on a response, from my buyer's page i can tell that the container quantity is 1

 

i did, however, ask the seller if anything accompanied this as it does seem they always issued these things in twos

Okay! I couldn't tell since there was a wrinkle and a glare obscuring clarity. Then no further inquiry necessary

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As an addtional thought, the Korean War era was truly a transitional era in survival equipment prior to the advent of the survival vests and harnesses you see used in Vietnam. Though new kits were developed for ejection seats the C-1 vest and flask kits of WWII found new prominence. Another item to add is that aluminum container first aid kit aircrew member. In 1947 and onward they too were opened and updated and recirculated for use. I would think an appropriate compliment to this kit of yours would be that aluminum aircrew first aid unit. With kits such as that and the use of the C-1 vest with first aid in that era, a matching medical flask would be redundant. Kind of a hodge podge era really having a mix of new and old equipment with improvisation.

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  • 3 weeks later...

TexRdnec,

 

I was thinking the same thing Dustin wrote. I do not recall if Dustin has a post(s)t on the the E-17 kit - however it is shown on pages 126 and 127 of Breuninger's book (United States Combat Survival Equipment).

 

You should print the information Dustin gathered for you above and put it with your new acquisition - because you can take what Dustin said to the bank!

 

Also my first thought was someone repacked an E-17 or the earlier E-3 or E-3A kits into a single box when I looked at the photos of the kit. And when I read further down into the posts that is exactly what Dustin wrote.

 

Thanks for the kind words Dustin - I know quite a bit about the Survival Kits and Gear of the Vietnam war - I have been collecting Survival Kits and gear and US Army, Navy and Marine Corp Vietnam field equipment since I was 9 years old. However there was very little WWII or Korean war survival kits and gear in the surplus stores in the late 1960s.

 

For example when I was Boy Scout - the E-3 / E-3A kits (pages 124 and 125 of Brueninger's book) or the E-17 kit was shown in the Boy Scout "Field Book" in the make your own survival kit. However as I said by the late 1960s these were no longer available in any surplus store that I could get to in Florida.

 

My scout master served in the Army during the Korean war (I believe in a MASH unit) and he had one of these two part kits in his foot locker. I saw the kit when his son showed me his father's two Randal hollow handle survival knives (18) with crutch tip caps. Which his father obtained from his friend Bo Randal after Bo started making them during the Vietnam war. The next time I went to a surplus store I bought a "Jet Pilots" knife thinking the pommel would come off to reveal a hollow handle! I had to wait another year for Garcia to offer their Brazilian made version of the Hackman Survival Knife to get a hollow handle survival knife. Which I ordered from the Garcia catalog for $9.00 and took with me on my last Boy Scout Camping trip! 10 years later I found a Hackman in a Woolworth's store for $20.00 without a sheath. If I had known it was the original design i would have bought everyone they had! "You snooze you loose!"

 

TexRdnec - Thanks for the heads up on this post

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