Question About Dates When Exactly Issued?

[Brady556]

Is there any way to tell how early something was issued during the year stated on a piece of equipment? For example, a 1911 magazine pouch dated 1943. Were all of these mass issued at the beginning of the year or were they just made steadily throughout 1943? And say for a Vietnam liner dated 1968, was it immediately issued or could it have been made in December 1968? I know this is not true, but could some have been manufactured in 1967 with a 1968 date and issued early?

These are just examples, thanks.

[MattS]

My understanding is that due to the massive amount of gear being produced, changing the date stamps frequently was impractical. I believe anything dated "1943" could have been produced anytime in 1943 and was issued after it came out of the factory, was shipped by truck to the rail yard, from there to the shipyard, and across the ocean to another shipyard, back onto trucks, and finally delivered to a supply depot. Many items sat on shelves in supply rooms for years or even decades without being issued out too. Vets on here will tell stories of being issued mint WW2 gear in Vietnam.

[dustin]

In the format mentioned by Matt the rule of thumb was 6 months to a year before an item was in the overseas theater.

However, material could be expedited for shipment reducing that lead time. The fastest way, units who were preparing for embarkation for overseas deployment typically recieved the new gear.

The date is the year of manufacture, it really all depends on when the contract was awarded and how long it took to complete said contract. It was possible that they were being made through the most of the year by one company

[MattS]

That's a good point, issuing new equipment to units before they left the states saved a lot of transportation. That became more frequent as the war went on, not so much in 1942-43.

[Bob Hudson]

Keep in that during the Vietnam War, at least, contract dates were for the Fiscal Year so something dated 1968 coould have been made in early 69.

[Lee Ragan]

Dates stamped on military gear are usually the dates the contract was made with the manufacturer. That date may or may not indicated the date the item was actually made much less the date it was issued to an individual. I was a supply type in the USAF in the late 1960's and worked in the section that stored and issued specialized clothing such as cold weather and wet weather gear, flight clothing of all types and many other things. I remember us having insulated flying trousers (among other items), dated in the WWII years that were never issued. We also had Army field gear that was dated in the 40's. Some of it was in like new condition. You can see that some things were in storage sometimes for decades before it was issued and used.

[Brady556]

I understand now. Thanks for the answers.