M65 Woodland

[Stout]

Hello all,
I got this M65 in Woodland. It is dated 1983. 
A former member of the army told me that the introduction of Woodland BDUs took about 9-12 months and that by the summer of 1982, almost all soldiers were wearing Woodland BDUs. My question is whether this also applied to Woodland M65s. I ask because I have hardly seen any Woodland M65s dated 1982, and my 1983 M65 has a white label, which is -if it comes with BDUs- a sign of early pieces.

 

So were Woodland M65s introduced later than BDUs? Were Woodland M65s and green M65s worn in parallel for a while?

 

Any information is appreciated !

 

kind regards 

 

[Rhscott]

Well, FWIW I saw OD field jackets in use well into 1985 or so…. As there was a “wear out date” for them allowing the owner time to acquire a BDU one.

Went to BCT in June 1984 and my company everyone had BDU ones but I saw other training companies with more time in than ours and there were some OD jackets in use with them.  Could have been the specific sizes …. I just dont know.  

I would say BDU was rare in 1982.  I also saw lots of oD107/509 fatigues in use during this time too.

[Rhscott]

These pix were from the training cycle before mine. No BDU M65s in use.  My cycle got 2 BDU M65 each issued.  We used our issued clothing and did not use any “training use only” clothing.  At the end of our cycle were were allowed to exchange any damaged or worn clothing for new items prior to departure for our units.

i could only imagine that BDU M65s were available in the Military Clothing Exchange stores during this time to allow current Soldiers the opportunity to pick up one for use and were being sent to units for issue as “organizational clothing” as needed.

 

[atb]

The camouflaged, and green field jackets were worn concurrently. It's been a long time ago, but I recall wearing my green field jacket right up until the wear out date. I then had to buy a woodland field jacket. We were force issued a brand new green field jacket, though we couldn't wear it. I finally gave mine away a few years ago. I still have the M65 issued to me at Ft. Dix in January 1970.

[Stout]

Thank you for the input ! Very interesting informations ! 

[The Rooster]

I went to basic in Jan 82.

We were issued BDU's with the wide lapels and green T shirts which were latter changed to brown and OD Green socks

which later changed to black. And we were issued OD Green field jackets. They did not have enough BDU field jackets to go around.

I got my first one from my unit in 83. I still have mine, my last, issued still in great condition which was issued in the late 90's.

[Stout]

Thanks for the additional information!

When was the "wear out date" for the green M65s?