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Need YEAR identification from MA-1 Jacket Label


RTFREY
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I need the year of manufacture from this MA-1 ALPHA label.

 

I can readily ID those with DSA, DLA, and some others but this type is a mystery as to which numbers on the label apply to the manf. year.

 

Any help will be appreciated.

regards,

Bob Frey

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That particular style of label is for an MA-1 made just for the civilian market and does not have any date information.

 

 

Sir,

The following is from APLHA's website regarding their MILSPEC jackets. They do not mention anything about a label without the 3 LINES as being made for the civilian market?

thanks,

Bob Frey

 

 

 

When Alpha Industries received a military contract and that contract was fulfilled, “surplus” materials were always left over. In order to use these materials and keep our factories operating, we continued to make jackets following the strict military specifications. These additional jackets were sold to surplus stores. But, for internal purposes we needed to develop a way to separate these jackets from the ones that were actually going to the military.

 

On jackets shipping to the military the label contained a single black bar separating the identification of the type of jacket and its specifications. We developed a replacement label to be used for surplus jackets. The only difference between this and the actual military label was that we put three black bars instead of one. And, this label was the only difference between these surplus jackets and those that were actually to be worn by military servicemen. Other contractors also manufactured surplus coats, but they changed to lower grade materials using lighter fabric, thinner insulation, less durable zippers and fasteners. And they didn’t change the internal labels; their garments still had the single black bar. Over time, customers at surplus stores began to notice that the jackets with the three bars were the best. And no wonder; after all, these were the exact same jackets that American pilots and ground crews were wearing at bases around the world. In fact, if you look closely at the Alpha logo, you’ll see that we integrated these three bars into the mark that has come to symbolize our company and its products.

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