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In 1967 the issue fragmentation body armor vest was the M1952A.
In GURPS terms it's 8.5 lb., $400 and gives DR 4/2*. The higher DR is vs pi and cut, lower against all other types. The * means it's flexible armor.
The later M1969 vest is almost identical in GURPS terms.
I was issued an M1952A. In 1984.
ReplyDeleteMy unit didn't have enough of the new gear for everyone to get one.
(For that matter, it was let '85 before we turned in our steel pots and helmet liners for kevlar. Our section chief grabbed a sack full of old VN-era Mitchell-pattern leaf camo covers from surveyed gear, and we all matched. Which freaked out a Bn commander lt. colonel inspecting us in the field until he realized we were all wearing VN camo helmet covers instead of woodland.)
The M1952 is not the same, functionally, as the 1969 vest.
The '69 version is soft, kevlar-ish panels, that flex like the subsequent 1980s PASGT gear.
You'll see it on Army and USAF guys in VN pics.
The M1952 is a series of overlapping (probably fiberglass - at least it felt like that) hard "turtle" plates. It flexes like plate armor, i.e. not at all. It's what you'll see on most Marines throughout the VN war in pics you find.
It wasn't a bad thing, though.
It had a shoulder ridge to keep a rifle sling on during a road march.
Guys who had been issued the PASGT vests got poked by anything uncomfortably pointy, because they were soft and flexible. That worked both ways.
New Guy me, with the turtle plates, could comfortably sleep on anything, because it wouldn't dent through into my body with that hard fiberglass.
Mind you, for flying shrapnel, I'd want the newest kevlar PASGT, and when we finally got enough to issue them to everyone , I had to turn my Vietnam-era crap in. (Mine had GI grafitti inside from unknown I Corps Marines anywhere from DaNang to the DMZ.)
But for sleeping comfortably on a 30' x 25' camo net and poles, pioneer tools, or a metal tool chest in the back of a 5-ton prime mover when we were doing 3AM reposition moves over dirt roads in the boonies of NC or desert "roads" in 29 Palms, my turtle plate M1952 was king.
In GURPS terms there's no real difference between the M1952, M1955 and M69 vests. In the real world there's a lot of distinction between them. The PASGT vest gets different stats because it provides better protection (DR 10/5*).
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