Common U.S. Army & Marine Infantry flak vests used during the Vietnam War 

*On this Memorial Day, and every day, NEVER forget those who paid the ultimate sacrifice! Thanks for watching.*

My father was a marine in Vietnam and he told me once “we never took anything the army issued because it all either had bite marks on it or it was pregnant”

My dad was a ROK Marine during Vietnam. He said sometimes it would get so hot, or the marine's loads would be so heavy they'd just ditch the flask. LOL

If I would of had my flak jacket on the night I was hit I wouldn’t have mortar shrapnel in my chest next to my heat. It was my last night in Nam

I had a mentor growing up who was a SGT of Marines serving in Vietnam. He explained that throughout his tour of duty he and his squad used flak jackets with teeth missing from the zipper that closes the vest. He said one day, later in the war, his squad "acquired" a bunch of the flack jacket with the Velcro fastening. They thought it was the slickest high speed low drag trash they've ever seen until a Marine's flak grabbed a thorny vine just the right way and ripped open the vest as he began to pull away. They went back to their shitty toothless zippered flak jackets once again and had to use them for the rest of the deployment.

That intro was intense but Bruce's delivery was hilarious.

I didn’t know I needed a Flack Diaper, now I do.

Long ago and far away, there was a literal mountain of Vietnam-era vests in the DRMO lot across from my paraloft aboard Pendleton.....Had I known then, I would have made a midnight reconnaissance. Ahhhh -- memories.

Hey Brent, I just finished up my enlistment in the Marine Corps, and would like to thank you for these videos. The last time I posted a comment was about 4 years ago before I left for boot camp, and I would use your videos as references and even pass them on to my boots. I’m going into the Texas National Guard now, and I’ll pass these videos along to those guys as well.

My uncle was a marine grunt in the 80/90s after the gulf war joined the guard. A few years ago I was doing some salvage work on property my family owned and found one of his old foot lockers. Inside was two of the 122 flaks, hand full of m16 mags and some other stuff. I gave him the flaks, kept the mags. As for the foot locker I sanded it down stained it and gave it to him for Christmas

My father was a VN Vet. Served with 1/7 Cav, 1 CAV Div. he worked in Logistics. I remember when I was a teenager, I worked in a large, for my town, Surplus shop. It was an old train station stop that was disused where I'm from. Pretty big in fact. Anyway, I worked there on the weekends sweeping and arranging items of equipment. I remember we received several pallets once full of VN and WW2 War equipment. The VN equipment was several pallets of Jungle /Tropical Ruck Sacks. I went threw them all, making sure of their condition, and if they were clean enough. All were clean, and great condition, but I wish I'd have had the fore thought to have bought a pallet myself. I think we were selling them for 19. bucks a piece. What really sticks out about this shipment was one of the WW2 Pallets. It was a large cardboard box filled with WW2 Tropical First Aid kits. They were all dust and dirty. I went through everyone of them. Many were still filled with all of the IFAK kit from WW2 a Marine would carry. some even had black sand in them. I remember one that was still covered with dried blood. looked kool, but I remember feeling the pain of the loss. I also found the one that really set all of the Kits apart. It had pictures and a few letters inside. I took that one looked through it, and we through the post office, found out the family name and address, and posted the kit to them with a letter showing our gratitude for this Marine. Who just so happen had survived. It was the beginning for me. My love and study of Military History. My love a study and collecting of military equipment, and then my serving in the US Army for ten years. Great video guys. I have read and hear some great stories of Marines who served in VN. One was the most amazing. I'll have to recount it to you later.

Brent when I came back from Nam they told us not to wear our uniforms on leave since so many Marines were getting spit on in airports which as you can guess led to more than a fight or two. But DAMMIT I earn the title of Marine and the Pride and Right to wear my uniform. Glad you guys got the respect you DESERVED .

I was in the 377th combat engineers in the Air Force and served in Cambodia in the Deep South Mekong valley .

Have to admit, as a USMC 0311 Vietnam 1969, I took a razor blade to my flak jacket and got ride of some of the fiberglass panels.

"this vest may save your life"

Unimaginable for me what are troops have gone through. Thank you. I will always be grateful. I will never forget.

I was a Marine grunt in Vietnam (67-68) and remember the flak jackets well (mine had the large pockets up front but were the same color as the rest of the vest). Most of us never used the vest's webbing to hang gear, sticking with the web belt instead. At Con Thien (and later Ca Lu and Khe Sanh) we were required to keep our flak jackets zipped up and buttoned at all times.

I was in the US Navy from 1979 to 1985. When standing sentry duty on board ship I remember wearing these style flak jackets with the rigid plates. The first time I recall wearing them regularly was on board ship in port after the 1983 Beirut bombing and security was dramatically raised. Stood a lot of watch time using it the old gray M1 steel helmet and the good old M14.

National Guard artillery unit, late 1990's immediately before 2000.

Watchin this a week late! Your right we only wore our 122s on guard duty in '71. Still remember the sweat stink! In the field they would get wet and weigh 25 lbs that you didn't need to tote. And they stunk even more! Got hit in the knee so wouldn't have helped anyway. Great video. Brings back good memories!