Ah the good ole field jacket liner! I couldnt agree more. I used this throughout my Army career and when I was stationed in Germany it was a must during the winters. I still use mine to this day and when I suggest it to people who havent served or have never put one on they laugh at it. This one piece of kit will definitely keep you warm and at the same time let vital areas of your body breath. The liner has event holes in the armpit area and doesnt ride far up on your neck area so that you get the right balance of warmth and ventilation. Our service times mirrored each other Top and its always great to hear you talk about gear that really works.
My pops was in Nam, and my whole childhood he'd give me field jackets with the liners in em for winter gear. An yeah, they're great. Much much better than most high end winter jackets.
I'm not a soldier but I am an athlete and masonry contractor who has spent my lifetime outside in the cold and snowy mountains of Colorado, and have lot's of opinions on what to wear and how to wear it. For example, if your 'snow' pants don't have cuffs that seal tightly around the cuff of your boots, yer gonna have a bad time as soon as you walk in deep snow. I often duct tape the cuffs to the boots when snowmobiling because ya spend hours post holing around in 5' of snow trying to unstick your machine. Best 8 hour workout there is... Obviously the key is knowing how to deploy layers and what fabrics are best. Hat on or off? Gloves on or off? Wool, cotton, nylon, polyester, or silk? When we ski mountaineer at high elevation and are on the move, we are only wearing a wool turtleneck base layer and a breathable shell and that's it in single digit temps. But as soon as you stop, out comes the down coat, hat, and gloves. For my bib pants, I go to a tailor/ seamstress have foam knee and butt pads sewn into them; and both are literally worth double their weight in gold.
Having had both hypothermia and frostbite it ain't no joke. When trying out new setups for clothing or sleep systems keep a detailed mental log of what works best for what temps. Found out the hard way not to overdress and end up sweating and completely soaking your sleep system only to have the temperature drop at 2am to wake up shaking my ass off from hypothermia I thought my neck was going to snap. Couldn't think, couldn't move, couldn't do a damn thing for what seemed like an eternity til I warmed back up.
Man, it is a bone chilling 68F here in Florida today 🌡️ Ordering a field jacket liner ASAP before hypothermia sets in! I was in 92-96 and those liners were awesome. I think my unit was issued poly pro and gortex in ‘94 but I still used my FJ liner through the end of my service.
oh hell yeah. i put buttons in mine and added a button hole in such a way that i could wrap the liner around me tighter. tucked the liner into my pants too. kept me warm in bosnia down into the negative degrees. only added the gortex when the wind got up.
My cousin gave me an M-65 jacket on a huntin trip about 23 years ago, I was maybe 12-13 years old. The jacket was way big, but I was freezing; riding around in the back of the pickup in the mountains in winter. It sure warmed me up and made the rest of that adventure much more bearable. Eventually I grew into the big ol baggy jacket, and continued using it all these years later. Well, last year I finally found out what all those snaps on the inside were for (thanks to Blackie Thomas), so I went to a surplus store and picked up a liner for it. That liner is a game changer!! I already had the pants with liners that I picked up a few years ago. I switched out my higher end "warm gear" for the old school military gear for checking trap line as it's wayyyy warmer!
I don't wander around the woods much anymore, but hunting I wear wool. A wool sweater and wool jacket. So far has worked for me. My setup is from the mid 50's and is just as good as new. Yes it's heavy. It is quiet and when wet it still keeps me warm.
FTX for me in 20-30° F was a field jacket, thermal under bdu's, oversized boots with 2 pair of wool socks. Secret was using the mittons w/trigger finger and beanie. Out for days and kept active the entire time. Bivouac in a modified ranger roll- packed an extra shelter half with 2 wool blankets and was good to go. The mod i used - i sewed a heavier fleece sheet together so i did not have to launder my whole sleep system. Probably kept me 20°F warmer. Works good in a Ranger grave 😏
Great video. I know it’s a shock to younger guy but old school does work. Just like tucking in what needs to be tucked in to retain heat. I still use wool liners in leather gloves which are good to around 10F, then wool liners in mittens. We were also issued black wool watch caps which is easier to pull on and off the top of a baseball cap. Silicone spray from the knees down also helpful. We used snow seal on our boots. Buying a half size up allowed for an insulated removable sole and a thicker sock. I sewed GI buttons on my field liner to close it. Back in those days a scarf was acceptable.
1970's Woolrich plaid coat, brown corduroy bell bottom pants, double Mackinaw cap, a can of beans, and a flask of coffee. It might be old skewl but it's still skewl.
Great piece of equipment, I still have and use one. I also love and have the wool og shirt issued to me duringmy time. I am familiar with cold, I spent time mountain training in the alps with the 1/509th abct and graduated from the Northern warfare training center survival school Fort Greeley Alaska January 1984. 65 below wind chill almost every day, the whole month I was there. Outstanding training. I love your videos and appreciate your time and effort making them.
I miss my field jacket liner and the wool sweater. That combo was bomb diggity ! I just recently bought a “woobie hoodie” with a zipper, and it basically provides the same functionality as the field jacket liner did, only, it has a hood that I can pull up when needed. I also went to a craft store and bought brass buttons and added 2 buttons at the bottom of the hood so when I do pull it up I can snap the buttons and it covers my neck. It don’t get no better than that !
Awesome brother. So keep this in mind. The field jacket liner with front buttons is also easier to put over/on quickly when you stop to break vs some new base layers that only go on by completely putting over all your gear so you gotta take stuff to put it on.
Field Jacket liner was perfect for me underneath BDU top. I bought 2 at the PX clothing store before I got out in 92. I still have them today and I hand wash them to keep them lasting forever.👍💯🇺🇸.
I'd been wearing the field jacket liner since 1986. (I'm not an American) I had one where I removed the sleeves and a second with sleeves intact. When necessary, I'd use both together. I really hate bulky sleeves restricting my movement. When I bought these at clothing sales in Ft Lewis, there were no closures (buttons) on hem back then. I sewed a few velcro strips on them to keep them closed. All this is in the past as, after 25 yrs of use, both liners disappeared out a vehicle I had left them in. Grrr. Now I'm retired and I haven't bothered to replace them... yet...
When I was in the sheriff's department we used black M-65 field jackets with our class B uniforms and adding the liner made it tolerable to stay outside longer on search & rescue ops. Great piece of kit.
Pure gold the jacket liner! If you "overheat" your torso, then your body will try and cool it down. It does so by sending the hot blood to your extremities- feet, hands, head. Experiment around when your not in a survival situation. Everyone is different so your mileage may vary.
No, what you will do is sweat. Brent was correct to recommend layers. Mini!al.for movement, outer layer for stopped movement. This is drama for drama sakes.
@@mrmicro22 Yes layers. Guess I wasn't clear enough. When I had my training, that's what we did. you warm up your middle to get the blood flowing and, yes, regulate with layering. Like I stated, experiment because everyone is slightly different.
I was never told about the jacket liner but it’s what I always wore just like you’re and everyone wondered how I could do it and I told them it’s made of the same stuff as the poncho liner long as you have good gloves and a hat your good until you have to stop for long periods
Cupcaking a lollipop??? Isn't that a Navy term? Good video, as always Top, particularly since I still have a ton of gear issued to me back in the "Cold War". As for nutrients, the best is The Good Book.
The field jacket without the liner kept me warm in Wyoming, Kansas, and Korea. But then, I wasn't on the best of terms with the orderly room scales, so YMMV.
I used Vietnam era gear in the Marine Corps and it sucked!!!. It got so cold one time in Cherry point that they called off rifle qual because of it and I had everything I owned on
Always loved the field jacket liner , in the M-65 in high school i learned about it in the old OD field jackets they were common then the M-81 field jacket became preferred, then I wanted the black M-65 kool gear ⚙️.
Blackie Thomas just put up a video about stitching a sock across the kidney area and using handwarmers. Granted he was talking about having 2 liners in an m65 and the sock goes on the outer.... still a great tip i thought
Keeping a hand towel stashed somewhere in a pocket to wipe off the sweat could help some of the people out there to stay dry. Then keep it on the outside afterwards to freeze dry/break off any ice, etc.
@@laciloon9112Doesn’t matter what the humidity is, because cold air doesn’t hold moisture nearly as much as warm air anyway. It’s the same reason why your air conditioner in your home works as a de facto dehumidifier. As heat is removed from the air, so is water, otherwise it freezes. You can actually see this in action when you look at frozen refrigeration coils. Regardless, condensation will occur when breathing out warm vapor into a cool enough environment. That is legit physics. If he would’ve said it was mid to high thirties, I could buy there being no breath condensation. But 8*F? A whole 24*F below freezing? With no condensation of the breath? Breath that comes out far closer to the temperature of your core, than to the temperature of the ambient air? Breath that ALWAYS has a high moisture content? Yeah, no. Thats suspect. Maybe it was just something weird with the camera.
Ones left with a couple options: I created a weather app on my phone to fool everyone It was in C not F - but then you’d have to account for the high of 38. Which means I would have to have filmed this in the summer. But I was still in, so that would be off too… Or something about dew point and humidity levels I’m no weather man, not a scientist. But it was 8 degrees F. And I did record it Jan 28 in north Ga at around 6 am.
It can be cold with low humidity and no breath will be seen. Less humidity means less humidity drawn in with breaths and therefore less humidity coming out
Hahahahha that was funny bro, we're just getting out of the deep negatives, wool really is still king up here, don't have to go crazy with layers, a good sweater and a wind protection layer really goes a long way.
The M65 FieldJacket liner is an excellent item in a few but not all conditions. It will not save you in wind chill, rain, wet snow conditions, etc. It also will just be a part of a system if you want to do operations in the Japanese Alps, Alaska, and the Hindu Kush Mountains in Afghanistan. I have been there and brought my old field jacket liner with me.
Brings back memories-- When I was stationed at Eielson AFB in Alaska they issued me one of those N-something-B parkas which was quite bulky to work in on the flightline. The other guys there showed me a trick where they put two field jacket liners in their field jacket. I bought a one size bigger field jacket and tried it and wow, it worked a lot better except for the coldest temps. And those white Bata bunny boots....... fugly, but they worked very well.
I thought the secret was to wear the MRE heater under your jacket. ;) I have two Canadian jackets with liners but both the Canadian liners and US M-65 liners are hard to find in Canada. Fifteen years ago they were easier to find. In real cold I use a bottom base layer, fleece pants, and rain pants. Getting that cold you don't sweat in the legs and the rain pants are a fantastic wind blocker; plus you can sit anywhere!
Used a field jacket liner as you did many times works well. I had my field jacket and liner stole while in Korea, finished my deployment wearing a woolly pulley and two T Shirts. Stayed plenty warm.
Give ‘em one 🫱🏻 As some popular Internet ex-SF guy pointed out, an emote; Kill Love the field jacket liner. Mostly it doesn’t make much movement to put on in an LP/OP. Replaced mine with the Lvl 2 grid fleece pullover for movement and for precipitation. Works well under my utility blouse or hickory work shirt without restricting splitting maul swinging movement. Grid fleece and grid fleece laminated to a soft shell outer, is slowly replacing the more venerable garments in my personal system. In the PNW where you will not stay dry, it’s gotta be fleece. I wring the sopping wet sponge fleece out, put it back on, and feel the heat wave. Had the tried and tested opinion for decades now that carhart outer layer with fleece under is the king (PNW). I’ve gotten away with simply putting on my Gortex top when I stop moving, vapor barrier, stops rain and wind, and is perty good at fighting off the shivering. The upside of carrying the Primaloft happy suit/ marshmallow suit/ belay jacket and pants, is that you put on all the insulation that you carried in. The sleeping bag is not that way. Efficiency and Versatility. Having a Lvl 3 fleece jacket to put on when done moving is the key to me not becoming a cold WX casualty. Easily bought and affordable thin Merino Wool glove liners, socks, and beanie caps, with backups, works well for me for drying on the move. The PCU System if used correctly, remains the king of the hill. (Wild Things, Beyond Clothing, EBay) 🎶Meet me down by the railroad track, track. 🎶
Ya I got hypothermia once . It sucks. It wasn't a really cold day probably 40s . But I was sitting in a tree stand a couple hours with a slight wind . Sat and chattered a while . Shivering then it subsided and was just uncomfortable not bad . But when I started moving to come down it hit me bad . Couldn't see. Tunnel vision the whole thing.
I use field jacket liners. My dad taught me that trick for hunting when I was a kid. I think they make all the difference, and I still use them to this day. They get a big thumbs up in my book, and there is always an extra in my pack like the faithful woobie. Stoker what blouse is that? I Maybe it is the lighting, but I don't recognize the pattern. I only know I like it. Would you share some info on that, please? I like that you touched on the spiritual side of life, and the lawn metaphor that you used. I am a child of God, and am unashamed to admit that. It very much matters who you align yourself with. "Bad company corrupts good character". This episode was awesome, and took a turn in a direction that I personally think needs to be talked about. Awesome man. Love it!
Can't remember if you touched on it specifically, but everything you said alludes to the importance of winning the psychological battle with yourself when you are under extreme stress. Thanks from Canada for another awesome video!
I loved my Field Jacket liner, havent had one since I got out of the Army in 94. I found an Air Force Flyer's Jacket Liner that is the same material, I really like it too, and it even has a zipper on the front. Appreciate the talk too top.
You do not always see your breath when it is cold outside, although it is more common in lower temperatures. The visibility of your breath is influenced by several factors: 1. Temperature: Colder air can hold less moisture, so when you exhale warm, moist air from your lungs into cold air, the moisture can condense into tiny droplets that are visible as a cloud or mist. However, if the air is not cold enough, the moisture will not condense, and you won’t see your breath. 2. Humidity: The relative humidity of the surrounding air plays a significant role. If the air is very dry (low humidity), the moisture in your breath may evaporate quickly and not form visible droplets. Conversely, high humidity levels can enhance the visibility of your breath, as the air is already saturated with moisture and less capable of absorbing more. 3. Breath Moisture Content: The moisture content of your breath can vary based on your hydration levels and how deeply you breathe. More moisture in your breath makes it more likely to see it when you exhale in cold conditions. 4. Breath Temperature: The temperature of your breath can also influence visibility. Warmer breath will contain more moisture, increasing the likelihood of visible condensation when it hits the cold air. 5. Wind Speed: Windy conditions can disperse the moisture in your breath more quickly, reducing the chances of seeing it. Calm air allows the moisture to condense and become visible before dispersing. So, while cold air increases the chances of seeing your breath, the actual visibility is a complex interplay of these and potentially other environmental factors.
I purchased quite a few of the liners after I tried one under my bdu jacket for hunting, WOW. Then the purchases for trial and error of wearing a snug? fit one and another of a larger size atop it under a simple outer shell for colder temps and sitting. again WOW. I ended up grabbing one of the 'woobie hooded jackets' when they were on sale. The freedom of movement of these liners vs an insulated coat/jacket is amazing. Another great video, thank you!
A recently retired ranger buddy from my old Bible study group gave me a bunch of the gear he didn't have to turn in, one of those things was tye jacket with the liner (both in great shape too) and even hough that was about twenty years and 2 sizes ago for me but I still got em and plan to pass em down to my kid.
Field jacket liner is classy af. These days the waffle set is more than enough. I usually regretted wearing it due to sweating. The silks were plenty for me. But I never did arctic conditions. I did sleep outside in the desert and I've never been so cold. Couldn't put on enough layers. But that's just inexperience that got me.
I'm pushing 70 yrs old, and I'm still having to occasionally pull weeds out of my life. It's just one of those things that happens so ya just find a way to deal with it and take it in stride.
I get what you sayin I can see that in the fall ..But... Try dressing like that in the dead of winter here in Canada and you will freeze to death, or loose some limbs. The cold ranges to minus 20 to 50 degrees Celcius. We dress in layers accompanied by a winter jacket. Get too hot strip off a layer.
Hey Top- Ive got around 4 of these liners that I use with or just as is. I remember when these were still issue items and inspection items back in PLDC 1994- Ft. Richardson, AK. I always recommend these younger folk these days to buy good used mil surplus, as it is more durable than the civilian shit gear thats made in China these days. Good video- SFC RET USA-
I'm with you Top on the staying warm while others are bundled up and freezing. I used to wear my field jacket liner or my poly pros under my shirt and stayed plenty warm. Sometimes I would wear my wool sweater. I always turned the collar down so it couldn't be seen. I would let my troops know what I was doing, after I let them shiver for a while. When I moved up from squad leader to platoon Sgt my entire squad had begun to dress like that. I was very proud of my men and enjoyed seeing their progression as they learned, grew and moved up in rank. I still miss those days of leading fine young men.
I mean if you wear your ECWS properly, you only have the silks on until you get cold for the second layer. it’s wicking and is your base layer, then layer up from there. Everybody in the army just puts on the first 3 layers when they get cold and it doesn’t work that way.
As a kid was told to put bread bags over our wool socks in boots. Sweated then froze. Didnt say a word cause half that hunting camp was WWII vets and didnt wanna be a sis. Paid for that for weeks.
I have, with some additional base layers under the liner and field jacket, cut firewood all day in windchill temps down to -43. It sucked, but my core temp was never a problem. My hands, well thats another story. That surplus liner is good stuff. One tip: the belly button level drawstring on the field jacket is there for a reason. When it’s cold, tie that puppy up and it holds the heat. Also, the waffle top is good stuff. I find it out preforms merino wool tops for holding heat (still like my merino though).
Man Stoker, it has been a long time since I wore a field jacket liner. But they are great and extremely lightweight. And great message too Bro thank you.
I ❤ the old field jacket liners. I thinking about ordering the failed jacket liner coats. They have a hood and elastic around the sleeves. And the zip up to boot. I just talked myself into it. Don't tell the wife
Received my initial issue at FJSC in June of '85. Due to that environment, we weren't issued a liner w/our field jacket and were told to contact supply once we got to permanent party. I did that and never was issued a liner for mine. Still have it, but it's a small/long so it doesn't fit me now anyway.
I worked outside for over 20 years and got used to cold temps in Nebraska. People say I’m crazy for going out in single digits without a coat. But it’s not for long. I know my limits, brother! Semper Fi!
Years ago I thought to enhance the warmth factor for activity in the cold and wet. I bought a merino wool long sleeve polo shirt ,namebrand only for less than 20 bucks on ebay. They are constantly on ebay. WOW, under this liner and a shell the warmth is greatly increased And breathable also. Was getting weary of the bulky insulated jackets and coats, and mid layers so I thought I would give it a shot. I am out in all kinds of weather without fail to let the dogs run in open fields and woods for a couple of hours every day without fail, no matter the weather. It really was amazingly warm, light, freedom of movement, etc They are constantly on ebay , usually door to door for under 30 bucks.
My first duty station Ft. Richardson Alaska the field jacket liner was the bomb. My wife would make fun of me for sleeping in bed with poncho liner. My son just returned from the border after a year deployment and he bought me a field jacket with liner love my Rambo look.
I have the m65 field jacket liners and field jackets too. But I use those liners in my marine digital cold weather parka and it's outstanding. I use it for survival training, camping, and hunting in the rain and snow. Everyone else is heading to their cars to go home im still out hunting all day in the bad weather. Lol
Be honest, you stay warm by curling up with your dog. I was in Germany from 66 thru 68 and froze with the M65 field jacket w/liner, it didn't help that there was so much starch in our fatigues and the jacket itself that they could stand on their own. I have an Airforce artic parka that is warm that I could fit into fifty years ago when I weighed 150 lbs. it would keep you warm at minus 20 for hours. The M65 field jacket w/liner is a nice jacket for 50-degree weather if it is not raining, that is about all.
