USMC Vietnam War Experimental Body Armor 

Lists of books on small unit tactics: www.amazon.com/shop/brent0331 **This website sells a lot quality reproductions of vintage camouflage patterns**: onlinemilitaria.net/shopaff.asp?affid=1608

Looking back, it's crazy just how many modern concepts originated from the Vietnam War. Plate carriers, NVGs, HALO jumps, red dots(OEGs), etc.

Brent! just talked to my father (MSG, 1968 - 1992) he said this was worn briefly by a watch commander (E8) during the fall of Saigon, wore it for maybe two hours and tossed it. Probably in some Vietnamese attic if it still exists.

Erdl green dominant is one of my favorite camos, my dad gave me his when i was in elementary school loved those things he gave me a set of erdl highlands but the green was the best

Reject Kevlar. Return to cuirass.

Very reminiscent of the Mk2 Osprey body armour used by us Brits. It’s amazing how decades later, the ‘nam era experimental design was re-hashed and re-used

Never had the idea- that the ceramic plates were a thing such a long time ago. Also nice to see the PASGT vest- there were some of those still used in our weekend "warrior" live fire training back in 2013, probably received from the U.S. as military aid. Thanks for the detailed and instructive video!

Wow! It was so ahead of its time. It looks like a modern body armor vest. It's too bad we did not use these ideas sooner.

I read an old manual from the Vietnam war era that recommended full body armor for the man on point and then swap the vest with the next point man.

We were the Last Marines to wear Metal Pot Helmets in ITS. Back in 86.

I can’t imagine fighting in Vietnam as an infantryman and coming home to face what they faced. God bless

You can always count on Brent for an excellent presentation! Very cool piece of kit!

My buddy back in the 90's Bought some ERDl from Sigon Sam's in Jacksonville we had no clue why his uniform looked a little bit off

First thing I said to myself when I pressed play was “how in the hell did Brent get a gorilla sized Green ERDL uni?” Then I caught myself and remembered everybody likes you, so you prolly had help. 😁

Cool video. I am a novice gear collector and enjoy videos like this.. I just retired after 26 years in the Army, and seeing the development of gear just during my career was pretty interesting. What's even cooler is studying this stuff and seeing kind of the beginnings of modular gear systems, starting really, with the introduction of the M1956 stuff and going from there. Keep at it brother. Your videos are very informative.

So cool brother!!! Those prototypes are some of the first case examples of us ever using Velcro with Military equipment really as well, wild.

Just when you think you've seen ALL the gear from 'Nam - Brent pulls a 'hat trick'! Awesome find!

Good to see a video on this vest. Like you, I've never found a whole lot of info. That vest and my Japanese vest are the rarest body armor pieces I have.

Love me some ERDL. I’m piecing together right now a late war Korea uniform with an M1952A.

It's cool that you managed to get hands on with this cool piece of infantry kit

Very cool review. I've watched so many Vietnam grunts complain about those flack jackets. I bet it saved several thousand lives though. Thanks Brent

Holy crap I saw one of those experimental vest at a surplus store about a year ago!

Love that ERDL Brent. Pretty cool how seeing how much they thought of at the time, though there's some interesting jankiness to it as well since this was such an early point in modern* armor design and material engineering. Had to have been a challenging project to keep going at the time too, would love to read the papers on the subject some time.

Cool video Brent. I have the green dom erdl too, and I love it. Blends in so well up here in the New England spring and summer.

Love your channel homie

Informative and historically rich, good video, thank you! 💕

awesome man

Pretty cool to know such stuff existed 😊

Damn that ERDL looks good!

Great video, grettings from Argentina.

Perfect ! Thanks.

Really good video thank you

Very interesting and reminiscent of what we have today. Must have been tough to get one of these for this video.

I honestly had no idea they had ceramic armor and velcro during the Vietnam war until today.

Very cool

Interesting you mentioned that the vietnam era experimental armor vest second version in erdl the back pocket is a pouch, as the soviet 6b-3 and 6b-5 (from 80s) have pockets in a similar placement that are meant for a similar purpose, carrying small equipment and stuff.

I have two of these, Type 1 and Type 2, med reg and large long, one carborundum and one natick made respectively. There's about 7-8 in existence recorded. I have an extremely long write up for these, so please excuse the paragraphs. There are some differences in between the two when Carborundum was able to screw around with it, for example Carbo made a thicker plastic laminate that coated the ballastic nylon, making it pretty stiff, they also used pretty stiff type 2 nylon material , outer , Carbo also only made 3, nlabs fully made 4 or 5, from what we know is left. So yeah, you might be wondering. , hey why make this vest,? L When the GI issue variable type came along, even the larges were kinda small, but the main part was idiots were mainly wearing their load baring gear under the vest, with the vest on, or the vest on and all the gear over it. When you fell in quicksand and or mud, water, you were pretty screwed unless you Carried a floatation bladder So Natick came up with these, these were made to carry ALL your gear, you could attach it to the hangers, and the back pouch was made pretty big. You could put a 5qt canteen, and other stuff in there too , and to use it if you fell in, but also all your gear was on, so you only had clothes underneath Or you yanked the cord and opened the vest, jettisoning the whole vest with all your gear. My large long, without plate is 11 pounds. With type 3 exp plate it is about 16. With all your gear, you might be loaded down a bit

It has wide load bearing surfaces, with some modern plates, and then something like the FRAS in the sides, gut, and lower back would be a comfortable max coverage armor set up.

That thing looks sturdy!

Pretty Cool!

brent probably knows us military gear and camo better then the us military itself. way to go dude

What an awesome pack

This is gonna be good

It's my favorite camo as well. I have the pants from my father that are old new stock . He was in the Philippines in 1974 that were he got those on base.

Prediction: We'll see a "medieval"-style armor (covering whole body) return. Body armor will get increasingly more protective and lightweight. Reason: All combos of projectiles, velocities, metals and hardness levels have been tried for 400 years. Material science has HUGE potential. Powered by classical supercomputers and modern AI (better molecular simulation) and soon quantum computing. We've always been trying to penetrate armor on vehicles, trucks, buildings - there's *always* been reasons to make the best-penetrating projectile possible. We've never really considered wearable armor in modern conflicts until recent history - and that was mostly against fragments, not bullets.

My uncle was a Huey/cobra pilot during Vietnam- he said they'd put them on the floor under their seat, and other places to stop rounds from hitting them as they landed troops, flew combat, etc.

that vest is very interesting. its a plate carrier, flak vest, web gear, and even a backpack all in one vest.

The armor looks like a predecessor to the air warrior armor vest

Thats a cool find. 🙂 And ERDL is still a good pattern, not for my area or I'd have a bunch.

looks similar to the British Osprey Mk. IV with the armor pouch design of the Mk. III

I believe it was in early 2000 when my unit switched from the PASGT "flak" to what was called the Interceptor armor with front and rear ceramic plates. While it was definitely greater protection, it was miserable to wear.

Ive seen pictures of truck and jeep drivers and gunners wearing the army version in Vietnam.

the forward thinking. If only we had plates like that curved guy now.

Nice video, can you make a video about FAST helmet vs Enhanced Combat Helmet?

Very cool. Since this vid is about armor, I was wondering when do troops get issued AP rounds? Talking about Tungsten.

Fun fact: if you look up pics of the US troops attacking the house in Iraq where Sadam's sons were hiding, one of the US troops has a set of the variable armor from Vietnam. This pic is from 2003 btw.

Reminds me of the later RBAs of the 1990s

Sgt. Maj. Downing, USMCR: Why did it take until Operation Gothic Serpent for Army Rangers and Delta Force to wear Body Armor? Why did it take the Global War On Terror ( GWOT)/ International Battle Against Terrorism ( IBAT) for Conventional Forces to start wearing Plate Carriers?

Can you pls make a camoflauge guide for snipers? I love your videos btw:)

Interesting to find out they were already looking at body armor like that, to bad they didn't get it out to the troops then!

The flack vest was used in early GWOT? My unit got rid of those things in 2001 and went to the woodland IBA. Being a former 03, I'm betting the experimental body armor's contoured plate had some issues with breakage issues. The design of the rest of the vest seems sound but I can see why they went to a soft body armor, if anything just for longevity of the equipment.

love my gen 4 iotv

Never been this early

I can almost garuantee you some marine named that experimental USMC body armor "Chesty"

Quick thing though, I know for a fact that when I was at 8th and I (Marine Barracks Washington) the duration of my service we used older PASGT helmets with updated suspention systems I believe, and this was 2017-2022. I think they were just starting to switch to MICH helmets in 2021. Granted it's a ceremonial guard unit it's not like it's gonna see active combat, however, still important to note that the helmet system was used for many years after it's adoption by rear line units. Not gonna lie, it wasn't a bad helmet but I hated the fact I couldn't run electronic headphones under it when I was shooting. Made hearing commands alot easier during training.

It reminds me of the colonial marine vest in Aliens. MEAN MARINES!

Could you test out Singaporean pixelised woodland camo

I’ve always wondered what the 0331 of the channel name meant. Anyone?

Where can i get medium LC1 alice pack?

I have found that same ballistic vest at wishlist 🤫

Hey, love your site. I wish you could do a video on Ukrainian camo.

@brent0331 Alright, Brent... can you name any of our wars ever fought in caves? Let alone any 5 star Generals with that kind of training? Including yourself? Cave and cavern experience in my recollection has never been fought a day in our history. Which subsequently means all new gear and camouflage. What do you have that will be effective for both defense and attack when it comes to gear a camouflage? This is going to make a very interesting war that just might end up like Vietnam. There might be tripwire connected to boulders on the other side of the wall that pulls a blade across the floor taking out your feet at the ankles. Holes in the wall with poison darts, arrows, blades, or even bullets. Trap floors. Waist high water fighting. Cave ins. All that and more. Not to mention bugs, insects, and animals. Smoke outs. Everything.

i'd not expect the fragmentation vest to stop anything more than a .32 acp, if even that

Bro was spinning like a character customization ☠️

Why don't Main Battle Tanks lose 80% of their armor coverage so they can maneuver slightly faster against the enemy?

Makes me wonder if Ukraine and Russia are sustaining more casualties from Shrapnel than they would have if they just used a simple flak jacket. With the trend of minimalist plate carriers.

This should have been adopted service wide. Heavy sucks, but alive is better.

Why do they never design it to slide the plate in from the top?

KILL FOOT DRILL FOOT!!!

USMC vest designers: Should we design the vest with a plate in the back?. Vest designers: 'Consults Marine Corps Manual'............ Marine Corps Manual: Marines are to be deployed "Front Toward Enemy". Vest designers: That settles that!, Now where do we put the pocket for Crayons......Oh uh Cigarettes we mean.

This seems superior to pasgat

I wonder how they expected an infantryman to access that back pocket when alone and without taking off the armor?

Imagine how many lifes could have been safed during that conflict if they had this ... but i understand it was HOT and super HAMID...and you have to wear this all day .. yeah i don't see it either

Plates looks to be used by its self

Ukraine War videos from nades and mortars dropped on Russians indicate that frag is the killer when not in a direct fire fight. Thank god the Russians don't know the secret western weapon called the Tourniquet.

The big flaks in 08-10 were effing AWFUL. The flaks I had in 06-07 were much better.

Yep cause nothing says "tactical" and "stealth" better than some loud ass velcro

I literally just found one of these vest on my local Facebook marketplace. Perfect timing. Does anyone have a idea what it might be worth with the plate included?