Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Praxis: M2A1 Ammunition Vest.

M2A1 Ammunition Vest.
I just ran across one of these in a thrift store here. Amazingly it was hanging on a coat hanger on the rack with the military uniforms and was marked $4.98. It is in new condition, so I snapped it up. The M2 and M2A1 ammunition vests were used for a variety of ammo lugging during World War II, Korea and Vietnam -- mortar and bazooka rounds, rifle grenades, even thirty-cal boxes of ammo (see photos below). The principal difference between the M2 and M2A1 is that the M2A1 has a wire hanger quick release to enable the wearer to get out of it in a hurry. The price I paid is about one-tenth what you can find them on the net for, so once more God was watching out for me. I present this here for folks who might, like me, stumble across one for cheap and otherwise not recognize what they are.
WWII Bazooka Team carrying ammo in M2 Ammunition Vests.
Bazooka Team in M2 vests up close.
M2 Ammunition Vest loaded with an M19A1 "thirty cal" ammunition can.

2 comments:

drjim said...

Yeah, I guess I'd REALLY want a quick release if I were carrying that much of that ammo!

Hefferman said...

I wonder how a bit of sewing would work toward making them into body armor carriers. A nice metal plate over the chest cavity would be a good use for some scrap metal I have around here.
Sorry, just a random thought I had.