Flak Jacket

[frisco-kid]

Never had one in the 101st. Wasn't even offered one. When I returned with the 82nd, we brought them with us. When we got up north, noticed the Marines were wearing them. Wore one while riding the gun jeep on convoy escort.

I recently caught a showing of the great Korean War movie, "PORK CHOP HILL." I noticed the grunts were wearing them. The movie was made not long after the war, so I assume the technical advice was pretty accurate.

[Bill Farnie]

Never had em' until Hamburger Hill .... and afterwards ..... never wore them again

[PHO127]

Kept it in my bunker in base camp so if we got rockets or mortars I could put it on. Don't ever remember wearing it. When Sh t happened that jacket was not on my mind.

[DMZ-LT]

Never humped one . Sat on them a lot being Cav. Wrote my Squadron Commander a few years back to see if he remembered a lowly platoon leader. He did. Said he remembered me not wearing a steel pot and not wearing a flak jacket , wearing blue beads and killing more NVA than any other platoon in the Squadron. We were not a lucky group.

[phuloi]

Hated it.Had a Battalion Com. who had a hard-on for the damn things:"You men WILL wear your flak jacket and steel pots at ALL times!"After a couple of months the thing would just about crawl away on it`s own.
Made a good seat cushion.

[39mto39g]

When I got to my unit they gave me a M-16 and told me to go out back and fire it to zero it in, When I got back they issued me a Flack Jaket steel pot, a ruc sack and a cot. I had no idea what they wanted me to put in any of the stuff. As I was getting on the chopper to go to my real unit, the guy that picked me up told me to leave the Flack Jacket and cot. Everytime I was in Bace camp I seen the jackets laying all over the place, Most smelled to bad to put on, and if you really needed one you wern't really thinking about one.

Ron

[b3196]

Steel pot and flak jacket.....Were ordered to wear it on all convoys. it was like a condom.....it gave you that false sense of security while you were getting phucked
Bob K

[Andy]

Within about 10 days of getting to my first unit an incident took place. We were walking around in the woods, doing a clover leaf. We got ambushed by a VC who came out of a tunnel ripped off a magazine of AK and disappeared. The bad guy shot two of our men. One had a flak vest the other did not. The guy without the vest had a clean hole in his side, no big deal. The guy with the vest got all ripped to hell by the bullets flattening out on the vest and really doing a number on him. Never wore a vest after that. However, while riding around on APC?s, usually had two vests to sit on.

Got there during the rainy season and just could not wear a helmet. Remember how the rain would damn near bang on that iron hat? I couldn?t hear a damn thing during a rain storm. Using all your senses seemed like a good idea.

While in aviation everyone had the opportunity to have a ridged vest, called a ?chicken plate? and/or a vest. It might have been foolish but I didn?t wear the chicken plate and sat on the vest.

Stay healthy,
Andy

[splummer]

We were supposed to wear steel pots and flak jackets on convoys,reactionary forces, perimeter patrols and guard. I only put them on a few times in convoys because they were too hot and heavy to bonce around in the truck with. The Marine jackets had metal in them and I think they may have stoped something. We shot a hole through mine with an m-16 on an OP one day. I don't think the army ones were any good except for using them as a pillow. [ps I wasn't wearing it at the time. we just wondered if a bullet would go through an army flak jacket and it did. good pillow though.

[sn-e3]

On my Destroyer wearing a flak jacket was manditory while at GQ and for good reason we had at least two short burst of five inch shells go off less then 200 feet from the ship .scared the sh#t out of me because I was in a open 3'' gun mount stuff was flying everywhere but thank God none of us was hit.