Unusual M61 trousers

Hiya,

I didn't have a chance to take pictures of this yet, but I have in my hands an unissued M61 example in soft twill cotton like that found on the M76 uniform. However, it has the blue/white Amoeba interior printing like all other M58 and M61 pieces through all years. The construction appears to be identical to M61 in terms of the construction, fasteners, and quality.

Does anybody know anything about this? Is there a matching jacket for it perhaps?

Steve

Hey,
Wow.. from your description, it doesn't fit me with any other M61 I've seen before. In the 60s, several paratrooper jump suits were made that did not prosper and were only tested. These suits are coming to the surface every X years as it happened a few months ago. An acquaintance of mine has one of these suits.
It could be helpful to provide some more info/data if you could add an image of these intriguing pants.

Here are some pictures of the cloth for comparison. You can only see the difference up close, otherwise it looks like normal unissued M61 trousers. Of course it feels very different, but no picture shows that

Steve

Perhaps a trial piece. M62s and M65s ( soft cotton ) were made contemporaneously with M61s, so it would not be unreasonable that a soft cotton M61 may have been contemplated as well..

Very cool..

I have not seen the M-61 suit in this fabric and I was completely unaware of its existence. In my opinion, it looks like a fabric made of some thick cotton or "tergal" textile. Not the stiff, heavy canvas fabric we're used to seeing on the M-61 jumpsuit. It breaks my mind a bit..

I was totally unaware of it as well!  Maybe Santiago is aware of it?  Hopefully he will stop by to comment.

Here is what I find strange.  If they wanted to experiment with thicker/softer cotton, why did they not just use existing cloth used for M69 or M76 uniforms?  Instead, they made a special run of cloth with the two sided printing of M62.  That was likely more expensive.

Well, I think I now have my answer about the jacket.  If it exists I will likely never find one to match my trousers

Steve