PASGT Vest in Iraq / Afghanistan?

Hello,
I was wondering if anyone knows if they actually fielded the PASGT vest in Iraq or Afghanistan in OIF or OEF? I know they made a cover for it in 3 color, but would it be accurate to display it? Thanks.
Andrew

Drew,
In short...yes they did use the PASGT during the first parts of OIF and part of OEF. There is a picture of a Marine (member of USMF) wearing one while serving in Iraq. I am not sure if the other services used the PASGT, but I know the Marines did. I would imagine it would have been for more rear-echelon soldiers, but that is pure conjecture on my part. If you used it as a display for an early OIF or OEF set up, you should be okay. I would assume that the woodland LBV would be the appropraite webgear.
Arch

nkomo wrote:Drew,
In short...yes they did use the PASGT during the first parts of OIF and part of OEF. There is a picture of a Marine (member of USMF) wearing one while serving in Iraq. I am not sure if the other services used the PASGT, but I know the Marines did. I would imagine it would have been for more rear-echelon soldiers, but that is pure conjecture on my part. If you used it as a display for an early OIF or OEF set up, you should be okay. I would assume that the woodland LBV would be the appropraite webgear.
Arch

Did the soldier have the 3 color cover on the vest?
Andrew

NOW...I know this picture wasn't taken in Iraq or A-Stan, but these soldiers are getting ready to deploy to a place where there is lots of sand. Notice the PASGT vest and the LBV being worn. I still say that the PASGT vest would be proper for early to mid OEF and early OIF. Now, I don't think that any of the USSF or high-speed units like the 82nd ABN would be wearing PASGT vests, but I'm sure a lot of reserve and National Guard units would have worn this kind of ballistic vest.

Here is a comparison between the PASGT and IBA vests.

The first picture is of the PASGT vest.


The second picture is of the IBA without groin, or thrat protection.

nkomo wrote:
If you are talking about the soldier half out of the tank ...he is wearing an Interceptor vest. Notice the loops that are on top of each other.
Arch

the left one is an iba, that's right.
but take a second look. i am talking about the soldier with glasses (loader's hatch/right)!

edit: the pic with the soldiers... who is wearing the pasgt vest? i looked at it about a minute but couldn't find any. please help me.

regards,
philip

Phillip,
For some reason, the only part of your picture I'm seeing is the soldier wearing the IBA vest. On my screen, half of the picture is missing!!!!
Arch

i'll try to fix it!

Just saved the picture to my computer and looked at it. The soldier on the bottom is wearing a PASGT vest.

I wonder if my computer screen is too small? It wouldn't even let me scroll over to see the rest of the picture.

There was a major shortage of body armor during the initial phases, so they wore whatever they could get with whatever covers they could find. This was even more true for the Redheaded Stepchildren of the DoD who normally only get money to play with AFTER a war starts. Various logistics units, especially specialized ones that rarely get deployed, National Guard, and Seabees, and to some extent the Marines in general. I knew a USMC Major who had to purchase his own body armor for a deployment to Falujah back in 2004. I'm pretty sure the Marines reimbursed him, but there were some logistics issues that made it easier for him to buy one off the shelf rather than get one through the PX system (IIRC he was cross attached to a US Army unit and didn't have time to get back to base).

But as stated above... the more you move out from 2002/2004 timeframe the less you should see mis-matched stuff. My favorite was all the Marines in OIF with 3 Color DCUs and Desert MARPAT helmet covers!

Steve

hope it works...

yeah...I saw the loader in the original pic...must be your computer only there Sir Arch.......

bond007a1 wrote:yeah...I saw the loader in the original pic...must be your computer only there Sir Arch.......

Figures. I haven't had time to get my new computer up and running yet (hopefully it has a bigger screen). From having a tooth pulled, student teaching, writing lesson plans, finishing up a HUGE project for college, etc. I am a busy man.

arch, do you teach at a college?

derxsammler wrote:arch, do you teach at a college?

No. I am finishing up my student teaching for my college degree. I will graduate in about a month with a degree in Elementary Education (Kindergarten-6th Grade) and Special Education(Learning/Behavior Disorder Kindergarten-12th grade). I went the double major route. NOW.....hopefully I can find a job.

As I write this reply....I am also writing a lesson plan about prioritizing daily schedules for my 9th grade Academic Conditioning class. I will have to teach this in front of my students, my mentor teacher, and my university supervisor. The lesson basically deals with getting priorities straight and ordering them from most important to least important.
Arch

The reason some soldiers used old PAGST vest is because of shortage of IBA vests during early OIF. Some families of soldiers had to fundraise for better body armor. There were several articles about it.

Suppose you want impression for early OIF and OEF, you could easily use mixture of ALICE and MOLLE pouches. I guess MOLLE pouches weren't readily available for everyone? There are MOLLE clips used to replace ALICE clips to fit in MOLLE webbing better without ruining it. Suppose you want to display IBA with LBV, then Enhanced LBV would be proper. If you want to display PAGST as well, I don't think you should add DCU cover because it is uncommon (it may be optional?).

I have flak vest that was brought to Iraq according to surplus store owner. The story probably is not true but I got it for $60 five or six years ago. It is well-worn. There are some repair patches (fragment damages?) on it.

us GIs have to pay for their gear?

derxsammler wrote:us GIs have to pay for their gear?

Back during the 2002-2004 time period, the US Govt. was VERY short on gear of all kinds. They were short on ballisitc vests, specialized gear, etc. All the major gear makers (London Bridge Trading, Blackhawk, etc) had items on backorder for months due to shortages. Obviously, the military guys were given priority over civilians at that time. It was not unusual for soldiers to have to buy their own gear before deploying.

I have provided a link to an LBT chest rig I just bought: https://iacmc.forumotion.com/special-forces-post-vietnam-to-modern-day-f51/london-bridge-trading-company-chest-rig-t497.htm

This is a perfect example of what I'm talking about. This vest is a commercial vest pressed into military service because of lack of items. This was a very common occurence during that time period. I can also remember that our local news channel talking about how soldiers deploying to Iraq and A-Stan were doing so without ballistic vests. If I recall, there may have even been several fund-raisers around here to raise money to buy these soldiers vests. Very sad actually.

Also, not to mention that some of soldiers were unsatisfied with their issued equipment, so they bought after-markets like nkomo said. There was article in 2004 SOF (Soldier of Fortune) magazine giving advice to US. Soldiers concerning issued equipment and encouraging them to buy their own equipment such as better quality gloves instead of issued flight gloves which worn easily, replace K-pot chin straps to comfortable after-market one. They find desert boots (one in jungle boots pattern) uncomfortable for urban environment so they should get Ranger Joe's (If I remember correctly) ripple sole boots. Those were recommendations from SOF magazine.

There are even some units (National Guard) still used K-pots instead of updated MICH helmet.

here are pics of 2 vests I got off of 2 7th Group guys. 1 is used & 1 was not....they are made by "UNDER THE GUN" UTG..very commercial....note on the used one the UTG patch has been taken off.

The used one...

The new one...

by the way...I got a sweet deal on the used one....it was $25 buy it now & came with his used 3 colour modified uniform for FREE...I just had to pay a few extra dollars for the shipping....

Steven