US. Navy Seals floation jacket.

I thought about starting this thread. There's TOO MANY fake made lately, especially this month. I saw four or five fakes on ebay this month.

I don't own the original jacket (in my dream) nor fake ones so I can't really offer any much of reference. Articles originally scanned by filupe.

Fakes are easy to spot: Most of fakes were made out of original ERDL jacket. So you would notice stitching ghost of pockets being removed. Sometimes you would even spot ghost of name tapes. Tags are same as ERDL jacket. Those are a big let-down. The original was never converted from ERDL jacket. They have their own tag with Natick lab.

Here are reference photos.

Nice to see my scans getting around ... sorta like a 'Kilroy was here'! I originally scanned this article for USMF: http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=13812&st=40

Oh it's yours, filupe?

I hope it's ok with you for them being posted. I'm going edit and put your name there as credit.

By the way, which magazine you got this out of? Thanks!

I can't really say it's mine - I'm sure there might be some copyright issues there.

The article came from a very early issue of the UK magazine 'Military Illustrated - Past & Present'. Back in the old days they had some very, very good militaria articles, nowadays it's all just military history and conjecture.

My intention for scanning the article was so that collectors who may not have been around when the article was published still have access to it - it's not as if the author would still be getting a stipend from it! If anyone out there knows more about the legality of scanning and posting articles like this, please let me know as I'd hate for the black helicopters to be hovering around my house ...

Great article and one I bought when I was a wee lad in Ireland .
Before this NO one really knew about these coats much .
The article only shows the more rare vest being worn .
I myself have only seen one picture of a jacket being worn in=country ,they came in real late to get real coverage .
Modified jackets seen more the norm, I wore a Float coat during an impression for a whole day a couple of years back and must have lost 10lbs in sweat so I can tell you the bladder just murders you with internal heat .
Food for thought .
owen