I saw a lot of guys on Instagram laying out some of their collection. Some impressive. Some not so much. I thought I would do a simple display of some of the major items of my collection. Things the average infantrymen in the US Army would have. All items actual war era. Even the SP-1 made in 1972.
At top is the lightweight ruck with machete with two M-67 canteen pouches with canteens. The pack shelf for it lays in front and a 2qt canteen hangs off of a snaplink hooked to the frame. . Fully restored by me last year. Then Brady’s poncho brought back from the war. The M1 helmet. Two 7 pocket bandoleers. The Air crew survival ave and a 1969 folding E-tool with cover.
Next is boots, the ” jungle night sweater” AKA knitted sleep shirt, 3rd Patterd OD jungle fatigues, undies and of course the M-56 web gear with flashlight and snap link. It has M7 bayonet and the later ripstop poncho on the M-61 buttpack. Beside it is the XM28 “grasshopper” gas mask.
Rifle is of course my 1972 Colt SP1.
Scattered Shots 
Hey man, can you tell me more about the jungle night sweater? Links etc
I’m a cold weather mountain guy (-4C outside right now) and I’m always on the lookout for practical milsurp knitwear, fleece etc, both light and heavyweight.
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Sure, here are some details.
Nylon Sleeping Shirt
FSN
8415-890-2100
Specification
MIL-S-43357
Introduced in 1966, the olive green (OG-106) lightweight sleeping shirt was made from nylon and was lighter, quicker to dry and more durable than the wool sweater it replaced. It also provided some resistance to insects and mosquitoes. The new shirt was primarily issued to soldiers operating in the highlands of I and II corps, where the wind-chill was significant during the dry season.1 Pilots in Vietnam continued to prefer the original wool jungle sweater due to risk of the nylon melting in a cockpit fire.
1. U.S. Army Uniforms of the Vietnam War by Shelby Stanton (Stackpole Books 1992)
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I think you would be better served with the old Army issue ECWCS polypro cold weather undershirt nsn 8415-01-227-9549. There is also the matching bottoms. They stopped issuing them almost 10 years ago, since the army now has a sand colored polypro with a padded ripstop pattern.
The old brown polypro undergarments are some of the few pieces of gear the army got right. I used to wear mine in the snow covered Afghan mountains early in the war. Later in the war we had to stop due to the insurgents switching from IED’s to EFP’s. The EFP shape charge would throw a molten metal fireball through vehicles. Polypro melts and sticks to skin, so we had to stop using it. For civilian use, it’s great since you don’t have to worry about EFP’s.
Another advantage is that you can probably find the old brown polypro pretty inexpensive on the surplus market, since they switched to the sand colored polypro.
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