MREInfo.com

Vietnam -- 1965 Survival, Escape, And Evasion Kit, Individual, Airman's, Type Seek-1 Containers 1 and 2 Matched Pair

Looks nice!

Incredible. Where do you find/get something like that - ebay?

saab b5 wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 06, 2022 12:56 pm

Looks nice!

Thanks!

(Looks nice but the smell from the oitment bursting inside... yikes! was beyond FOUL!
but I cleaned it all off and now the smell is not noticable unless you stick your nose literally on it)

Phu_Bai wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 06, 2022 3:03 pm

Incredible. Where do you find/get something like that - ebay?

Well, this was purchased on eBay yes, but honestly I have not seen any others recently, perhaps some passed me by.

I flew 300 combat missions in Vietnam and never heard of such a thing. On the other hand, I flew covert (spook) missions over Cambodia, where "escape and evasion" would have been impossible. Issuing such a kit to me would have been pointless. Do you have any idea what kind of aircrew got these? The curved back seems to indicate they'd be carried in a flight suit's pockets, so that rules out a plane with an ejection seat (because they'd be ripped right off during ejection.) And they're too thick to be worn in the thigh pockets - might interfere with the controls. Baffles me.

That's exactly the consensus that emerged, if you look at the history of the aircrew kits in the 1940s thru the 1960s, at one point they very were elaborate affairs with every sort of gee-gaw and survival gear imagineable for use on extended operations behind enemy lines, escape and evasion type stuff.

What they found in practice, at least in other theaters, that wasn't how it worked. Downed airman were typically either picked up or recovered by friendly forces right away (as in within hours) or they were captured. The radio or beacon was about the only thing that mattered.