In a recent post about Intellectual Property, a commenter mentioned that the US had stolen the chest rig from the Rhodesians. Well, I can assure you, that is not the case. We stole it from the same place they did, the Chicoms. For you youngsters, or anyone who slept through the Cold War, that’s short for Chinese Communists, the same folks you’re buying your TVs from these days.
The US use of chest rigs took a slightly different route than the Rhodesians although the reasons were similar. We started using them during the Viet Nam war, mainly by Special Operations Forces, like the US Navy SEAL seen above. For many, it was simply a means to look like the enemy. Others carried AK-47s and the Chicom Chest Rig was the only means to carry the 30 round magazines with its distinct curve.
For the most part, the US got out of the chest rig business after the war. However, UKSF used them and there was some cross pollination with US SOF over the years. US issue chest rigs, although limited at the time, go back to the 80s, and continue today.
By the time the ‘Rhodesian’ was issued via SPEAR there was already a long history of the US use of chest rigs.
For me, the earliest chest rig looking thing is the WW2 Italian paratrooper vest used to carry SMG magazines: https://s2.postimg.org/tuiynrlm1/italian_para_8.jpg
Of course, there is also the British WW2 battle jerkin – more of a modern tactical vest than a magazine carrying rig though.
I didn’t try to find how the Chinese got the idea in the first place.
You need to go back further. Although not issued in any significant numbers, the US had a chest rig called a grenade vest during WW I which was designed to carry 11 Mills Bombs.
Thanks, I had forgotten that one.
It seems that the Chinese had fabric and leather magazine carriers in service during their war against Japan. Progressively these evolved to be carried on the chest instead of around the waist, then the second shoulder strap appeared. I found illustrations scanned from an Osprey book for a few types.
I was gonna say the same thing. I actually handled that exact vest a few weeks ago, and have no evidence it was ever done, but the pouches would be perfect for Garand en bloc clips
Yep, it holds en-blocs quite well. You can fit multiple en-blocs in each pocket.
Matt
Even further I think the first vest you mentioned were actually a U.S copy of the British “bombers” vest used on the western fronts…
Either way, a great history lesson on gear from way back when!
All you gotta do is google image search “world war one grenade vest”.
Didn’t German Paras in WW2 have one with the mags sideways? I may be thinking of the Italian rig linked above.
The Fallshirmjager rig your thinking off was more of an “around the neck bandolier” than a chest rig.
http://www.godarsinc.com/index.php?main_page=popup_image&pID=406&zenid=qplqbp6qr5gpuuuoc6rt7p8nv1
If this is the thing your thinking of.
The one you show is for 98k clips but there was a FG42 magazine version too. Quite a good idea BTW, there is a US company offering a modern version for Mosin clips.
Aware of those and the MP-40 pouches, most likely was thinking of the Italian rig.
Some german infantry attached their mp40 pouches to their suspenders. Some US troops did the same thing with the 20rd thompson pouches.
I’m pretty sure if you go back far enough there’s a visigoth carrying slingshot stones in a leather pouch across his chest.
No, the leather chest pouch for slingshot stones (technically bullets made of lead if Roman-era) predates the Visigoths by at least several hundred years, check your history, brah… I kid, really 🙂 Point well taken (as is SSD’s), the chest rig is something evolved over tens/hundreds/thousands of years…
SSD- I’m offended. I buy my TV’s from the Koreans. (I kid of course).
All look same.
Steve- thanks for picking up on that.
“that’s short for Chinese Communists, the same folks you’re buying your TVs from these days.”
Wow.
Wow is right. America is sending money to a sworn enemy.
It’s called consumerism. If Americans were willing to work for 3 dollars an hour 12 hours a day we could make TVs here too. The fact is most people like cheap electronics and other goods so the current status quo will remain.
Some “communists” really aren’t that good at being communists, like the ones who practice capitalism 🙂 I like to think of my Chinese like totalitarian socialists, they’re here to exercise supreme control, but they also wanna make a buck or trillion.
Judging by the amount of fakes on AliExpress, they’re less ‘sworn enemy’ and more ‘frenemy.’
They don’t want to destroy us, they want to be us (kind of).
Wouldn’t that be totalitarian capitalist? I prefer to think of the Chinese as economic imperialists. They are slowly taking over the economies of their rivals in a way that makes it hard to cut them off. At the same time they are building and flexing thier military muscle.
And yet, they still proudly call themselves communists.
The Australians used chest rigs in the Pacific in WW II.
I was going to reference Attack Force Z, but am not sure how historically accurate the movie was portraying this, I’ve read a few books on Z Special Force and they don’t go really in depth on kit.
Now I gotta watch that movie again.
Kill Good Swede K does
Pretty sure that’s a Smith and Wesson M76, The Carl Gustav M45B has a distinct grip.
nerd
Jon,
I agree with you that the subgun in the pic is a Smith and Wesson M76. A few of the m76s made it to Vietnam. Apparently it got mixed reviews at best.
Most people would know it only because it was the gun used by Charlton Heston in the Omega Man movie.
TLB
M76 is still one of the more inexpensive Class 3 items out there. I’m partial to the M45B myself and used to take one on most training deployments where we had excessive 9mm on the pallet. Plus, the mags fit really well in… wait for it… chicom chest rigs. Shrouded barrels with cooling holes will always be cool, regardless of performance!
Jon,
Is someone still producing them? I didn’t know that. I never got a chance to handle one but have fired the M45 a few times for training.
I was under the impression that they (M76) were not produced in great numbers and production ended way back when?
So I would have thought they were relatively rare and therefore expensive. I learn something new every day.
But I agree with you. They are cool!
TLB
Out of production, but M76 and a contemporary, similar weapon, the “Stemple”, are both rather inexpensive Class 3 items (relatively speaking, still in the thousands of $).
I beg to differ here is evidence of the chest rig being used long before the Chinese Rhodesian or American forces..
http://www.heavy-leather.com/blackbeard.htm
1716..
Nice find, but it’s really more of a holster.
So would the general consensus be that the recent (in the last 20 years) resurgence in the wide use of chest rigs in the US Army stems from 2/75’s TacTailor RACK order back in the late 90s/early 2000s?
Not in my opinion, though I will give it credit for contribution. Through the 90’s a lot of allied nations wore them around us while we served in the “no camelbaks, no altered gear” army. I think the biggest contributor was prevalence in SOF that trickled into RGR RGT (yes they were SOF then, but not given equipment flexibility the rest had) then into the conventional side. But conventional forces didn’t get chest rigs on a mass issue until about 2009. SOF (including 75th) were wearing them long prior to that. The contributing factors were far more broad based than one Battalion’s or Regiment’s unit order. In the gear industry SDS, BPG, Eagle, Pataclete, and TT were the driving force.
I think (not certain) that some 2/75 guys going into Grenada wore a chest rig-ish vest from an early gear-innovator company called Elevated Urban Operations of Florida. I base this on a write-up or ad in early 80’s “SWAT” magazine, followed by a phone conversation with their sales rep, who stated he had JM’ed the the 2nd plane on 2/75’s jump.
That was a vest.
Yes, but they were just trickling down from other units they supported which had issued them going back into the 80s.
Hmmmm…have seen pictures of USMC in WW2 with Garand & BAR belts reworked as chest rigs
Well they certainly didn’t invest chest rigs. You forgot to point out that the US has been using some sort of chest rigs back in WWI.
It was discussed in the comments.