A few weeks ago I participated in an unboxing of a modified M65 field jacket and other gear worn on Operation Eagle Claw, the 1980 raid into Iran to attempt to free American hostages held by Iran.
Since then, several unit veterans have come forward to allow Dave Hall, President of the Silent Warrior Foundation charity to examine their jackets. In this second video, Dave meets with retired Sergeant Major Phil Hanson.
We’re fortunate that they produced not just one video during this visit, but two.
In the first unboxing video there were some surprises like the dog tags and watch cap. This time we get to see the non-issue boots worn by SGM Hanson in Iran along with some other items. You have got to watch these videos, if just to see the rigger modification to the Bianchi holster to make it a drop leg.
The information gleaned from these videos isn’t just of historical significance. The Silent Warrior Foundation is working Bergspitze Customs and Alpha Industries to recreate 10 examples of these jackets for a charity auction as part of their upcoming Whiskey and War Stories honoring Operation Eagle Claw event in August.
The jacket reproductions and many other items will be available for auction on www.auctionfrogs.org during the event.
Wow… Eric, thank you for posting this update. The Devil’s in the details and BOTH videos really show just how much devilish detail went into Operation Eagle Claw’s missions’ equipment alone. REALLY hoping Alpha Ind’s does a production-run of this jacket and some of the other ‘mission-specific-kit’ for the folks who can’t attend the auction(perhaps with further proceeds also going to The Silent Warrior Foundation?). As our Mr. Spock very likely would’ve remarked about this topic-matter: “Fascinating, Captain…”.
P.S. Looking forward to the next instalment!!!
Best thing you’ve ever put up. Everything about those videos speak volumes, from the man himself to the things he doesn’t say and of course the gear. This oughta be shown on every prep course. Bring back the DIY problem solving mentality.
Also it’s interesting note some of the stuff used by the first teams into Afg in 01 share a similar mentality.
Thank you!
Remember one of these guys was a guest speaker at a JROTC dinner back in the early 1980s. It was worth hearing their ordeal of the events that had happened. The weight they had to carry on them in a M65 field jacket is very interesting. Just wished they had more pictures from that time period to share with us.
Outstanding. Many people may not realize just how rare it is to see these items outside of the Unit community. Item after item, you really see good ol’ American ingenuity on full display – so many simple yet meaningful modifications. The riggers at Bragg are geniuses. It’s amazing that all of the stitching (the jacket itself and mods) held fast under all of that weight.
It would be great if at some point in the future, Bergspitze could set it up on their site so that you could start with a standard jacket, then pick from a menu of all of the modifications (example: 1 jacket, velcro over flag patch, canvas butt pad, hidden rope) to customize it.
It would be awesome if you guys could do a feature on the grease gun.
We’ll try to put a video on the weapons together during the event.
“I had another spare jacket and I turned that one in”. This guy is me lol. Can’t count how many times I did that.