Tim P said:the transition from any given uniform item to another in the US inventory is surprisingly often very protracted and the initial adoption of an item runs alongside the older stuff for years a lot of the time. From memory for instance in his work on cold war US uniforms shelby stanton states thta although the Army Green uniform was introduced for wear in 1957, the absolute ban on the brown uniform was not enforced until about 1960 or even 61. I would have to check but it illustrates how long hte changeover can be.
deeb7 said:Full Gear lists the first contracts as:
AF33(602) 4078 MA-1 MIL-J-8279 LION UNIFORM INC 1953
AF33(602) 6296 L-2B MIL-J-7448A BLUE ANCHOR OVERALL CO.INC 1955
Chris217 said:Is it safe to say by 1955-56 most Air Force light zone jackets issued to new personel were L-2b's, and not L-2a's?
Swing said:deeb7 said:Full Gear lists the first contracts as:
AF33(602) 4078 MA-1 MIL-J-8279 LION UNIFORM INC 1953
AF33(602) 6296 L-2B MIL-J-7448A BLUE ANCHOR OVERALL CO.INC 1955
That's L2B date might be right (but it's probably a year or two too early), but that MA1 date is waaaay too early. The B-15D didn't make it into the supply until mid '53 at the earliest, then you had to go through the MOD stage in '54 to '56 before the MA1 was standardized in '57 (IIRC).
~Swing
watchmanjimg said:... The one thing that throws me a bit is the progression from the original 8279 to the A and B models. I've seen plenty of '58-dated Bs. Does this mean that the original spec was modified twice in one year? .