USMC P44 Camouflage Jacket

[a2jacketpatches]

The USMC P44 is a rare bird, I spotted a small piece from about 20 feet away, hung up on the wife, and bought it for three bucks. The stones patch was 3 bucks as well and I believe made back in the 70's considering the groovy clothing it was with.

 

[Peter Graham]

Cool jacket. Never seen one before. Are the poppers for closing large chest pockets ?

 

[a2jacketpatches]

Cool jacket. Never seen one before. Are the poppers for closing large chest pockets ?

Yes, they are fairly large inside chest pockets

 

[foster]

I think those chest pockets would also accommodate inflatable air bladders to act as a life preserver.

 

[RudyN]

I have one, but it is solid green. You were at the right place at the right time. :mrgreen:

 

[a2jacketpatches]

You're right about the bladders Sean, just looked it up. I thought that these pocket were useless, now it makes sense.

And yes RudyN, good thing about this swap meet is nobody really specializes in military, the one guy that did is gone for a year or so before I showed up. There's guys that notice the obvious like a blade or helmet, but this is hunting cammo to most of them and a few weeks back they all threw my two F-1 flight suits to the side in pursuit of WW2 Navy pants

 

[Willy McCoy]

I think it might be older than that. I have seen examples of gear with that exact pattern that would sugest an earlier date. One item I saw was a Ridgway pop-up cap that the Army stopped using in the early 60s.

 

[a2jacketpatches]

I think it might be older than that. I have seen examples of gear with that exact pattern that would sugest an earlier date. One item I saw was a Ridgway pop-up cap that the Army stopped using in the early 60s.

It's a later model 1944 with horizontal button holes, earlier models had vertical holes. This P44 shirt didn't see much service until Iwo Jima.