COLD WAR WARRIOR
had relied heavily on
Korean War-era steel
helmets and flak jackets
(and even flak shorts
for some troops) and
consequently suffered
from the age-old
compromise between
protection and mobility.
Early 1983 saw the
introduction of the
Personal Armour System for Ground Troops
(known as PASGT), consisting of both body
armour and the ‘Fritz’ Kevlar helmet – so
called for its similarity to the WWII German
helmet. Both these items were lighter and
more comfortable than their predecessors,
offered better protection from enemy fire
and came with camouflage covers that
matched the 1981 BDU.
It is also interesting to note that our
paratrooper has adopted the common
airborne affectation of covering his helmet
cover with a net to make attaching local
foliage easier, and an elasticised band
with two luminous ‘cats eyes’ which make
staying in formation during night patrols
easier. Lastly, and of interest to airsofters
wanting to keep their impression looking
authentic, the US Army realised that a high
proportion of battle casualties were eye
injuries that could easily be avoided with
basic protection. To this end the protective
additional kit. Clipped
to the front of the web
suspenders is a compass
pouch (commonly used
to carry a variety of
items) and slung on
the soldier’s left side
are his respirator bag
for his M17 gas mask
and the (airsoft-safe
plastic) bayonet for his
rifle. Most soldiers did not carry a sidearm,
although this was more common among
regular soldiers in the US Army than in other
NATO forces – but here our man carries one
as a practical back-up for airsoft skirmishing.
Of perhaps equal importance is the
soldier’s main personal weapon. The original
M16 was (at its inception) one of the
worst military rifles ever produced. Early
models were fragile, prone to stoppages,
and wasteful, with their full-auto capability
and short 20-round magazines. Learning
the lessons of Vietnam, the M16A2 of the
early 1980s was better engineered, more
robust and had deleted the capability for
fully-automatic fire in favour of a three-round
burst option. With the aforementioned
side arm and the M72 LAW anti tank
rocket launcher slung over his shoulder our
paratrooper is ready for anything! ■
“Perhaps the most important
revision was the inclusion of
the US Woodland camouflage
1981 pattern uniform”
wraparound ‘eye armour’ glasses were
trialled and issued to some frontline troops,
to help minimise painful and disabling eye
injuries as early as 1982.
Our airborne soldier is fully kitted out
for a fighting patrol; his webbing looks
superficially the same as the Vietnam-era
M56 webbing but is in fact the improved
nylon All Purpose Lightweight Load Carrying
Equipment (or ALICE) that was developed in
the 1970s to replace the M56 and M67 sets.
At the time, US ALICE webbing was cutting
edge technology and was even popular with
British soldiers, as the clip-on pouches easily
fitted in alongside Britain’s own 58 pattern
webbing.
Our soldier here carries the standard
layout of twin ammo pouches for his
M16 (each pouch can carry a ready to use
fragmentation grenade clipped to each side),
a water bottle, entrenching tool and the
ever-popular ‘butt pack’ haversack for storing
Next issue: The Soviet Motor Rifles of the
3rd Shock Army
www.airsoftactionmagazine.com
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