M65 Field Jacket in Black - are there any good ones?

[P5640blouson]

Nice buy

There are many Vietnam and post Vietnam era M-65s out there. There's a plethora of Vietnam era army garments period. Looking for one is part of the fun, IMO. Even if one were to choose a Buzz copy or a Real Mccoys, the sizing would still have to be considered carefully given the fact that the cut is different and they are all considered normal length garments. The mil ones clearly state what chest size and height the jacket is for. I have 4 M-65s, two in woodland camo and two in UCP (latest ACU pattern with more brownish tint added than the initial ACU pattern).

Out of my 4, I have 1 ACU M-65 that is brand new with nsn tags on display with all the regulation velcro patches and tabs in place from my last service period. This brand new one repels water as a brand new Quarpel treated garment should and is my demonstrator of what this neat jacket is.

I'm finding more excitement for the M-65 than the leather jackets in my collection at the moment due to the history of the garment in terms of military provenance and personal experience.

BR

 

[P5640blouson]

Example of near perfect constructed M-65

Example of near perfect constructed mil issue M-65, the real deal

 

[Seb Lucas]

Got One - Great!

Finally got an Alpha in black. Great quality. :eusa_clap Very thick material and sound stitching. A better job than my military issue Australian field jackets (which is a similar cut and identical material). I'm surprised as I can't imagine the Alpha being made much better. Thanks all for the advice. I got an M which fits like a large.

 

[Edward]

Over Christmas, I wandered through the part of Belfast where my favourite old army surplus shop used to be (for those that know it, that was Alcatraz in the Corn Market area, in a block now since gone to make way for the Victora Centre opened a coupel of years ago. McCann's camping, the parent-shop - in both senses, Alcatraz was run by the son of the business owners in there - is, to my knowledge, still going in the Smithfield Market out behind Castle Court (on the corner of Wine Tavern Street)). I remember back in the 80s they used to be full of American 'combat jackets', as we called them then, which I now realise to have been M65s. I never owned one myself - I always went for the cheaper German equivalents, I think - but they were typically worn with German combat trews, and those (West) German army shirts you still see everywhere (presumably still issued in post-reunification Germany). Cheap workwear for some, alternative / anti-mainstream fashion wear for the rest of us. The strongest memory I have of the place, aside from that wonderful slightly musty smell, was that at least 50% of the kit had been dyed black. Real, issue items, simply mass-overdyed in black. At the time, I simply put it down to offering an alternative to military green for civilian use, though I have since read claims that this mimics the behaviour of US Special Ops personnel in Vietnam, who apparently were known to dye their combat uniforms black before going into the field. Any truth in this? I wodner how much, too, it simply arises from the notion that black uniforms have a sinister-cool appeal to them, in part the result of Hugo Boss's design intent behind the Allgemeine SS uniform?

 

[Atticus Finch]

...I have since read claims that this mimics the behaviour of US Special Ops personnel in Vietnam, who apparently were known to dye their combat uniforms black before going into the field. Any truth in this?

I have never heard of this practice, and I have never seen an issued black M-65 or issued black fatigues, but that certainly doesn't mean that it didn't happen. One thing to consider, though....the VC frequently wore something that looked like black PJs. I'm not sure that I'd want to be humping through the boonies dressed in black, looking much like MR. Charles, with swarms of jittery door gunners flying around overhead.

AF

 

[Edward]

I have never heard of this practice, and I have never seen an issued black M-65 or issued black fatigues, but that certainly doesn't mean that it didn't happen. One thing to consider, though....the VC frequently wore something that looked like black PJs. I'm not sure that I'd want to be humping through the boonies dressed in black, looking much like MR. Charles, with swarms of jittery door gunners flying around overhead.

AF

Jinkies, no. Looking like "the enemy" is a bad thing in any combat zone, I'd have thought.... not least in one where most of the participants are basically frightened kids!

 

[Seb Lucas]

Black

Edward you just reminded me that I used to see army gear (not sure if it was Australian) died black too in our disposal stores (1980's). It was a kind of blue/black. No idea why but it may have been an attept to sell army gear to civilians by changing the look a bit. Regular army colours were not always wanted.

I wanted a black M-56 beause it makes them a little more formal and I can wear it in more places without it looking too much like an army item. Much of my clothing is black.

 

[Edward]

Edward you just reminded me that I used to see army gear (not sure if it was Australian) died black too in our disposal stores (1980's). It was a kind of blue/black. No idea why but it may have been an attept to sell army gear to civilians by changing the look a bit. Regular army colours were not always wanted.

Back in Belfast in the 80s, most of us who wore it as fashion (rather than workwear) were metalheads at the time (or, by 89, disenchanted ex-metalheads who had "discovered" punk and were evolving into what we would later be told was 'grunge'), so while the army stuff had a certain appeal, black was very much the shade du jour for clothes in general.... That and bearing in mind that squaddie patrols on the street were still the norm in Northern Ireland back then, along with a fair few oft-repeated stories about people being accidentally shot by either terrorist or soldier, a lot of us had parents that didn't want us running about in head to toe military green, just in case! Camo was utterly verboten in our household on those grounds. Black was seen as something of a compromise.... I wonder too whether there was some offshoot from mainstream fashion in there too: I remember black denim first(?) appearing in the early-mid 80s. (Levis had that famous 501s TV ad - young, hip Elvis lookalike is admitted to nightclub by doorman despite "No Blue Jeans" sign, as the former's new 501s are clearly black - all to the strains of Ben E King's Stand By Me). Actually, I remember 501s becoming a huge must-have among the fashion set from about 1985 to about 1997 or so, when they were suddenly cheap and plentiful everywhere.... Alcatraz got hold of a supply of them from some penitentiary in the US that used them as a uniform, and threw them out when they got worn or ripped. Kids were paying out £35 a pop for these badly mauled "Genuine! American! Levi 501s!" Then £50 in the shops - heck of a lot of money back in those days. Fashion, eh? [huh]

I wanted a black M-56 beause it makes them a little more formal and I can wear it in more places without it looking too much like an army item. Much of my clothing is black.

Yes, that makes absolute sense. Still a very casual jacket, but somehow much more wearable in a civilian contet. I suppose that's some sort of social-conditioning we all have experienced, green being so associated with the military as to be thought of as only combat clothing. Funny how you can dress head to toe in that sort of stuff in green and folks will think "soldier", though the same clothes in all black won't have the same automatic "SWAT Team" response.

 

[Splitcoil]

After a lifetime of cursing the M-65 (grew up an Army brat, and it was the jacket of choice for metalheads and Army kids too poor to afford a real winter coat), a friend of mine gifted me a Buzz Rickson/William Gibson black M-65. I love it now. Great design, supremely practical and looks quite sharp in black. The Rickson is of a quality you'd expect out of them (the zip in particular is great), though I'm not sure I'd be willing to pay what they ask for them.

The tragedy of it is that it's cotton. [huh] But I'll still be wearing it a lot when the weather warms up and dries out a bit.

 

[Seb Lucas]

Cotton? That's interesting I thought it would be a repo 50% cotton 50% poly. The Alpha a is pretty amazing bit of fabric and stitching, so I'm relieved.

I'd like a Buzz MA-1 in black - but I won't pay the money...