Beautiful jacket splinter American m69 vietnam war in very good conditions and completissimo.Il "Body Armor Vest M69" was the last evolution of personal protective equipment developed by the US Army since the Korean War and culminated in the development point of '' Armor, Body, Fragmentation, Protective Torso, M1952A "also used in Vietnam in the early stages of the conflict. Both the '' M52 'and the' "M69" was designed to ensure a certain level of protection of vital areas of the body against the shards and fragments of shell (but not against the bullets of small arms) and were manufactured from a series of the fiber layers of ballistic nylon "sealed" inside a casing vinyl in turn enclosed in an outer lining nylon "Olive Green OG-106". L '"Armor Vest M69" was made from 12 layers of ballistic nylon in the frontal area, 10 in the dorsal (reinforced by two other layers in the cord) and 6 layers in the one of the neck.

Compared to the "M52", the '"M69" showed some improvements the most obvious of which was made by the introduction of a collar 3/4 act to ensure greater protection in the neck and neck. The total weight of the jacket was about 4.5 kg and the cost of production amounted to $ 35 era. As the date of official adoption of '"Armor Vest M69" dated back to 1962 (according to other sources in 1965), its distribution among the troops in Vietnam did not happen before 1968. The' "M69" was manufactured in two main variants (known as the "Series 823" and "122 series") different from each other primarily for the central locking system (zipper + automatic in the first case, integrally Velcro in the later variant): the latter was also manufactured in a series measures x-small to better adapt to the small size of South Vietnamese soldiers. Since 1969 the jacket was equipped with an inner insert reinforced plastic in order to stiffen the whole. As the jacket "M69" provided a reasonable level of personal protective equipment, its manufacture was not without its flaws: the main problem was surely his excessive weight made him extremely uncomfortable to wear especially in hot and humid climate of Vietnam; the outer lining nylon tended to tear or break easily, especially when driving in areas with dense vegetation, also preventing an adequate transpiration of the body, while the particular configuration of the collar interfered with the rear flap of the helmet when the soldier was in prone position. Precisely because of these reasons, the shrapnel-proof vest "M69" was used mainly by the ground troops deployed in static defensive positions, the crews of armored vehicles and tanks as well as by the crews of river patrol boats, ovverossia in situations where its use did not involve excessive physical strain on the part of the wearer.