Welcome back to Combat Threads. After a bit of a hiatus, I am back with lots of great stuff planned from the intersection of conflict, culture, and clothing. Over the next few months, I will be looking at how the US Army’s old UCP camouflage is becoming the object of nostalgia among Gen Z gun enthusiasts, why Ukrainian soldiers wear American-style shoulder patches, how the connection between the military and the outdoor industry changed over the past 20 years, and much more. That will be in the weeks ahead. For now, a bit of housekeeping.
While there may not have been any Combat Threads, I have been busy. Over the summer, I reported on a story I had been researching since the early days of the war in Ukraine. The story, published in New Lines Magazine, looks at how a market sprung up around the war, trading in battle-damaged uniforms, helmets, and equipment taken off the battlefield and the dead. Here is the intro to the piece: “When the war began, 51-year-old Kostiantyn Bidnyi was living with his family in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, where he worked as a senior manager at a printing plant. Bidnyi, who goes by Kos, is an avid militaria collector of mostly WWII helmets and is active in the online community of fellow collectors on Facebook. After Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February of last year, he wanted to help his compatriots in their cause. He reached out to friends he had made online and began trading mostly German WWII helmets from his collection for modern Kevlar helmets that he could then donate to the Ukrainian army.” You can read the rest here.
I have also been working on developing a reproduction WWII US Army “jungle sweater.” This has been a unique project for me, working with the company Bronson out of China, which reproduces military uniforms for the vintage fashion market. I was fortunate enough to have the help of a close friend who had numerous original sweaters and the original WWII US Army Quartermaster Corps specifications. These are interesting garments in US military history, designed for use by mountain troops; they eventually became part of the jungle clothing list. These “sweaters” were made from incredibly lightweight wool and are akin to a modern Merino wool baselayer worn while hiking or camping. It has been a super rewarding process working to have these reproduced. This may be the subject of an upcoming Combat Threads post. If you want to pre-order one of the sweaters, you can do so here. I hope to do more products based on my research soon.
Lastly, I am now allowing subscribers to pledge/pay for subscriptions. All Combat Threads will be available to free subscribers, but if you like what I am doing and want to support, now you can! I want to bring you all more and more consistent Combat Threads, and any support from you will help make that possible.
Till next time,
C.W.M.
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Cool! I wasn't aware of a WWII jungle sweater. I have an early Vietnam "Special Forces" one, that I wish fit me, I wonder if they're similar?
And, congrats on your piece with NLM, I'm reading it right now!