Can you help me identify a US Navy Issue Peacoat?

[Atticus Finch]

Here's a helpful post from another forum that seems to be well fairly well documented. I stumbled across it last night while I was looking for something else. It isn't peacoat specific, but it has some good information with respect to the DA, DSA, DLA and SPO.

http://www.vietnam-airsoft.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=1995

AF

 

[Peacoat]

Thanks, Atticus. That is too much for my mind to comprehend this afternoon. It certainly seems to be a comprehensive listing of the more modern prefixes; however, they are using a different system than that used for peacoats in the early years. They don't mention the QM prefix, the TAP prefix or the N prefix, which can all be used with good results for dating earlier peacoats. For instance the QM prefix generally indicates a 1958 peacoat, a TAP prefix generally indicates a 1953 peacoat and the N prefix indicates a coat prior to 1953. These prefixes and contract numbers are not always given or are not always legible, thus the importance of knowing the style of the tag and the year or years it is associated with.

My method of dating the peacoats was not to use the prefix numbers exclusively, but to talk to the veteran, or his family and determine when he went in the Navy and was issued the peacoat. From doing that over several years, I could see the differences, sometimes very minor differences, in the style of the label used in each of the years. I could also see consistency between what I was being told about the veterans' entry dates and the style of the label in the peacoat, and later, and to a lesser extent, the different contract numbers that accompanied these labels.

Consistency was an important part of my research (as well as the most frustrating). If I was able to talk to the veteran or a family member who remembered the date of entry into the Navy, the labels were almost always consistent with other veterans with similar entry dates. The one major anomaly was the veteran who entered service in the mid to late 60s but who was issued a much earlier peacoat, say one made in 1953. That particular peacoat must have been lost in storage for over a decade until more peacoats were needed for VN. Then, while digging in the bottom of the barrel, the supply NCO found the 1953 coat. That is the only answer I have for that particular anomaly.

So, to sum it up, my research is based mainly on gathering direct evidence from the players at the time with help, when needed, from the contract numbers and their prefixes. My goal was not to put an exact year on a peacoat (although that would be ideal) but to give an approximate year of origin.