Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan – U.S. Marines here are protecting their, um, assets with new, state-of-the-art ballistic underwear.
The undergarments, which are similar to spandex shorts, have a special material that helps protect their private parts from shrapnel and debris during a blast.
It sounds funny and there are many jokes that can be made about it – but the gear is a serious piece of equipment that can really make a difference for a wounded soldier or Marine.
Never wore Skivvies in Vietnam, these wouldn’t work there! There are some out there that could have used them though. Harry 1371
After you got galded the underwear came off and were thrown away. When I came home it took me a couple years to start wearing them again
AMEN Harry!! Bob 1381, Vietnam 66-67.
Just like Harry, it didn’t take long to learn that “au natural” was the best option in RVN and other places which I visited while in The Corps. I’m sure that the guys who will end up remaining in Afghanistan after 9/11 will need grosses of these. Semper Fi!!!
Just don’t FART! The blast, well you know, lol.
Do these come in an XXL size?
IT WAS OCTOBER OF 1966 IN CHULAI A 1/7… I STOPPED WEARING UNDERWEAR…
IT’S ALMOST JULY OF 2021 AND I STILL DON’T OWN A PAIR OF SKIVVIES…
I only wear skivvies on visits to the Doctor.
Gung Ho brother!
I see comments of ‘I didn’t wear skivvies’. No one wore flack jackets because they were cold. I remember a buddy in the 1980’s telling me about getting a few beers under his belt and pulling out a piece of shrapnel that was working its way out from his one remaining testicle. He was Army – 101st Airborne. Good to know that there is some protection out there now.
Actually, there was a crotch protector accessory that would snap on to the style of flak jacket used in Vietnam. However, I never saw anyone who used it, or even knew that it was available. It was too restrictive and caused severe crotch rash. The only one I ever saw in use was on an Air Farce security policeman at Phu Cat when we dropped-in on our way to Nha Trang. He was also wearing very stylish tiger stripe untilities. Semper Fi!!!
During his second tour of Vietnam 68/69 serving with 1/9 my dad was critically wounded and medevac to the nearest hospital which was an army field hospital, The nurse who triaged him seemed annoyed and asked him “why do you marines always get wounded below the waste?” To which my dad replied, “Because we wear our flak vests”
Hey Jarhead,
I’m in dire need of a catalog.
Sempre,
GySgt Warren C. McLeod
970 471 3876
justzacook@aol.com
Nam 67-68. Haven’t worn skivvies since.
Frank Walker, SSgt, CWO-3, Capt (Ret)
No skivvies……..now you know why utilities only had buttons…….And that’s the rest of the story!! 🙂
Those oversized John Wayne skivs also com with double holstersfor however you need to use them.
I was a grunt in northern I CORP during 1967-68. I soon shed the skivvies too. I remember going through a vill on a patrol in late 1967. Before, I had somehow badly ripped open my utility trousers (crossing a barbed wire fence, I think). I remember villagers laughing and pointing at me. By then my trousers were no more than a badly shredded kilt.
When I got back to the World and started wearing the white briefs I’d grown up wearing, I remember sweating out a reddish stain for many, many months. Anybody else have that problem? (And yes, I did a LOT of scrubbing “down there!).
All of us who went thru Paris Island in Plt 3062 in the summer of 1966 knew for certain that all Marine Corps Drill Instructors wore Steel Wool Skivvies. During my tour on OCS (Over Choppy Seas) the first thing my squad leader said to me was pvt. we need all your underwear and socks to help keep the 81 mortar in combat readiness. It is a shame and a disgrace that Marines had to give up our clothing for gun rags, while the panty waist AF had the finest of everything, and unless they were pilots they never knew what it was like to dig a fox hole while being shot at, or what C-Rats tasted like.