The Crowood Press Ltd EM37 American Web Equipment 1967-1991

From the beginning of the twentieth century, United States military individual load-carrying equipments were fabricated mainly of cotton duck and cotton webbing. Throughout the First and Second World Wars, as well as the Korean War, cotton-based load-carrying equipments served the infantryman with little change in their design and construction. In 1954 a new load-carrying system was developed to meet the needs of the infantryman on the perceived battlefields of the Cold War. At the onset of the Vietnam War it was clear that this new cotton-based webbing system was not acceptable for use in the humid environment of the jungles of Southeast Asia.