Vietnam War Era M-1961 Canvas Butt Pack

This is a G.I. canvas butt pack of the M-1961 variety. It is in used, very good condition. It is slightly faded from use. The pack is clean and there are no holes or tears. The waterproof collar is supple and serviceable. Unfortunately a previous owner wrote his name on the front flap and body.

After WWII and Korea, the U.S. Army decided that in the mechanized and helicopter airmobile age, there was no reason for soldiers to be overburdened by the necessity of carrying a cumbersome and tiring subsistence load on their backs. The fundamental items that a fighting man would need to fight and survive in the nuclear age battlefield could be carried on his person, and heavy individual equipment as well as resupply could be brought in by truck or helicopter. This would relieve the infantryman of his ancient and honored role as a pack mule for his own gear. This was a fairly revolutionary idea ushered in by the M-1956 combat equipment. Unlike its predecessors, the M-1956 Load Bearing Equipment did not feature a complimentary rucksack for large loads.

The original M-1956 pack proved to be inadequate for this vision. It was much too small and lacked any protection from the elements. It was replaced by the M-1961 pack which was about twice the size of the original and featured an interior waterproof collar to protect a soldier's belongings from the elements.

Although the idea of the small "Combat Field Pack" (or butt pack) was revolutionary, it proved to be inadequate for the needs of the infantryman in Vietnam. By 1966, the butt pack was almost completely out of use in Vietnam in favor of the lightweight rucksack. Nonetheless, the U.S. Army continued to use the butt pack as its primary field pack in Stateside training and in Europe. It was superseded by the adoption of the ALICE system rucksacks in 1972. Although the ALICE packs and the later nylon "Field Training Packs" were supposed to replace the canvas M-1961 butt packs, the M-1961 packs soldiered on for years. They were prized by soldiers well into the late 1990's as more durable alternatives to the nylon butt packs.