Support Kit, Overhead Protection

[Robin Craig]

When were these first used in the CF and were they something that everyone was supposed to have in their web kit etc?

I assume that there have been various production runs of them over the years and so there will be a dating issue.

I know the the British military they were supposed to be carried by the infantry and other arms in the battle area or potential one.

Any input about vehicle crews having them for digging in etc?

[rob love]

I can't say I ever carried one in the webbing, mind you I was never infantry. Normally they were handed out at the position you were about to dig, along with appropriate full size shovels. You would not get very deep if you had to use the entrenching shovel.

They were also handy for covering things from the weather, which may be the reason why they became NDHQ controlled. You don't see them that often in these days of financial restraint.

Looking at the NSN on the package, I would venture to say they were introduced in the very late 60s or very early 70s. More likely early 70s. The last 7 digits of the NSN are sequential, and you can date an item's introduction by comparing the NSN with known other NSNs from the same country. In this case, the country is 21= Canada the first time around. In the early 2000s we used up all our potential numbers and had to start using the country code identifier of 20, since 22 was already used.

Note the NSN for a Cdn3 Jeep is 21-856-xxxx, so around 1970 they were using the 856 numbers.

[rob love]

18 March. 1971 according to official sources.

[Robin Craig]

Dear Rob,

Thank you for your research, helpful and informative as always