Ah the 64 pattern if Karma is correct I’ll someday meet the moron who developed that. ;D
The web gear itself consisted of a belt, Y shaped yoke, and three pouches. On the right hip was a small pouch that I theory could hold 2 grenades. There was a small Velcro closing tube holder underneath it for a T-flash. At the rear there were two pouchs for a water bottle ( right rear) and mess tin carrier on the left. That was almost always used for rain gear.
The Respirator was worn on the left hip and could either be attached to the belt directly or with its own strap, worn under the webbing.
As Matt noted rather innovative with velcro closures for everything. Problem is Velcro often does not work when wet and every now and then we do have to work in the rain. You either taped everything up with gun tape which looked stylish and made it hard to adjust your webbing ( removing/ adding jackets) or prayed you didn’t have all your gear fall off during ATC.
The plastic buckle was also fragile in the arctic IIRC and damn noisy at night when buckling/unbuckling your belt.
You’ll note no ammo pouches. In theory there was no need as the new combat shirt/jacket had the distinctive slash breast pockets to carry 20 rd mags for the FNC1, there were also dividers in the bellows pockets to carry two more mags per pocket.
For the FN C2 gunners there was a chest webbing, or bra that carried 4 30 rd mags. Standard issue for the C2 was 6 mags, The 5th was on the pn and I never figured out what we were supposed to do with the sixth.
There was no official mag pouch for the SMG. Most were reissued an old 58 pattern bren gun pouch for this. There was aslo a small case for the silva compass, witrh a hard plastic liner ( actualy one of the best little parts of it) Because there was not a lot of pouches to hold up the yoke was rather light weight. Picture a couple of rifle slings stiched together in a Y shape. tehre was a funky little cross piece on the "Y" at the back where you could sew an extra combat nametape.
I seriously doubt whoever designed it was an infanteer. The web gear seemed ok for Arty and Engineer types ho just needed something to hold NBCD kit and say water bottle close to hand while doing their thing and without being too bulky and intrusive. Also because of it’s minimal size it was ok for vehicle crews. For 031s doing what they do best though it really didn’t cut it IMHO.
Like most I loved it when first issued after this Korean/WW2 vintage stuff we’d had, but to be honest I soon missed that and was raiding my old gear for ammo pouches etc.
Oh yeah Matt that nylon combat uniform was also highly flammable. Great combination with the M-113s if I recall
BTW, the reason I remember so much about it, is I'm staring at a "I love me" picture taken circa 1982 on my desk at work of my old platoon all kitted out.