100 Objects #17: M43 Field Jacket

0:00Exterior Remodels Inner Monologues. Brought to you by Power. The house looks good. Like, really good. That siding? Stunning. The roof? Elevated. Windows? I mean, wow. The process? Smooth. The neighbors? Jealous. Choose Power Home Remodeling and remodel how you think about remodeling. Schedule your free quote on windows, siding, roofing, and doors at PowerHomeRemodeling.com. Power. Our work shows. This is a new era of wealth. A UBS financial advisor can help you with personalized advice and long-term planning to move forward with confidence. Find out what's possible at UBS.com slash new era. UBS Financial Services, Inc.

0:43Member FINRA, SIPC. It's the fall of 1918. The Great War is raging. More than a million American men have found themselves in the Meuse-Argonne offensive on the Western Front. It remains, to this day, the deadliest campaign in our military's history. And the conditions were horrendous. So it's rainy, it's muddy, it's freezing. And this is the beginning of trench warfare. These soldiers are hanging out in ditches, in the mud. People are dying everywhere. It's miserable. Avery Truffleman is the host of Articles of Interest, a show about fashion and design. So when she thinks about this miserable, awful war, she thinks about what the soldiers are wearing.

1:30They are in wool overcoats, which, you know, if you're going on a walk and it's cold outside, wool can be a really great fabric. If you're a soldier fighting and running for your life, a giant wool overcoat is horrible because it gets really wet and it gets really heavy. And then you want to take it off and then suddenly you're freezing. You just have one wool blanket that is usually wet and dirty. And then they were trapped in these awful things. The very thing that was supposed to keep these soldiers safe and warm instead caused a lot of harm. Because back then, the military didn't consider fashion a technology.

2:13They were focused on weapons, artillery, supply lines, communication. They didn't think of clothing as something to help or hurt the war effort. It was just what soldiers wore. And beyond that, the American military went into World War I totally unprepared for the climate. We had fought a war abroad before the Spanish-American War, which was like a warm weather war. And that's when we started wearing khaki. But we had never fought in like the wilds of northern Europe before. This is like extremely cold, exotic climate for the United States. and we didn't really know what we were doing yet on a large scale.

2:53So a lot of soldiers suffered. Did the military realize they had made a mistake issuing these coats to soldiers? Absolutely. Once the war ended, they were like, we've got to find a better jacket. But after the Great War, they were like, let's not focus on war right now. We're never going to have a big war ever again. That was really bad. Yeah, it was the war to end all wars. The war to end all wars. Yeah. So like that was a weird experiment. They didn't think that they needed to revisit or redesign such a jacket for such an expansive war in Europe. But when it proved true that we did end up fighting another giant war in Europe, it was time to revisit this jacket problem.

3:35The jacket problem. How should the American military outfit its soldiers to make them as safe and effective as possible? And how should such a jacket be developed? And underneath that, what happens when a symbol of military might gets stripped of its connection to the military and hits the streets? From 99 % Invisible and BBC Studios, this is a history of the United States in 100 Objects. I'm Roman Mars. Today, the incredible origin and evolution of the M43 Army field jacket. The field jacket changed what it meant to be a soldier and to look like a soldier. And it changed what we all wear every day, not only Americans, but all around the world.

4:27The United States military did not put their soldiers in wool overcoats because they thought it was the best technology. They did it because other countries put their soldiers in wool overcoats. For more than a century, they had just copied the current military superpower of the moment. You can see this very clearly in the Revolutionary War. We're basically dressing exactly like the British. It's just like they're wearing red. We're not. Then you see this in the Civil War where we're actually dressing French. Like that was the superpower at the time. And it's funny because when you look at it, we do kind of look like the soldiers from the Nutcracker.

5:02It's very like jaunty little tin soldiers, but that's what we're imitating. We're imitating the French. And then we had this really weird period, which is my favorite in military history, where we were imitating the Prussians and we wore like plumed hats and the helmets with the little spike on top. Like we wore those. We just copied whoever was the global superpower at the time. And that was the way military fashion worked. It was like, we want to look like the powerful ones. And that decision was sort of made top down. So by 1941, it's clear that the U.S. is going to join World War II. And the military knows it needs a better jacket.

5:38So how does it approach this problem? So there were a few kind of improvised solutions that were made. This one general, General Parsons, was like, my boys need something a little lighter just to wear when they're going out, when it's just a little windy and they don't want a full wool coat. And so what he did was he ordered like 300 golf jackets, like members-only jackets, and he picked the parts he liked and And he was like, sew these all together. And then they made this golf jacket, which was like so cool. So it's like a zip-up jacket, basically. It's like a windbreaker. Comes in like a khaki-ish color.

6:18Little slip pockets on the side. It looks very modern. And this cool windbreaker became known colloquially as the Parsons jacket after General Parsons. All the soldiers wanted one. Although they were terrible for soldiers. If you raised your arm, your belly would get exposed. Really didn't work if it was a little cold outside. It was not a very pragmatic, practical, like, soldier-looking jacket. And so, eventually, all these battalions, one by one, were like, well, we want our version of the Parsons jacket. Like, can we make one for parachuting? Can we make one for tankers? Can we make one that's lined for cold environments?

6:59And then the government is like issuing all these limited edition drops of this jacket for all these different battalions. And it is so impractical. It's like jacket chaos. Yeah. So there's an effort to streamline this to make the one perfect jacket. So talk to me about how you take on that monumental task. this grand task was taken on by a professor named george dorio you know he was a business professor at harvard he was an immigrant he was he was french and he was a high-ranking official in the french military and he was like i can feel this war coming i'm probably going to be put in charge of some big thing because i'm a business professor and a veteran and so he kind of decided to work in the logistics arm he was like i'll i'll do this and he sort of volunteered him himself He was like, they need someone who knows how to organize things.

7:51The funny thing is, George Dorio is not famous for his work in jacket organizing. He is famous for being the inventor of venture capital. This whole thing is a giant footnote in his life. Which is, I mean, it's very funny that this whole story is just like a fun fact about this guy. Anyway, so he takes on whatever projects the military needs help doing. and this big project that they present to him is like, okay, we need a jacket. We need one superior jacket that will look great, work in every environment for every job that a soldier has to do. Huge task. And Dorio does this amazing thing. He starts working from first principles.

8:36Again, this sounds so obvious now, but before this, the military was just being like, who's the most powerful military or what does some general want? This guy is like, well, what does keep people warm? You know, like what does repel the rain? And even though the field of physiology was budding and yeah, there were all these labs at Harvard that were putting students on treadmills and testing how much they could sweat and body heat retention. No one had done this to clothing yet. He was like, well, let's spray water at this jacket. You know, let's blow wind at this jacket. Let's use laboratories.

9:08Let's really figure out objectively what the best jacket is. And George Doria was so invested in finding the objectively greatest jacket that he was like, human test subjects aren't even enough anymore because what's cold to you? What's warm to you? So he ordered a copper dummy that was fitted out with sensors and then they put the dummy in the cold and in the heat and overnight and put different jackets on the dummy and tested, okay, which jacket keeps the dummy the warmest? I mean, rigorous, rigorous, repeated tests. Yeah. And the copper mannequin had a name. Yes. The mannequin's name was Chauncey.

9:47Very important point.

9:52And this is what makes me live out. You know, he was like, what will make the boys the most comfortable? Like, how beautiful is that? It wasn't about emulating some other army. It wasn't about what some high-ranking general wanted. it was about the people, the army of the people and like making sure they were comfortable and they were safe and they were protected. And it just makes me want to like tear up a little. I'm like, this is what we were supposed to be doing the whole time. It's so cool. And this was wild at the time to be like, we're going to treat clothes like a technology. This is as important as developing a tank or a bomb or anything else.

10:34This is military technology. Okay, so after putting Chauncey through, you know, rigorous testing, what did they find? They found that there is no one perfect jacket. They found that the best way to get different temperatures for different environments is to use a radical new concept called layering. Which is like, womp womp, I could have told you that. But they discovered that, that's what they discovered. But you couldn't have told us that in 1941. I definitely could not have told you that because they were like, oh, we just have this one wool jacket and this one lighter jacket. No, this was so revolutionary, this idea of layering.

11:19The layers that George Dorio's team came up with included a liner for warmth, a parka for the cold and a waterproof shell for rain. It was all part of a system. And at the heart of this system was a jacket. It is a cotton sateen, olive drab, floppy field jacket. Four large cargo pockets, two at the hip, two at the breast. It's got adjustable cuffs. It's about hip length, drawstrings around the waist so that you could tighten all the layers around yourself. It had this collar that you could turn up against the wind. It had all these features, but it wasn't about the jacket. It was about like the layers of the jacket and the system of the jacket.

12:01And this scientific system of a jacket was called the M43. And the M stands for model, 1943, year it was made. M43 jacket, which is a scientific name for this piece of science. It was so radical looking. I mean, now it doesn't look so weird because all modern outdoor clothes look like this. They're all modular. They're all a little baggy. They all have these different layers and hoods and elements and drawstrings and stuff like that. This was so complete. I mean, this was alien. Early jackets came with instructions printed on the inside of like, when it's raining, put on your hood and, you know, tighten it with the drawstrings.

12:49Yeah, it is kind of frumpy. Like it's sort of like it's sort of born with wrinkles and the wrinkles. And it's not the tight, soldierly, you know, look. And you were supposed to live in this thing. And it had been tested not only in the laboratory, but they also took later prototypes of it out into the field, into a battle in Italy. They sent it to a thousand troops and got their feedback. And, you know, the pockets were specifically designed to fit a ration pack. You know, you could really live out of these things. They were sort of perfectly designed for the life of the average foot soldier. Yeah, yeah.

13:28I mean, the product testing with actual soldiers in the field and also the focus on function and comfort seems completely new. Super new. Super duper new. It was not about looks. It was not a costume. It was scientific, democratic, and it treated the soldier as kind of this new job in this new kind of war. So it's called M43, which means it was developed in 1943. Was this this eureka moment? They found the jacket, therefore it was outfitted with everyone, and therefore we won the war? Hooray? You'd think. You'd think. You'd be like, yay, you did it, George Dorio, you found the perfect jacket. Nope, nope, nope.

14:11Because this is the part where we encounter the villain of our story. And his name was General Robert McGowan Little John. General Little John. And General Little John is a career soldier. He went to West Point. You know, he played it all completely by the book. He rose up the ranks and he ended up as the quartermaster for the European Theater of Operations. And the quartermaster is basically the one in charge of logistics. They're in charge of boots, beans, and bullets, getting supplies to the boys in Europe. And in 1943, this meant England and Italy. And like, pretend we haven't talked about the M43, right?

14:52Okay, yeah. So in 1941 and 42, the military has the Parsons jacket, which is very cool looking, but not practical. And different divisions want their own versions. Okay, so we're back in jacket chaos early on. Little John is over in Europe and he sees all this jacket chaos and he's like, I'm going to fix it. He doesn't really know that the government is planning this giant. It's like Manhattan Project of jackets is happening. Yeah. He doesn't know. He doesn't realize that. And he's doing it the old school way where he's like, I'm a high-ranking general. I'm going to take matters into my own hands.

15:24I'm going to make a jacket. And I'm going to make the one jacket that every soldier will need. So he functionally likes the look of the British battle dress jacket. And based on that, he goes to a factory in England. And he's like, make me one of those with a few little tweaks. And he makes, admittedly, a very sharp looking jacket. I love it. It's like a wool jacket, but it's short-waisted. It's very tight. It's very dignified. It's very General Eisenhower. You got to be shaped like a Dorito chip to pull this off. It's like a very tight-fitting, elegant jacket. Yeah, yeah. And for him, he's like, oh, great.

16:02Now this is like a more practical version of the wool jacket. Soldiers don't have to change back and forth between their fancy dress and their battle dress. This will be the one jacket to rule them all. He calls it the ETO jacket. ETO, standing for European Theater of Operations. And it has like a tie. It's not, compared to what was happening with all the jacket chaos, it is more practical. But when you know that the M43 jacket is like secretly being developed in a laboratory, the ETO jacket kind of looks like a joke, you know? Because, you know, he's a general. So like his version of a versatile jacket is you stand out on a battlefield occasionally, and then you go to a dinner occasionally or something like that.

16:45You know what I mean? Like those are his versions. It's not like a trench or, you know, jumping out of a plane or. Yeah, I think it'd been a while since he'd been like boots on the ground. He didn't really know what had been a lot of change in his time. And so, but what is his thinking? Like he must have some recognition that this is not the most practical jacket in the world. So what is little John like about this? Yeah, so a big part of his logic, which I am sympathetic to, this is a time, World War II, it's a huge draft. There are men pouring into the European theater who have never fought before.

17:21They've never known this kind of discipline. and to Little John, he sees the jacket as this soldier making tool. Like you want to be a soldier, you got to dress like a soldier in the same way. That's like, you got to make your bed. You got to stand up straight. You got to wear this nice jacket. You got to come correct. You got to look good. You know, this is not about being comfortable. We're at war. And also I think a lot of it was presenting the American military to a European audience. Like looking good, looking classy. So this ambition does not a villain make. No. What makes General Littlejohn a villain?

17:58What makes a villain a villain is vindictiveness. And what's really fitting is I met this incredible military historian named Joshua Kerner. Kerner is really, really into archives and research almost obsessively. And he's uncovered a lot of this story of the field jacket that I'm about to tell you. But basically, Kerner was going through old documents and realized General Littlejohn did something really terrible. So what did General Littlejohn do? Littlejohn first catches wind of the M43 jacket. He was like, these look sloppy. What is this? What is this thing that the government back at home is making without consulting me?

18:46my jackets are so much better than this frumpy, ugly stuff. He like makes a vow then and there that he will stop the M43 jacket from ever reaching the wider military. Wow. So how does he go about stopping this? He has a tremendous amount of power. You know, he's in charge of all the supplies going into the European theater. And as the M43 jacket is slowly getting rolled out, and Dorio's like, here you go, oh, here's this jacket that I lovingly made and it's perfect. Little John's like, no, get those away from me, over my dead body, never. Our man of science, Dorio, is begging Little John, like, please, please take these jackets.

19:28You know, like winter, winter is coming and you have to order these in advance. And this is a serious winter. And he just refuses to order them. In fact, there reaches a point where M43 jackets are like packed up, ready to go to Europe. And he was like, nope, we got it. I made a jacket, I'm fine. Like, we're just going to wear my jacket over here. We don't need that. And he's making excuses. He's dragging his feet. He's putting it off for so long. And he's not really being transparent about, like, I hate these jackets. He's just like, no, no, no thanks. You know, we don't need these. So in the fall of 1944, it doesn't seem like the war is slowing down anytime soon.

20:04It's expanding throughout Europe. And all the quartermasters throughout the European Theater of Operations under Little John are turning to Little John. and they're like, hey, we don't have those new jackets that we heard about. We're probably unprepared. You can actually, like, Kerner found this letter from someone to Little John and you can see how they have to tiptoe around him. He's like, just maybe, possibly, it will be colder than you think. I know that you think you don't need these jackets, but maybe you do. It's like, and he, you can tell what a tyrant he is. Like, no one feels comfortable being like, Please order the jackets.

20:42Finally, in the fall of 1944, Little John gives in to the undeniable superiority of the M43 jacket. Yeah, Little John acquiesces and is like, OK, fine, fine, let the jackets in. I don't even care, whatever. But all that gear is waiting back in the United States, so it takes months to reach the troops in Europe. Most troops will not begin receiving M43 jackets and adequate sleeping bags and footwear and all the other stuff Dorio designed until January 1945. They had to go through like, you know, September, October, November, December, freezing. So by the time winter hits, they're in ETO jackets.

21:22They're in like dress jackets. And it's horrible. They were freezing. Many of them developed trench foot, which is disgusting. disgusting. Like, I don't want to gross anybody out, but like your skin falls off. It's nasty. And this is World War II. Communication technology has gotten really good. Like people know Americans are getting notes from their sons being like, mom, dad, I'm freezing out here. I'm given inadequate jackets. There's a sense of outrage that is building back at home of like, why aren't our boys being taken care of? They're going to freeze to death out here. They start complaining.

22:07They turn to the press. They turn to the New York Times and the Washington Post. And this becomes a massive scandal.

22:16It's called the cold weather crisis. It's a huge deal. I, you know, Joshua Kerner brought me into the quartermaster archives and we were looking at old newspapers that were covering this. This was on like page four of the Washington Post. This is not like style section stuff. It's just unignorable. So does Little John ever get his comeuppance? Like, does he ever get blamed for this? No, like no one pins this on General Little John at all. He completely gets away with it. How does he manage that? Because it's great to be friends with Dwight D. Eisenhower, who essentially like ran interference for his buddy from West Point.

22:57And, you know, Eisenhower also loved the ETO jacket. He understood where his friend was coming from. And he issues a press moratorium. You can't say anything bad about the ETO jackets. And he's like, this is for morale. You know, we have to support the troops and we can't gang up on leadership. But we all know why. It was friend nepotism. It was friend nepotism. Yeah. So the M43 fuel jacket finally makes its way to soldiers in Europe in 1945. No thanks to Little John. What happens next? Everybody is wearing these amazing jackets. And the military is cranking these things out. Especially because we are in the thick of World War II.

23:38And you and I both know, as people of the future, that there will be an atomic bomb and it will end World War II. But no one knows that the real Manhattan Project is actually happening. And most people in the military did not know that. It's widely believed that this war is just going to go on for years. Yeah, like even after the theater of Europe is sort of won. Yeah. People thought we were going to invade Japan. Like this was going to be like five more years, you know? Just like outfitting soldiers to go into Japan and occupy that as best they possibly could. Yeah. Yeah. Again, the scale of this draft is massive.

24:17There's like 12 million men. It's huge. And so every domestic manufacturing company in the United States is just cranking out these jackets. It's stockpiling them for this future war that's going to go on and on and on and on and on and on. And then it ends really suddenly and really horrifically. And in the wake of the destruction and the existential crisis created by the atomic bomb, in way lesser, way lower on the scale of problems, but still a problem, is the fact that the United States government has all these clothes they made. They made so, so many clothes. Like warehouses and warehouses and warehouses.

25:07And so what do they do? They got to get rid of it. They got to get rid of it as quickly as possible. And fun fact, the person in charge of getting rid of it was none other than General Robert McGowan Little John, which is so funny. And so this is where military surplus stores come in. And granted, we had had military surplus stores before, but they were little. They were like little specialty stores. We had never had industrial scale mass manufacturing cranking out millions of jackets on this scale before. And for a generation of Americans that had grown up during the Great Depression and didn't have big closets, this was amazing.

25:48Like the military surplus store, most of the stuff had never been worn. And they would like stock these things for a song. It's just how everybody dressed. Everybody dressed this way. It wasn't even considered a style. It wasn't considered like, oh, this military style stuff. It was just like where you went to get your basics. Before there was Walmart, there was the military surplus store. And now they have this scientifically tested jacket that can serve a lot of people in a lot of different climates. And it's actually really great. Yeah, now it's like this jacket that was the height of sophistication is available for everyone for really cheap.