Posted on Apr 11, 2017
What make / model(s) of wrist-worn altimeter was the military using during the Vietnam War?
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Responses: 5
If I ever needed one, it would have had to display negative altitude half the time, as I layed in rice paddy water.
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Special Forces - Fort Gulick, Panama Canal Zone - 1966
A clip of U.S. Army Staff Film Report 66-12A.
Chief, generally speaking, wrist mounted altimeters weren't used then. The altimeter was mounted with a stopwatch on a board over the belly mounted T-10 reserve. You can catch a glimpse of it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCqPFLl1T-g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCqPFLl1T-g
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I don't recall the make and model but the ones we had were off the shelf commercial models. I did find my goggles in a box of junk a few years ago. They were leather WWII vintage aviator goggles.
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CPO Jon Campbell No one had one that I am aware of, but I was on the ground. Did they even make them for wrist wear at that time?
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CPO Jon Campbell
The MA2-30 for the military from 1968 until 2015, but I'm under the impression they were for HALO jumpers. I doing some research and I'm hoping to find someone who used one or knows who they were issued to and for what kinds of missions.
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Not sure they existed then and if they did probably would have been the size of a toaster..
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