Fall 2026 Militaria and Aviation Auction
Lot 95:
Description
VIETNAM WAR: Carter Luggage 3-Pocket Grenade Carrier, DSA-100 Contract Marked Vietnam War-era U.S. three-pocket grenade carrier, ink-stamped under the top flap Carter Luggage Mfg. Co., DSA-100-0341, with a partial Federal Stock Number reading 8465-201-501 – a commonly misdated piece of individual load-carrying equipment. This vertical canvas carrier is built as three stacked, individually flapped pockets, each intended to hold a single fragmentation or smoke grenade and each secured by its own pair of snap fasteners. It is standard-issue field equipment rather than a personally named or unit-marked item, and no individual service history attaches to this example; its interest lies in the surviving contractor and contract markings rather than in documented combat provenance. Pieces of this pattern are frequently catalogued by dealers and collectors as World War II production owing to their general resemblance to earlier three-pocket ammunition and utility pouches of that era. The stamp photographed here under the flap, however, is decisive: the DSA-100 contract prefix identifies procurement through the Defense Supply Agency, the body that oversaw military logistics contracting from 1961 onward, and the 8465 Federal Supply Classification is the standard code for individual field equipment issued to U.S. ground forces of the period. Together these markings place manufacture squarely in the mid-to-late 1960s, within the vast procurement effort that outfitted American infantry – Army and Marine – for operations in Vietnam. Faint pencil or ink notations visible on the interior of the lower pockets (partially legible fragments resembling unit or property markings) are consistent with issue and personal marking practice but cannot be further identified from the photographs. Constructed of heavy olive drab cotton canvas with bound flap edges and box-stitched seams, the carrier presents three full-width compartments in vertical stack. Each pocket flap closes with two metal lift-the-dot style studs, the fastener finishes showing a mix of brass and steel-toned hardware consistent with wartime production variation. The ink stamp beneath the uppermost flap, though faded, remains partially legible and clearly shows the Carter Luggage Mfg. Co. name above the DSA-100 contract number and FSN reference. Condition is very good for the type: light overall surface soiling and scattered small rust-toned spotting, with verdigris build-up at several of the metal snaps and eyelets consistent with age and storage. The canvas, webbing trim, and stitching remain intact throughout, with no structural tears or seam separations, and all three pocket flaps remain fully functional. A correctly dated, contractor-marked Vietnam War grenade carrier whose DSA stamp settles a frequently confused period attribution and preserves a small, verifiable piece of the era’s logistics record.
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