When doing this sort of things for years, one starts to run out of effective wording to describe the garments. A man can only describe military jackets as “rare” and “extremely rare” so many times before they start to loose a bit of the oomph!

But this parka in rare. Very, VERY rare. It is rare to find it with the liner intact, it is rare to find it with a working perfect zipper, it is rare to find one NOT covered head to toe in stains….it is nearly impossible to find all these things together, in great condition.

This is a BEAST. While often mistaken for the much more common USAF M47 belted parka of approx the same era, this version was issued exclusively to the great USMC during the Korean War of the early 1950’s.

The men found themselves pushing further and further North into Korea an enduring unbelievably harsh cold weather, and incredibly viscous fighting. A number of surplus WW2 patterns were worn throughout the campaign, as well as a number of newer designs (such as the wonderful M51 Fishtail parka, of which we also have for sale!) but this USMC pattern took things to the next level. The arrived to the front lines just in time for the great Battle Of Chosin, which is how they got their nickname.

It is the longest parka we’ve ever seen, going down nearly to the wearer’s ankles which makes for an exceptionally comfortable experience.

The parka is wearable during all seasons due to it’s completely removable, heavy, soft, warm, extremely high quality alpaca wool pile liner.

The parka also features a number of large pockets, as well as a perfect 1940’s KWIK zipper, and they did away the the belt and went for adjustable side tabs which gives a much more flattering fit.

It would be very difficult to find a finer example than this. We have been searching for many, many years to find one like this.

Tagged size Medium
pit to pit 22.5”
shoulder to shoulder 21”
shoulder to cuff 25”
shoulder to bottom 46”