A super minty Navy SEAL Floatcoat in poplin, complete with the correct bladder (dark grey rather than clear), thius is the rifleman version. This was the improved version of the earlier "Snap Vest", the main changes were built in sleeves, smaller pouches on the sleeves for first aid dressings/compass and the production of the coat in 3 versions; Rifleman, Radioman and Grenadier (the latter two shown below).

The jacket has a genuine Floatation Bladder inside and the top up valve and quick-inflate device can be seen on the shots of the inside. There were 1,200 jackets produced with 1/2 of these being Riflemans Jackets and the remainder being split between the Grenadier and Radionman versions. 500 were sent to Seal Teams 1 & 2 and then 100 jackets each to the UDT teams 21 & 22.

In use many jackets were modified by turning them into vests by romoving the lower pockets and sleeves to make them easier to jetison in an emergency. The Radiomans version was very unpopular as you had to remove the radio to remove the jackets, the floatation bladder was also cut-down on this version and didn't support the extra weight of the radio.

Courtesy of Bob Chatt at Vintage Productions.