When I was at Virginia Tech in 1976 I managed to snag a World War II mountain troops field jacket in unissued condition for a nominal sum. Three hippie-types driving a 1950s station wagon had a breakdown and they were selling their possessions to raise money for repairs.

The jacket was different from the standard WWII one in major ways -- it had a zipper on the front and on its pockets and also a G.I. khaki belt that went through a tunnel around the waist . The buckle was the old-fashioned hollow square kind, not the shiny brass of the dress uniform or the 1950s.

The jacket had a cargo compartment in the back that opened with a zipper, as well as adjustable packstraps inside. I read that the straps were not for carrying cargo in the back, but rather to allow the jacket to be taken off and carried on the back when temperatures in the mountains go from winter at night to summer during the day.

The firm Willis & Geiger is said to have been the company that made these jackets. They were a rich-guys' outfitter based in NYC that sold outdoor stuff to Theodore Roosevelt, Amelia Ehrhart and Earnest Hemingway. W&G designed and made the main Army Air Corps leather jacket of WWII.

W&G went out of business around 10 years ago, Their business model was to sell extremely expensive reproduction military stuff to guys who are legends in their own minds, like the author Tom Clancey. (You can see him on his back covers wearing his Ray-Bans and their flight jackets.) The last owner of W&G, Land's End, let the company go under about 10 years ago because of its financial problems.