Yeas; the ALICE rucksacks would be correct for 1980s equipment. the only pieces you wouldn’t use are the sleeping bags, the IFF panels and the MRE boxes; the ones in this set are post Desert Storm MRE boxes; back in the 80s, C-Rations were still the norm.
That’s not entirely correct, I arrived at boot camp in august 12, 1983, almost exactly 40 years ago. We had C Rats and MRE’s at that time. After boot camp I only had MRE’s and never saw C Rats again, all through the 80’s and prior to Desert Storm
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My experience is just a little later; I got to BT on October 21, 1984 and 1st Gen MRE’s were the only thing we had - though plenty of old hands decried the loss of their beloved C’s. Never saw a single C Ration my whole time in.
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I arrived at sunny Ft. Benning for Infantry School November 2nd, 1982 and “graduated” February 24th, 1983. All through Infantry School we had C Rats (some dating back to Vietnam!) but once I got to my duty station it was MRE’s from then on, so regular Army had MRE’s from February '83 onwards.
The back pack in the old Tamiya us tank accessories set is it correct or not for the 80s? Compared to the small back pack in the other set it is noticable lower.
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The older Tamiya accessory set comes with the correct original style MRE boxes. MREs replaced C-rats in the early/mid 80’s. During OSUT at Benning in winter 83/84 we changed over from C-rats to MREs. The Marines had them at least in '83, because they were selling them to the owner of the army surplus store where I worked at that time before I enlisted. I remember it was late spring or early summer '84 for us at Ft Polk when the change occurred between the ration types. We had only MREs during REFORGER '84.
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I joined the NJ National Guard in 1982 after my regular Army tour. We had M48A5s and were issued BDUs some guys had OG field jackets some had BDU ones. In 1982 we already had MREs and never got C-rats. Our M48s had top loading aluminium air cleaners. I use the Tamiya kit myself, almost everything in it applied to the 1980s US Army.
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Come to think of it, when we were issued uniforms in basic in 1983, Ft. Leonard Wood, we got BDU’s, but also got one OD green field jacket each. And when I got to the 3D ACR at Bliss in 1985 some of the senior NCO’s were still wearing old school OD green tuck-in uniforms. And to top that off, our hot weather uniforms were Vietnam style OD green jungle fatigues with the slanted pockets, they were badass looking! Only the 3D ACR had them at Ft. Bliss. And to top THAT off, when we saluted CAV officers we belted out “Brave Rifles Sir!”, they responded, “Veterans!” When you did that to a non CAV officer, wearing jungle fatigues, they had no idea what the hell was going on or how to respond!
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Been collecting militaría for half my
Life and I’ve come across many of those uniforms. This top is an original 1969 manufactured rip stop poplin set. OG-107 Class I.
Popular amongst the Ranger instructors back in the day.
Hell; got lucky and found a set of Spec-6 rank to go along with the top. My uncle got out of Nam as a Spec-5 back in 1969 while he was with the 101st Air Assault.
He wore the older sateens.
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Wow, nice! I wish they still had spec 5 and 6, it sucked making sergeant, way too much responsibility 
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You’re telling me? I got out as an E-4 in the Reserves after 15 years. Wanted to go E-5, but my chain of command wasn’t too keen at the idea. Don’t get me wrong; I was a good soldier, just not a “Yes Man” for the leadership, IYKWIM.
Though I’m pretty proud to have worn three separate sets of uniforms during my time in service.
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Damn! Lotta years in the E4 mafia!
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Yessir! Taking shamming to an art form. 
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