Original Item: Only One Available. This is a lovely pair of Mid-War khaki athletic shorts which was worn and used by a member of the famed 101st Airborne Division during WWII. The shorts feature a lovely Airborne patch rocker machine sewn on the right front of the shorts. All buttons are present and the black buckle and belt on the front is fully functional.

There is a tag in the rear pocket but it has almost completely faded away. We can make out a size 30 and that they were produced by Brook Mfg Co in what appears to be the year 1943. The condition is excellent with signs of minor use, fading and little to no staining.

Comes ready to display!

The Army first introduced a formal fitness test to its troops in 1942. Millions of men were being called up to fight in World War II, and not all of them were prepared for the rigors of combat. To get the men in fighting shape, the Army implemented a systematic physical development program as part of the Combat Basic Training course. And the Army Ground Forces Test was designed to assess whether the program was having its desired effect. The AGFT involved a battery of five events: squat jumps, sit-ups, pull-ups, push-ups, and a 300-yard run. The emphasis was on functional fitness and giving American GI’s the strength, mobility, and endurance they would need to tackle real tasks on the battlefield.

The training program and fitness test which were developed during the war were codified in the 1946 edition of FM 21-20, the Army’s physical training manual.