Hi,
As a soldier in mandatory military duty, we got Efud to carry all our military equipment on us: magazines, flashlights, canteens, hand granades and so on.
The word, by the way, is the Hebrew word for vest. It was made as a very thick belt with pauches attached to it, and two strips to hang on your shoulders.
Each time you had to put it on you, you had two strips on the front you had pull to tighten it to fit your body.
Only the fighters in the Rovait companies or if you had good connections in the battilion,you would get a real vest (you could always buy one, but as my Sergeant once told me after I bought a drinking bag – You do not buy military equipment, you get it).
I was never in a Rovait company, and I do not have good connections, or managed to do combina. But I do have good hands, so I sew myself a vest. It was when I was catching a line as a soldier.
In some point, I think it was when I was a basic training Sergeant, the vests became a standard equipment. Soldiers who were just drafted for service sign on vests we were only dreaming on as basic training soldiers.
Now I not only have a vest, it is even a creamic vest, which we got from donations. It is built as a MOLLE vest that allows you to attach which pauches you wish, as you wish to arrange them.
Take Care
Gad
The Efud I saw on a pile of vests and creamic vests
Front view
Back view
Soldiers with Hagor on the 1960. The Hagor was used in the IDF before the Efud, and it comes from the Hebrew word for belt – Hagora (Source: 202.org.il)