Original Items: Very Few Available. IMA just came into possession of a limited amount of UNISSUED and UNOPENED Carlisle Model First Aid Packets, all in “New Old Stock” condition! These all came from a contract dated June 25th, 1943, making this perfect for WWII issue! It doesn’t get any better than this and would be perfect for completing displays. Be quick as these will not last long.

Each comes ready for display.

History & Development of the Carlisle Bandage
The Carlisle Model First-Aid Packet was originally designed at, and took its name from the Carlisle Barracks Military Reservation, Pennsylvania in the early 1920s, the same place where the “Medical Department Equipment Laboratory” was first established on October 1, 1920. First Aid Packets had been in use with the US Military since before the coming of the Great War in the form of the FIRST AID PACKET – U.S. ARMY.

This dressing, already developed in 1904, and subsequently introduced in 1906, was supplied to the troops in a sealed brass casing, to protect the bandage inside against gas attacks, and to also ensure that it remained sterile. Early examples of these First Aid packets were opened by pulling a metal D-ring, which separated the two halves of the packaging, revealing the paper-sealed bandage within (contents consisted of 3 separate items: one sterile bandage, another sterile bandage, and two large safety pins). As medical advances and discoveries

were made, it was found that the First Aid Packet was inadequate for dealing with front line casualties and wounds (nevertheless, millions were produced during World War 1).
Following the Great War, millions of First-Aid Packet – U.S. Army (manufactured by Bauer & Black, Chicago, U.S.A.) containing small sterile dressings and carried by each soldier in a pouch attached to his pistol or cartridge belt, were still available packed and sealed in their little brass Olive-Drab container. Notwithstanding the general policy to utilize existing stocks first, the Medical Equipment Laboratory (part of the Medical Field Service School, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania) started investigating methods to improve existing medical equipment and explore the possibility of introducing new products. Studies were started in 1922 which would ultimately lead to a new First-Aid Packet, U.S. Government, Carlisle Model (new metal container with improved contents). The 1927 Depression and budget restrictions would however hold up manufacture, although its characteristics were widely known to the US Army authorities, with the ‘new’ item being designated First-Aid Packet, New Style.

Very early examples of the Carlisle Bandage tin were issued in sealed, pressed brass, rectangular containers (cover, box, and seal), once again designed to ensure the sterility of the bandage contained within. These early examples of the First-Aid Packets did not yet contain a Sulfanilamide Shaker Envelope (only introduced by end of 1941), and were painted using an Olive Drab #7 color shade. Containers manufactured by the Medical Department workshops did not bear the Department’s markings, while those supplied by Bauer & Black of Chicago, displayed the manufacturer’s name. More manufacturers would receive Government contracts.