Fri Apr 24, 2020 12:00 pm
I'm sure the Navy Approved's were made well into 1958. I highly doubt that USD would discontinue the Navy Approved the first year they introduced the AM. My theory on the blue & orange colored labels is that the blue label was used on the 1957 models and was just a carry over of the Navy Type DA with the 2nd stage facing away the intake horn same as all the previous years. When the AM was introduced in 1958, the 2nd stage was rotated 180 degrees to face the intake horn and had a blue label. So to avoid confusion with 2 similar looking regulators with blue labels (remember when the AM was introduced it did not have a hookah port and looked identical to the Navy Approved from the outside), they changed the Navy Approved to the orange color label. I've documented about a hundred of these regulators and all (there were 1 or 2 oddballs out of about 100) the blue label Navy Approved regulators have the 2nd stage facing away from the intake horn and all the orange labeled Navy Approved regulators have the 2nd stage facing the intake horn like the Aquamasters.