Air bottle support harness

Claim 1

A shoulder harness to enable a firefighter to hand-free carry a spare compressed air bottle, comprising: an elongated strap having at a first end a strap buckle for receiving a second end of the strap having a buckle engageable portion thereon, the strap when the ends are buckled together forming a continuous loop arm sling adapted to hang from a shoulder of the firefighter, the arm sling when worn by the firefighter having a backside segment extending down the firefighter's back, a non adjustable lower loop and an adjustable upper loop vertically spaced from each other and extending rearwardly and laterally of said elongated strap, each loop being attached at one of its sides to the backside segment of said sling at one point, the lower retention loop having depending crisscrossed strap portions connected thereto forming a support to hold the air bottle against vertical downward displacement from the shoulder harness, and the upper retention loop having releasably overlapping sections opposite its attachment to the strap segment for adjustability, the overlapping sections having quick release fasteners to facilitate insertion or removal of the air bottle from the shoulder harness.