Abstract: A load-bearing vest overlay jacket (“overlay jacket”) is an overgarment configured to be joined with and fastened to a load-bearing vest (“tactical vest”) so that an open front area exists between the front left and front right of the overlay jacket, permitting a user's access to equipment on the tactical vest. Thus, the overlay jacket may provide uniform, comfortable body temperatures in colder weather, to include arm warmth and upper torso warmth, as a function of either optionally-insulated sleeve and/or torso regions of the overlay jacket, or of torso warmth provided by the tactical vest underlying the overlay jacket.