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The $5 Billion Camo Snafu (Army retiring ACU)
The Daily ^ | June 24, 2012 | Erik German

Posted on 06/25/2012 4:53:08 PM PDT by JerseyanExile

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To: JerseyanExile; Lazamataz; Slings and Arrows; mikrofon; Charles Henrickson

Here's what I wear when I go clubbin'.

That's me there in the middle.

21 posted on 06/25/2012 6:56:42 PM PDT by martin_fierro (How Not To Be Seen)
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To: JerseyanExile
I disagree. This would be true if there was a one-size-fits-all camo design, but little differences like this have always sparked rivalry in the military.

Even the Navy tried to come up with something to spark that rivalry, which was stupid of course. Battleship Gray is a well-defined color. Make all Navy uniforms that color and the enemy would simply see a light-gray silhouette on the horizon and shoot at it. How dumb is that? The enemy would never be able to see the enlisted pukes cowering on decks....

Side note: I was one of ninety guys graduating from boot camp on the day Kennedy was shot. Upon hearing the news, 30 of them wanted a discharge to join the Army. "If there is going to be shooting, I want a rifle!"

30 of them wanted a complete discharge. "I only enlisted in the Navy because chicks dig the uniform!"

The rest of us said pretty much said, "Get me the hell out to the fleet. If there is going to be a war, that is exactly what I joined for!"

Of course I went into submarines. Hard to see the color of your uniform when it is hundreds of feet under the surface....

22 posted on 06/25/2012 6:57:31 PM PDT by neversweat (40 years and I still miss it!)
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To: xzins
Now let’s get after the Air Force “blue” camoflage.>p> Just where and what does that camoflage? Good question. In my day (1977-81) we wore OD fatigues with white on blue name tapes & rank stripes. Just before I got out we switched to subdued OD name tapes.

The new USAF camo looks like it is meant to look "cool" in the office.


23 posted on 06/25/2012 7:00:46 PM PDT by Yo-Yo
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To: JerseyanExile

“it’s natural to ask what went wrong and how they’ll avoid the same missteps this time around. “

No, they won’t. Incompetent management is never fixed, just promoted and things gets worse.


24 posted on 06/25/2012 7:06:38 PM PDT by CodeToad (Homosexuals are homophobes. They insist on being called 'gay' instead.)
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To: martin_fierro
First, lol, that was funny!

Second, for the new homosexual military, it's FABULOUS!!!


25 posted on 06/25/2012 7:14:08 PM PDT by CodeToad (Homosexuals are homophobes. They insist on being called 'gay' instead.)
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To: Yo-Yo
Those pictures are from the test uniform. The actual unform was looks like this:


26 posted on 06/25/2012 7:17:50 PM PDT by Fundamentally Fair (Pictionary at the Rorschach's tonight!)
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To: martin_fierro

Zer0: “Oooh, put that on ALL my soldier boys! It looks FABULOUS!”


27 posted on 06/25/2012 7:20:38 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows (You can't have Ingsoc without an Emmanuel Goldstein.)
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To: Fundamentally Fair

Thanks for the correction. At least they toned down the blue.


28 posted on 06/25/2012 7:24:49 PM PDT by Yo-Yo
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To: JerseyanExile

They should try the time-tested “Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake” pattern. Looks pixelated, looks cool, and is darn effective even at close range.


29 posted on 06/25/2012 7:34:19 PM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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To: jazusamo; Girlene; 4woodenboats; Grimmy; xzins; smoothsailing; lilycicero; bigheadfred; ...
(( ping ))
This story is worth the full read. Here are some excerpts:

The Army’s camouflage researchers say the story of the universal pattern’s origins begins when they helped develop a similarly pixilated camouflage now worn by the Marine Corps. That pattern, known as MARPAT, first appeared in 2002 after being selected from among dozens of candidates and receiving plenty of input from Marines on the ground at the sniper school in Quantico, Va. The Marines even found one of the baseline colors themselves, an earth tone now called Coyote Brown.

The problem, the researchers said, was an oddly named branch of the Army in charge of equipping soldiers with gear — Program Executive Office Soldier — had suddenly ordered Natick’s camouflage team to pick a pattern long before trials were finished.

“They jumped the gun,” said James Fairneny, an electrical engineer on Natick’s camouflage team. Researchers said they received a puzzling order: Take the winning colors and create a pixilated pattern. Researchers were ordered to “basically put it in the Marine Corps pattern,” Fairneny said.

The consensus among the researchers was the Army brass had watched the Marine Corps don their new uniforms and caught a case of pixilated camouflage envy.

“It was trendy,” Stewardson said. “If it’s good enough for the Marines, why shouldn’t the Army have that same cool new look?”

“Brand identity trumped camouflage utility,” Graves said. “That’s what this really comes down to: ‘We can’t allow the Marine Corps to look more cool than the Army.’ ”

30 posted on 06/25/2012 7:35:12 PM PDT by Lancey Howard
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To: Lancey Howard
Camo Junior Birddog


31 posted on 06/25/2012 8:03:16 PM PDT by smoothsailing (Congrats to John Murtha! He hasn't slandered a Marine in over two years now!!!)
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To: JerseyanExile

Mossy Oak could solve this problem for less than 5 billion I bet


32 posted on 06/25/2012 8:13:07 PM PDT by Figment
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To: Yo-Yo

The USAF camo might hide someone who falls out of a plane at 30,000’ on a sunny day.

Being old enough to have briefly worn the pickle fatigues, I think the USAF ought to go back to that...maybe in gray, so that maintainers can lie down on concrete and disappear from view!


33 posted on 06/25/2012 8:19:22 PM PDT by Mr Rogers (A conservative can't please a liberal unless he jumps in front of a bus or off of a cliff)
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To: The KG9 Kid
The new USN 'blue wave' camo is just idiotic. I bet it would be perfect camouflage for a doomed sailor who falls overboard into the sea at night. What were they thinking?

They were thinking "CONTRACTS" for friends most likely. Lot's of money for friends to make in a complete service uniform change over. You're right the change to Blue Camo's for a working uniform it was just plain dumb and completely dysfunctional for locating a man overboard in the water.

It equals or exceeds the Naval uniform change of the Dress Blues to a the dysfunctional Chief's style suit worn by junior enlisted in the mid to late 70's. I do know for a fact the Navy finally saw the mistake & went back to the traditional Cracker Jacks in about late 1979. I had to buy them before I could get out in late 1980.

A functional working uniform change could have simply been a pair of light weight solid Navy Blue {dark} Coveralls that both Dickies and Walls makes. A lot of guys on ship wore coveralls when working anyway. But then again the traditional Dungarees also were a part of water survival in the event of man overboard.

34 posted on 06/25/2012 8:30:55 PM PDT by cva66snipe (Two Choices left for U.S. One Nation Under GOD or One Nation Under Judgment? Which one say ye?)
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To: Gandalf_The_Gray

The Waffen SS was te first major military force to go with camo, back in WW II.Since all the major Waffen SS units started the war as motorized infantry, they didn’t need the black panzer uniform [worn by the Army since 1939], until 1942, when they were upgraded to Panzer divisions [at least the 1st SS, 2d SS, 3d SS, 5th SS, 9th SS, 10th SS and 12th SS]. But SS Mountain Divisions [7th SS], Cavalry Divisions [8th SS, 23d SS], and Panzer Grenadier Divisions [e.g 15th SS, 16th SS, 17th SS], as well as the infantry/grenadier component of Pz. Divs. still wore the camo.


35 posted on 06/25/2012 8:35:42 PM PDT by PzLdr ("The Emperor is not as forgiving as I am" - Darth Vader)
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To: Gandalf_The_Gray

Panzer crews all wore the same uniform, no matter if they were SS or regular German army.


36 posted on 06/25/2012 9:24:04 PM PDT by The KG9 Kid (Semper Fi)
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To: Chode

That always was a beautiful pattern. Take that and put LBE on it, add the helmet and you’d think we’d become the Whermacht!

All the way down to how we identify our vehicles....pure WWII german.

No one admits it or knows it.


37 posted on 06/25/2012 9:30:45 PM PDT by panzerkamphwageneinz
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To: cva66snipe

I read somewhere that the enlisted sailor coming out of NTC has something like five uniforms issued, with multiple duplicate items that are part of their own uniform set.

They get the A uniform, B uniform, some other kind of B uniform, the dungarees, cracker jacks, and the new utilities.

I could be wrong about the types, but I’d read it was not so long ago that new sailors just had two sea bags of uniforms, and a suit bag. Maybe it’s changed now.


38 posted on 06/25/2012 9:39:06 PM PDT by The KG9 Kid (Semper Fi)
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To: cva66snipe

I read somewhere that the enlisted sailor coming out of NTC has something like five uniforms issued, with multiple duplicate items that are part of their own uniform set.

They get the A uniform, B uniform, some other kind of B uniform, the dungarees, cracker jacks, and the new utilities.

I could be wrong about the types, but I’d read it was not so long ago that new sailors just had two sea bags of uniforms, and a suit bag. Maybe it’s changed now.


39 posted on 06/25/2012 10:04:26 PM PDT by The KG9 Kid (Semper Fi)
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To: The KG9 Kid

USMC’s MARPAT is the only one that works as intended.


Duh. Jarheads know what works in the bush. My first set of Camo Utilities in the Corps was the original Vietnam pattern 5 color when they brought them back in ‘77. Worked better than anything except Tiger Stripes, were very comfortable and would dry out faster than anything else. I could go from soaking wet to done dry in about half a hour of humpin’. Downside was they wore out very quickly, ripstop or not.

The pixelation tricks the brain no matter what size object you put it on. Only downside is that the USMC pretty much looks from a distance like a dead ringer for the Waffen SS when fully geared up in it. That’s not cool. Even if there are those who think it’s cool, it’s still not cool.


Who cares about cool? What keeps you’re a$$ subdued in combat is cool. If it resembles old Waffen SS patterns, So f*kin’ what. MarPatt works.


40 posted on 06/25/2012 11:12:39 PM PDT by 98ZJ USMC
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