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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: lentulusgracchus
I saw those in use aboard a nuclear fast-attack that I rode for two or three days in 1970, that had just come back from the Barents and was ordered to AUTEC Andros (Tongue of the Ocean) for torpedo tests. The officers and enlisted all wore an ultramarine-blue one-piece coverall with iirc canvas shoes of the same color, with white-trimmed gum soles. Scary-smart guys, they got a Presidential Unit Citation on that cruise, and on another back to the Barents the next year. Great people.

When I went T.A.D. to Boat Crew {Liberty Launches} in ports where we anchored out we wore dark blue ones. They were highly functional. They could call it the Navy just say no to crack policy LOL.

I wear coveralls all the time now. I don't even own a pair of pants.

61 posted on 06/26/2012 9:29:50 AM 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: matginzac
When I was in, the Os were switched to a God-awful combo of trop white shirts and black slacks (or skirt) for the women. I think Chiefs had that option, too. We all looked like airline pilots...stupid. My favorite female O uniform was the seer-sucker, light blue two-piece left over from WWII... Fit so well that, for me, the under “layer” was optional in hot weather... It was a loooooooong time ago....

Yea our old ones look like airline pilots too. I was glad to see the traditional uniform restored and so were others.

62 posted on 06/26/2012 9:35:32 AM 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: The KG9 Kid

Some of the other changes they made were pretty questionable, but I would have been more than happy to switch out the dungarees for BDU-type uniforms. Dungarees were hot, smelled weird, and were hard to maintain. If you brushed up against any recently painted surface (which I seemed to always find every single one of onboard ship), then they were ruined. With the new working uniforms, you don’t look like you just escaped from the pen, and if you happen to get a little paint on them, it just blends right in.


63 posted on 06/26/2012 10:06:29 AM PDT by tarawa
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To: JerseyanExile

The Marine Corps got it right while the Army screwed up & I’m ex Army . The “digital” pattern is to help spoof night vision , the Multi-Cam pattern is excellent & is being used just not service wide issue yet. To many Pentagon types more interested in fashion statements rather than will this pattern help conceal GI’s in a combat zone.


64 posted on 06/26/2012 11:01:52 AM PDT by Nebr FAL owner
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To: JerseyanExile

Great we got camouflage that works in gravel pits & on ugly couches but if you are out in the woods you stick out like a sore thumb.


65 posted on 06/26/2012 11:22:42 AM PDT by Nebr FAL owner
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To: Yo-Yo

That pattern looks downright “Hawaiian” to me!


66 posted on 06/26/2012 6:24:30 PM PDT by BradyLS (DO NOT FEED THE BEARS!)
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To: The KG9 Kid; JerseyanExile
The Marine Corps, the service with the smallest budget, developed the old woodland utilities for Vietnam.

When the Marine Corps decided it needed updated utilities, none of the other services wanted to bear the R&D costs, but of course wanted to use the developed pattern. Bear in mind that most things the Marine Corps gets is second hand. So the Marine Corps developed MARPAT utilities.....the other services are welcome to use them; it ll just say USMC all over it.

But, if the Army ever decides to invade a gravel parking lot, their ACUs will blend right in.

67 posted on 06/26/2012 8:18:16 PM PDT by Repeat Offender (While the wicked stand confounded, call me with Thy Saints surrounded)
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To: JerseyanExile

MARPAT is a descendant of CANPAT and is essentially a different color set of CANPAT with some added elements like the USMC logo. The problem with ACU isn’t the pattern, it’s that they chose the wrong colors - ACU is MARPAT/CANPAT with yet another different set of color choices.


68 posted on 06/26/2012 8:22:20 PM PDT by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: The KG9 Kid

When the Navy started the wear testing of their new blue trouser and khaki a elderly lady was attending a ceremony at Pearl Harbor. Some of the people in attendance wore period uniforms and color guard was Navy. She wanted to know why the Sailors were dressed in SA uniforms, she thought it was disgraceful. The Navy “blueberries” are just plan stupid some Navy Master Chief had to have the cool digs just like the ground war fighters. Now the Navy blue digs are the butt of jokes and are certainly not cool.


69 posted on 06/26/2012 8:35:15 PM PDT by OldGoatCPO
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To: martin_fierro

Air Force is wear testing that pattern now, but just for camp at the Pentagon!


70 posted on 06/26/2012 8:36:52 PM PDT by OldGoatCPO
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To: martin_fierro

Air Force is wear testing that pattern now, but just for camo at the Pentagon!


71 posted on 06/26/2012 8:36:59 PM PDT by OldGoatCPO
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To: Fundamentally Fair

My lord if they laid down on the asphalt behind them I might not see them in a parking lot, or falling out of an airplane, just curious what they are camouflaged for in the first place.


72 posted on 06/26/2012 8:41:11 PM PDT by OldGoatCPO
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To: tarawa

As a CHief if you had primer on your new blue digi uniform, you bought a new pit. They still wear coveralls to protect the damn expensive trousers.


73 posted on 06/26/2012 8:48:23 PM PDT by OldGoatCPO
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To: OldGoatCPO

Either I am having problems with spell check or one too many scotch, paint on a uniform is still paint it does not blend in and I would make my Sailors replace the uniform just like the dungarees.


74 posted on 06/26/2012 8:50:21 PM PDT by OldGoatCPO
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To: Lancey Howard

Not the first time I’ve been made aware of substandard outfitting. No doubt the consequence of poor contracting and production planning; not to ignore the spontaneous nature of war.


75 posted on 06/27/2012 12:16:22 AM PDT by Gene Eric (Your Hope has been redistributed. Here's your damn Change!)
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To: smoothsailing

LOL - that’s great!


76 posted on 06/27/2012 12:18:12 AM PDT by Gene Eric (Your Hope has been redistributed. Here's your damn Change!)
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To: Lurker
One of the earlier digital civilian patterns was named 'timber ghost'. There is little timber here, but I walked off an oil location wearing bibs and an M-65 style jacket in that pattern into a stubble field (harvested wheat field) and one of the hands commented: "Man, it was like you disappeared!".

I'm not sure if the pattern is produced any more, but it was great in fall grasslands and wheat fields.

77 posted on 06/28/2012 6:31:53 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing)
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To: JerseyanExile

The Army never wanted MARPAT.
When the Marines wanted a new uniform, they came to The Army (Natick Soldier Support Center) to do the design work. The US Army had already been working on digital camo since the early 1980s and did some experimentation on a large scale with the 14th ACR.

The Marines always let it be known that the uniform design was USMC only and the Army agreed to that at the very beginning. The Army was actually leaning towards Multicam, but a top NCO overrode the decision of the design team and selected ACP.


78 posted on 06/28/2012 9:26:11 AM PDT by SJSAMPLE
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To: Repeat Offender

How could you get it so wrong.
The Army was working with digital camo since the early 1980s.

It was the Marines who came to the Army for help, and this was admitted by the two Marine scout-snipers who started the USMC MARPAT program. The Army designed the uniform and pattern for the USMC. But, when it came time to select The Army’s uniform, all the research was ignored by a single NCO on the project.

Please look around the USMC and find the second-hand equipment. Osprey’s, new M1A2 tanks, new rifles, gear, commo. The days of the USMC getting Army castoffs are long past.


79 posted on 06/28/2012 9:33:49 AM PDT by SJSAMPLE
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