10 camouflaged patterns is nine too many
When I left the military in 1994, there was one camouflaged pattern for all of the services – the “woodland” pattern, and we also had a desert uniform for people who were living in the desert. But as the Washington Post reports, the Pentagon has ten different patterns that it’s paying for with tax payer dollars;
Today, there is one camouflage pattern just for Marines in the desert. There is another just for Navy personnel in the desert. The Army has its own “universal” camouflage pattern, which is designed to work anywhere. It also has another one just for Afghanistan, where the first one doesn’t work.
Even the Air Force has its own unique camouflage, used in a new Airman Battle Uniform. But it has flaws. So in Afghanistan, airmen are told not to wear it in battle.
In just 11 years, two kinds of camouflage have turned into 10. And a simple aspect of the U.S. government has emerged as a complicated and expensive case study in federal duplication.
Somehow, people think that their uniform is an essential part of fighting wars. It really isn’t. Especially if you look at the Navy’s and Air Force’s uniforms which don’t hide anyone from anything. The Stars & Stripes has a chart which tracks the uniform changes over the last few years;
The Pentagon has spent billions of dollars going through the motions of picking “the best” pattern for their purposes and then changing their minds. But it’s all so much mental masturbation, since most of the wars we fought, the troops didn’t wear any camouflaged pattern and they still won the actual battles. The services are like a bunch of teenagers fretting over what cool new clothes they want to wear for the first day of school. But in the end, troops’ uniforms in combat all end up the same color – whatever color the dirt is in their particular area of operations. So all of that exercise that the pogues at Natick Labs go through has no real impact on the battlefield, but their jobs are secure for the next billion-dollar “back-to-school” shopping spree.
Category: Air Force, Big Army, Marine Corps, Navy
“But in the end, troops’ uniforms in combat all end up the same color – whatever color the dirt is in their particular area of operations.” It’s time to consider pulling your one-liners together in a book for posterity. I swear, you have more gems buried in these posts than I can count.
It only took a couple of months for my ACU’s to blend into the environment in Iraq. Granted that was because they were stained with tar, dirt, and blood by that time. There was a reason that by our 16th month the Iraqis were calling us (the 172nd SBCT)the “dirty division”.
Should have just given everybody multicam years ago.
Way back when, I wore OD green fatigues out in the field and they became the same color as the dust. Digital camo looks cool on base but hardly camouflages a hulking GI wearing all his gear out on patrol. Khaki pants and a brown t-shirt would serve just as well but that would not be “progress”.
I never understood why most of the squids need cammo…the BGB (Big Grey Boat) they are on kinda gives them away…and makes them hard to find if they fall off the BGB.
Absolutely pitiful waste of funds. Completely agree with your assessment, Jonn. And then some.
The troopers always take what is issued and do the job in spite of whatever shortcomings there are with the current issue.
Pick one pattern for garrison, and stick with it. Either ACUPAT (because everyone already has it), MultiCam, or BDU (which not everybody has but many do, are already in production, and both look a lot better than ACUPAT). Keep stocks of uniforms/PPE/etc. for the other two patterns plus the USMC desert pattern at RFI warehouses at every major installation, and issue the patterns out to deploying units based on the environment they’re deploying to (ACUPAT for urban, BDU for woodland/jungle, MARPAT for desert, MultiCam for hybrid environments like Afghanistan).
Air Force and Navy can keep their current patterns for now but slowly transition back to the standard Army garrison pattern over time as issues wear out (or just go back to non-camouflage uniforms that are a lot cheaper to produce, most AF/Navy personnel have no need of camouflage and those that do can get their own separate issue). The USMC can keep their woodland digital pattern and wear it year-round in garrison if they want to be special, but for desert deployed environments they need to share the wealth.
What Spade said…
I was told a few years ago (15 odd…) that we were all wearing the same pattern because it was owned by a company in the district that was represented by (I think…) Strom Thurmond, who was at that time a highly influential member of Armed Services Committee. Plus it made sense from a logistical standpoint and all…and from the having your whole military in a similiar uniform standpoint.
Ahhh thinking back on the good old days of OG-107’s, Jungles, and BDU’s… all perfectly functional.
Progress though, we have to break the perfectly good wheel so it can be reinvented and made worse.
Back around 8 years ago or so, Big Navy deteremined that they wanted to have a “universal” working uniform for everyone from E-1 to O-10. They created Task Force Uniform and came up with different designs for aquaflage and then conducted a couple of years of wear testing. We used to have dungarees for enlisted and wash khakis for Chiefs and above, which I much preferred (underway, everyone had gone to blue coveralls, which had previously only been worn by us Submariners). It was somewhat ridiculous in my mind that there was that much effort spent on uniforms, when we were running ships, aircraft, and submarines into the ground (so to speak). Meanwhile, our future ship, the LCS, was developed and is coming up short. Glad to see we have our priorities set right.
I think 2 sounds right. The Marine MARPAT is just about the best, one for greener pastures and one for the lovely parts of the world we seem to find ourselves in. I blame the Marines for starting this horrible fashion show (which went from bad(AR), to badder (AF), to a “WTF Lady Gaga/Bjork” moment (Navy)).
One common set of uniforms is all the US Armed Forces need. The bad guys don’t need to know that they died because of a US Marine, Army Soldier, or even a zoomie or squid, they just need to know that they died facing the baddest, meanest military force on the face of the planet.
You forgot to list the Marine Corps Digi Greens in the Photo array.
Do not forget that the Admiral also spent 2 yrs on a PT uniform for the force that everybody hates and failed miserably in its first roll out.
maybe, just maybe if we went back to a common uniform for EVERYBODY we could rid of these stupid fucking “mandarin” collars on the ACUs. Along with the vertically opening chest pockets (don’t give that bs about ‘accessing’ them while wearing armor), the zipper closure and most of the velcro pocket closures. I do like the sleeve and lower leg pockets though. Great place for a pack of cigarettes
Camo? We had no camo in ’78 everything thing was the same flat non-patterned olive (baby sh1t) green….but boy o boy when we did get camo it was so cool…..
Because it was cool everyone had to have it, including guys whose jobs had no need of being camouflaged under any circumstance….but they looked cool man…
Now of course everybody wants to be cool as Jonn points out, and the cost of cool is only a few million dollars here and there, it’s not like they need the money elsewhere right. Everybody knows it takes money to be cool…
First time I wore aquaflage was in Haiti. What a crock of s&**! That uniform is ridiculously hot, it does nothing for blending in… to put it mildly, completely useless! The pattern/colors are meant to blend with ship paint colors. Too bad it blends much better when someone falls overboard.
One pattern for desert, one for woodland/garrison. Change the tapes for name of service. Name tapes on blouse and pants (The Navy does it right on this one (for cost savings) – wash ’em all together and still get your own clothes back). Change the covers – stovepipes for Army/Air Force and 8-points for Navy/Marines. Sleeve rolls (if allowed) should all be done the same way. IMHO that is how we “standardize” and save some cash.
The navy’s camo uniform is not flame retardant!!!! Which is even worse!! http://silverfoxnavy.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-new-navy-working-uniform-is.html
@10
I always thought the best thing for the Navy for all that would be to simply issue a specification for blue jeans and blue shirts. Color X, Cut Y, etc. Then let guys go buy them from wherever was cheapest or whatever. And bring back the white hat.
And then, and this is the really shocking part, they would tell people that this was a working uniform and you shouldn’t care if it get dirty or stained because it would only ever wear it working and never wear it elsewhere ever. And then guys wear them until they are totally unserviceable.
Instead they spend a bunch of money to “hide stains” (which was nonsense excuse) when the cheaper thing is to accept that stains occur when working.
You look at pics of guys working at sea in WW2 and they look like sailors, not some third world police force trying to look cool.
And my grandfather would’ve been horrified at the idea of people wearing utilities when they weren’t turning a wrench, running, or killing people.
Only wore the MarPat for my last 6 years. No ironing and the brown boots, no spit shining. Plus, you actually blended in to your surroundings when in the field or deployed….Bonus!!!
I missed shining boots in garrison. I hate the noise of Velcro out in the field. I hate how long it took the Army to authorize sewing on skill badges (pin-on anything is “leg” worthy). I remember all the uniform apologists telling us about the utility of the new camo, when on our training post smack dab in the middle of PA, we looked like a bunch taupe and beige-clad retards against the wood line.
Someday we’ll fight a war in a temperate climate again, and we’re going to trip over our dicks getting yet another pattern.
We need to start taking cues from duck hunters, for crying out loud, and if we don’t need pretty patterns at all, go with the Steve Jobsian “it just works”.
Pith helmets, shorts, and long socks, FTW.
I also like how the Army spent $2.9m “developing” what is essentially Multicam in 2010. In 2007 or so I owned a Crye Multicam hat.
How in the hell did they spend $2.9m developing a camoflage that ALREADY EXISTED and was commercially available? Especially when the Marines only spent $319,000 to rip off CADPAT?
The ACUs blend in some places.
http://www.fakeposters.com/posters/army-camo/
Spade: inflation. MARPAT was “developed” for the USMC based on work done by the US Army Nadick Labs about a decade earlier (circa 2000).
I enlisted in 1979, so I was too late for Vietnam, but when we went out on FTXs/field problems, we were authorized to wear the Vietnam-era OD jungle fatigues (I was in a unit based in HI). We continued to wear the OD jungles out in the field until the BDUs came in around 1981-82 and replaced both the jungles we wore in the field and the garrison perma-press stateside OD fatigues. Of all the field uniforms I’ve worn, I still find the VN tropical jungle fatigues to be the most comfortable I’ve ever worn. If I have my way, all five armed forces branches will be standardized on the jungle fatigues, with an OD pattern for jungle/forest use and a sand-colored one for use in the desert. Problem solved!
Camouflage uniforms have a place. That place is when deployed out of garrison/base or off-ship. Were I made temporarily “God of DoD”, we’d have a common “garrison” duty uniform. Call me old-school/geezer/whatever, but the old OD-green “pickle suit” IMO worked just great for garrison duty. They were reasonably well made, as well as reasonably inexpensive. It was wash-n-wear, so troops could take care of it themselves (or spring for QM laundry if they wanted) and it was “good enough”. (I’d guess it would probably work OK for shipboard and flightline use too, but I could be wrong about that.) I’d let each service choose their own footgear and hats. This would be the “garrison” duty uniform. No exceptions. You’re not wearing this, you’d best be in the field/deployed/wearing “class Bs” or better. And spare me the argument that “we need a special uniform for esprit-de-corps” crap – good units have good esprit, regardless of the uniform they’re wearing. For field training and/or deployments, you’d get issued 4 sets of one of 4 uniforms, based on where you were stationed/normally trained (field training) or were deploying (deployments). They’d be (1) a lightweight woodland camouflage, like the old-style “cammies” or HWBDU; (2) a temperate woodland camouflage, like the old BDU or the USMC woodland MARPAT; (3) a desert camouflage, like the USMC desert MARPAT; and (4) an Arctic/mountain camouflage uniform. These would all be CIF/DX items – issued as needed, turned in on PCS or end of deployment. This would also save wear and tear on those individually-owned garrison uniform. These camouflage field uniforms would NOT be authorized for garrison wear. No exceptions. These are wartime stock items, to be used ONLY when training and/or during a deployment. The only people on a base/post/camp/station authorized them would be those going to/from the field on a supply run, medical run, etc . . . . Would this work? Yes. Will we ever see it? No. Too much “tradition”, too much “we’re special and have to be different”, too much “not invented here” for this to ever be adopted. Plus probably a bunch of… Read more »
I still have eight woodland, eight DCU, eight ACU, four Pickle suits in both green and tan, and twelve A2CU in ACU Pattern and Four A2CU in OCP (Multicam)… Old Green dress, blue dress, and now Army Service Uniform dress. Not to mention the old black boots, regular boots, desert boots, danner boots, boonie caps, patrol caps, and those #(^*&# berets…
It’s too much. Way too much anymore.
I retire next year. Still not fast enough though. I feel like I am going to get four more things…
If you really want to hide by wearing camouflage, the ASAT pattern seems to be the most popular:
http://www.elk-hunting-tips.net/camouflage-patterns.html
The elkd can’t pick out people who are wearing it, even if they move. The patterns that DOD contractors use are completely ineffective.
And it’s probably cheaper to buy camo at a sporting/hunting goods store than it is to get it through a DOD contractor, anyway.
Having to wear the ABU’s for some time now they are a bit more comfortable to wear than the BDUs, but that is basically what the AF spent a ton of money on, a new color and tiger stripe BDU. Then they spent a ton more to realize that our initial PT uniforms were not cutting it and now we have to spend more money on newer PT uniforms…which I was informed we’ll have new one’s here soon.
Wouldn’t it be easier to just contract Dickies and then go back to the old school sweats?
We wore our woodland camo to NTC and wouldn’t you know, within a week, we looked just like the dirt and sand around us. I saw 3 different (or 4 if you count the different BDU materials) uniforms. Cottons, (being phased out as I joined up) Permanent Press OD, and BDU’s. The DBU’s were the favorites of mechanics as you could stain them up and you could still wear ’em.
The Army paying what it did for Multicam is a disgrace, but even worse is the 3.1 mil the Air Force threw at those Digital Tiger Stripes. Seriously the Air Force is generally so far removed from the front lines that they could wear straight up OD fatigues from 1977 and it wouldn’t matter. How can they justify spending that kind of money on camo. That uniform is all about looking cool. The spent 3.1 mil to look cool. It’s not like they needed it either, those bastards get 95% of the good looking women who go into the service anyway.
I blame this whole debacle on the Marines.
It isn’t just camouflaged uniforms… In the last year, I completed surveys on changes to the Army Service Uniform (ASU) and the Improved Physical Fitness Uniform (IPFU). The ASU just came out in 2008 or so, while the IPFU was newly adopted when I joined in ’01. Who knows how much was wasted “researching” the ASU, when it ended up being essentially the dress blue uniform with some Class A features incorporated. The IPFU was designed to be reflective, and a new jacket was adopted in the last couple of years that has a reflective digital pattern to it (think ACU without even a semblance of camo properties); the last I heard, though is that reflective properties will be eliminated to save costs, especially since the Army is so PT belt happy.
In under twelve years of service, I’m currently wearing the fourth pattern the Army has fielded in that time. Woodland BDU, DCU, UCP-ACU, and now OCP-ACU (Multicam). The uniforms are one thing, but the fact that the Army, in its infinite wisdom, decided at some point to color-coordinate every last piece of gear is the big killer, IMHO. It used to be olive drab ALICE/LC-2 gear for woodland and desert uniforms. We had woodland gear with DCUs ten years ago, then I got desert gear to wear with BDUs in TOG. After that “transition” phase (during which I joyfully mixed all three existing camo pattern together–digital helmet cover, a mix of pouches, desert vest, and BDUs), we all had to turn-in or put up our “legacy (OD)”, woodland, and desert gear. We all received the latest and greatest Multicam gear for this deployment.
Body armor and TA-50 isn’t cheap. What the Army spends in researching uniforms (which troops usually have to buy or get issued in lieu of previous uniforms) is probably small change compared to equipping every swinging Richard two or more sets of gear. The newest MOLLE has some great features, but my large ALICE ruck is still going strong after years of use.
As a Marine, I’m pretty annoyed that the Corps felt they had to deprive the other services of their camo pattern. What’s the gain in that? If it can keep any Americans alive in harm’s way, why not give it to them?
This is just a tired comment from an old fart, take it for what it’s worth.
Two things to avoid like ebola — starch and shiny boots. I had to pay for heavy starch and it was a PITA. Guys who spent an hour a day on their boots got better ratings than guys like me who hit them with black polish and a brush for 5 minutes a day.
In 1970 these “force multipliers” were brought to us by O-5s and O-6s and E-9s. As the force shrinks, people in garrisons find new ways to select the E-3 through E-5s that “just aren’t up to snuff”. That specific organizational innovation was obvious to me in 1975 and 1976.
Nik: believe it or not, you’re the first Marine I can recall seeing take that position. Every other one I’ve seen discuss the issue seemed to think keeping the MARPAT USMC-unique was more important.
Never understood that. My view always has been that mission and men were the big concerns, and that everything else was secondary – including who had the “coolest looking” uniform.
31 Agreed, I don’t see why the Marines are so special that they needed to adopt a new type of camouflage first and then restrict its use. It’s really just a PR grab and that’s disgusting. (Of course, I don’t think such disgusting displays are only limited to the Marines)
I’ll grant the USMC this though, at least when they adopt a new uniform it looks good. Both of the Army’s two biggest (IMO) uniform changes in the past decade (the ACU and the ASU uniform to replace the class A’s) are both horrendous.
Seriously, the Army does NOT belong in blue. I give no shits if that’s what Custer wore, this isn’t 1875. The Army belongs in Green, and that’s the only “dress” uniform that they should wear.
FM2176: don’t assume that uniform issue amounts to “small change”.
Example: ACUs cost about $75 per set. That’s pretty much the contract cost; clothing sales “issue” items aren’t marked up much if any at all.
4 sets per soldier x 550,000 soldiers x $75/set comes up to $165,000,000. And I’m pretty sure we’ve had more than 550,000 people serve since the ACU was introduced.
That doesn’t include DX, other free replacement issue programs, or those issued to deploying contractors (a few get them).
Now add the cost of new ACU-pattern field gear to match, and I’m guessing your up to around $250,000,000.
Multiply that by 2 and you likely have about what it cost to rollout the ACU, ABU, and NWU.
That’s literally half a billion spent to “look cool” – just since 2005.
I have always wondered why RealTree didn’t get the contract for the uniform patterns. Their stuff works — and that’s their business! It just seems like the government keeps inventing the wheel on things like this.
“…keeps re-inventing the…” Sorry.
@33
I guess I didn’t get the memo. I figure looking cool in camouflage is exactly the opposite of what you want. Isn’t the point of camo supposed to be not to stand out?
Looking good absolutely has it’s place. It has a function. Save it for the Dress Uniforms.
And on that subject, Marine Dress Blues > *.
@36
I guess it’s a combination of the buddy system in government contracting and some Generals wanting to put their stamp on something.
On the bright side, the Army did away with Shinseki’s brain child for the most part.
I was in one of the first units to deploy to Iraq in ACUs. When we got there I was pulled from my Company and attached to an ODA team. I remember my first mission looking around me and seeing all the SF dudes in DCUs and the IA in their chocalate chips, and then looking at myself in ACUs and having an epiphany that went something like this “Oh shit I look important”. As soon as we got back I went my team sergeant and got a couple sets of ACUs.
@26 PH2, One of the basic reasons for the new patterns is not just line of sight deception. Newer versions of night vision and enhance optics use computer assist. The BITMAPed digi pattern confuses the compputer assist in these optics and helps with concealment. Broken Branch will not do that.
As a side note to the Blue Goo of the Fleeters. If you fall overboard, the digi pattern will make it that much harder for them to find you becasue of the optic defeating design of the Uniform. Good thinking. As also for a truly hideous Uniform, Check out the Navy’s E6 and below working Uniform for Office types. It looks like a Hitler Youth Uniform.
Contact your Congressperson and Senators…and keep on them.
That is what I have been doing the last few years.
We need to have one common family of combat uniforms. From boots, to helmets to camo.
The current situation is out of control, wasteful and IMHO a safety issue.
http://www.new-navy-uniform.com/sitebuilder/images/male_and_female-735×573.jpg
Here it is.
Real Tree and a lot of the other cool looking hunting camos actually make you look like a darkish blob once you’re a good distance from it. It works well against deer because anything works well against deer as long as you don’t move.
Multicam works because it does the best job of breaking up your human shaped outline. Actually looking like foliage doesn’t help that much.
Realtree may not be the “darkish blob” one (I forget the other popular deer camo), but anyway all that fancy detail just washes into one blob once you get some distance from it.
@44
That one on the lower left is truly hideous.
@31 Nik
I agree. MARPAT was developed at the US Army’s Natick Labs, using research done by an Army LtCol/PhD and funded by taxpayer $$$
How the Corps thinks they “own” it is beyond me. And demonstrates the lunacy of this camouflage “arms race” among the branches.
Congress needs to put a stop to it.
OK, I clicked on the link and have to ask a question: There are multiple references the the Navy “having” to pick a different pattern than the Marines because the Marines complained/bitched/demanded/whined/etc.
Maybe I’m confused but – aren’t the Marines PART of the Navy? Put another way, don’t the Marines WORK FOR the Navy? How do they get away with “demanding” anything from their parent branch?
This uniform clusterfawk has been a fiasco from day 1, and it’s not like there haven’t been voices saying it. But I guess during the years after 9/11, when it seemed like the money-tap was turned on full blast, all of the services started spending money like they were sailors on their last shore leave before going into battle.
And @34: Yes, 100% agree on the hideous abortion called the “ASU.” One of the many reasons I’m glad I retired in 2005 is that I stil have my old greens and don’t have to wear that awful, awful blue uniform. I cringe whenever I see it.
I’m absolutely convinced that the Uniform Design branch of the Army is where they put the most dimwitted, tone-deaf and brain dead officers and nothing I’ve seen since 1980 (when I enlisted) has convinced me otherwise.
O-4E: the USMC doesn’t “own” the MARPAT pattern. All patents owned by the Federal government are property of the Federal government, not individual departments or agencies. Competent authority can order them shared within the Federal government, with other nations, with commercial partners, or released for general use by the public.
The SECNAV is the designated agent for the MARPAT pattern. The SECDEF could direct the SECNAV to allow its use by the rest of DoD at any time the SECDEF desired to do so.
The reason MARPAT is still USMC-only today is that the Army has never really pushed the issue. IMO if they actually believed using MARPAT would save soldier’s lives they damn well should have.
I guess “playing nice with others” was more important.