Army to get new uniform...again....

I never wore the wooly pully, but a lot of guys did just a you said USMCPrice, wore them under their field jackets as layering. I used the field jacket liner and the long sleep shirt, depending on the severity weather.

And I concur with you Brad, those extremely useful items are all in my POV during inclement weather travels. To that I added an e-tool and a full roll of a$$ wipe. I never quite got over those c-ration papers.

And to add to the mountain uniform, the instructors and cadre at NWTC (Northern Warfare Trainin Center) at Ft. Greely, Alaska, wore surplus canvas leggings on the mountain boots and Korean War vintage pile caps. They scoured army surplus stores for legging and pile caps until everyone had several sets before being allowed to wear them on duty. Now that set the mountain unform off right!

 

My guess the army wants to sav money by having one universal ACU to fight in all combat conditions.......

 

Saving money must be the farthest thing in their minds going on how many uniform changes they've gone through in the last 20 years or so.

 

I know this sounds a bit passe but, one of the coolest-looking Marine field uniforms I ever saw were the Herring-Bone Twill uniforms of WWII. Those and the Dress Blues were great designs. Speaking of Dress Blues, Jeff just recently got a complete D.B. uniform for the WWII Marine ;-))

Care to post a pix of it? )

 

When MARPAT was introduced in 2001, the U.S. military was using Woodland (the camo pattern) BDU's (Battledress uniform) universally with three-color desert DCU's in arid environments. The Marine Corps wanted a better cammo and to return to having a distinctive combat uniform. They introduced MARPAT in two color schemes one for temperate climates one for desert. The new uniform also incorporated many small improvements over the BDU in the way the uniform was constructed.



Woodland and desert MARPAT (Marine Pattern)

The Marine Corps embedded a small eagle, globe and anchor and USMC in the pattern and copyrighted it.

The U.S. Army decided it wanted an improved combat uniform in digital camoflauge. They decided it would be more cost effective to have one pattern that worked in all environments thus, the UCP came into being (Universal Camouflage Pattern). It was used in the new combat uniform that incorporated changes in construction, the ACU (Army Combat Uniform). Unfortunately many soldiers felt, with some justification, that the universal pattern, instead of working in all environments, didn't work in any. The Army pretty early on realized they had a problem with the pattern but went ahead with plans to change over, to include the body armor, web gear, inclimate weather gear etc. Now that the changeover is complete they are looking for a new, more effective camo. It will either be a universal pattern like Crye Precision's Multi-Cam or multiple color schemes of one pattern like the Marine Corps did. If the latter, is the route they take it would be a minimum of two color schemes, but I've read that it will probably be three.

 

You're right Carl. The M-1941 HBT utility uniform was very popular with Marines. It hung around with minor changes until DoD got into standardization across the services in the early 60's.

Yes, get him to post some pics. We'd like to see his score!

 

That same M-1941 HBT uniform was worn by Merrill's Marauders in the CBI as well. Too bad they got rid of it. That was a great looking and very functional uniform as well.

 

Thanks USMCP/ I even liked the coveralls version too-which I think was worn by tank crews. If I ever get into collecting WWII US? the HBT is my favorite to go for. I wasnt aware the HBT was still arounud in the 60s but knew it was worn during the Korean War.

Speaking of Jeffs uniform, id better admit to it that it isnt a full-size uniform ;-)) Its made by Hasbro ;-))

Oh and I heard this on some Doc I saw on THC recently, they said the most successful camo pattern in the world was the Chinese Woodland pattern Nr 13.

 

You're not kidding. Think the British Army have only completely changed uniform once in the last 40 years; changed to camo in '68, modified it in '72, modified again in '95, added desert camo around '89, then adopted a completely new one a year ago.

 

From one extreme to another you say, eh? And the bad thing about it is that the Army goes from one lame item to another lame item. That ACU thing they have now isn't getting the job done, and hopefully someone will pay attention to the research and get something fielded that is useful and functionable.

That new dress uniform has a lot to be desired too. It is so lame.

 

And the airforce BDUs the same pattern used by the ARVN during vietnam.

 

Almost except for the colors. ARVN Tigers had more black with grey and brown highlights. they were also worn by US Forces during the time period.




kamouflage.net — ARVN 'tiger stripe pattern' camouflage

If the Airforce went to the ARVN Tiger pattern, I would be in the Airforce right now....LOL

 

Found this while looking for a picture of ARVN Tigers

 

Too bad jughead you've gotta' stay Marine, the aircraft is from a Marine Fighter Attack Squadron. VMFA-224 according to the markings.

 

I offered to send The_Historian a couple of Vietnam Era uniform websites. I then thought others might be interested so I decided to post them here.

Vietnam - Equipment and Uniform

Not a bad site but quite a few small errors. Examples:
Concerning the OG-107 Jungle utilities, states; "Be sure to check for the small inner pocket in the front left hand cargo pocket, this is a sure way to date jungle trousers, since the post war ones didn't have this feature."
The last time I had sets of these issued to me was in 1987, definately postwar. They had the inner pocket and I never saw a set without the inner pocket, I don't know where he came up with this info.

"Check the drawstring at the bottom of the trousers. This should be a 'rope' string as opposed to the modern 'tape' string. Accuracy is important for the reenactor, care should be taken to get it right."
I never saw a pair of these without the rope drawstring, the tape drawstring was a feature I first encountered in the BDU's.

In reference to what he identified as the 2nd Pattern Nape Strap.

"The neckband is a web strap with a long adjusting tape sewed to each end and a short adjusting tape sewed to the middle. Designed to be fitted to the 2nd Pattern helmet liner. This helped to hold the helmet at the back of your head, keeping the thing from pitching forward on your forehead or nose. These were often discarded by the troops."​

I think he has mis-identified this item and it's function. Most often when I encountered it, it was used to secure the jump pad to the helmet liner for paratroops.


One problem might be there is very little information on the internet about this pad. Most militaria sites list vietnam/post vietnam paratrooper helmets as complete but I didn't find any with the pad until I found this picture. The pad I was referring to can be seen rigged in at the rear of the helmet. I never saw anyone jump without the pad in place. Bobby/A-58 let me have your insights into this.

Site#2 and a good site:
http://www.mooremilitaria.com/reference.htm

Hope yoy enjoy the sites Gordon.
Price out.

 

Good websites! Seeing the plastic water canteen reminds me on that warm and plastic tasting water inside. Bluargh! But mixed with an bit of Pernod like the french did it was tasting great.

 

I remember the first Desert Utilities, we were pumped because they came with a boonie hat:

 

Cheers Price. Great sites!