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

Tell that to congress, my freind. If it ain't got a lobbyist, they won't buy it!

 

I remeber when the Marines first went to the 'Rip Stop' Cammies in 1987...they were a vast improvement over the previous 'Woodlands' except in their ability to hold starch. The ripstops also wore out quicker, wich is the same reason you can never find ERDL cammie bottoms. The Army had their own version of the 1987 pattern 'rip stop' with a wider cuff on the sleeve to allow for 'NBC' Rolls. From a distance and with the sleeves rolled properly they are virtually indistinguishable even to the trained eye of a Captain from the 7th ID (L) who is specifically looking for several sets of cammies that went missing from the 'Light Fighter Laundromat' at Ft. Ord, Ca. On the otherhand a company GySgt. can spot them from accross the parade deck at Camp Horno in dimlight at a double time.

 

Cheers USMC. I always wanted the 'frog and leaf' version of that.

 

I think I might have a cammie jacket in that pattern.

 

I always liked your good looking service alpha uniform. Mine isn´t a bad looking one but not so fine then yours.

 

Awwwww o well i thought the digital camo was fine plus it looked cool i wonder what the new one will look like. Did the marines wear I think it was woodland camo in the 2003 iraq invasion?

 

That was actually the third appearance of the ripstop cammies, the one in the woodland pattern. The first, the ERDL cammies date back to Vietnam, Marines and Special Ops types were issued them. I think the Marines started wearing them in late '68-early '69, that's when they started appearing in large numbers. By 1970 you see whole Marine infantry battalions in them. When I went to bootcamp in 1977 we were issued two sets of ERDL ripstop cammies and two sets of green cotton sateen's (now that uniform sucked). You would get either green dominant or brown dominant versions. When I got to the fleet all combat arms personnel wore the cammies (we got extra sets) and all support wore the sateens. Last time I was at the Parris Island Museum they had a set on display and had them labeled M-1975 camoflauge utilities, I don't know how they differed from the other versions. The second was sometime during the late '70s-early '80's we got another camo uniform. It was in the brown dominant color scheme, still ripstop, but had straight chest pockets instead of the slanted type.
In the interests of uniformity of the services, everyone followed the Army's lead (they are the largest branch) and adopted the Woodland pattern BDU in a 65/35 poly cotton blend. The material was heavy and hot, they had a big Elvis collar and pretty much sucked, they were however more durable. The earlier ripstops were bad about wearing out in the seat, knees, fold of the collar and across the sholder blades where your pack rubbed. We hung onto our beloved ripstop cammies as long as we could but eventually they became unserviceable and you couldn't get new ones so we all ended up in BDU's. I still had a couple of sets I wore in early '85.
Due to servicemember complaints a Woodland BDU in a lightweight ripstop material was adopted. These are the one's formerjughead is remembering.



Side by side brown dominant and green dominant ERDL cammies.

 

Actually the Marine Corps was the first U.S. service to adopt a digital camo uniform. It was actually developed from the digital camo the Canadians wear (CADPAT-Canadian Disruptive Pattern). The Marine Corps adopted MARPAT in 2001 and had it completely phased in by 2004. Marines during the initial Iraq Invasion wore both the Desert Marpat or the three color DCU. The woodlands you are thinking of were the Chemical Protective suits they wore because Saddam intended to use chemical weapons.

 

Mark4,

Here is a video of Marines from Fox Company, 2dBn 5th Marines during the Iraq invasion. Note they're wearing DCU's with DCU helmet covers, Woodland body armor, and Woodland chemical protective suits.

[video]http://www.grouchymedia.com/videos/2006/07/sacrifice.html[/video]

 

Awww tarter sauce I didnt know that was chemical protection suits..............

 

Formerjughead,

I do have a question for you. You wrote:

Do you know why the Army decided to roll their sleeves that way? You called them "NBC" rolls, I've never heard that term, does that have something to do with their reasoning? The whole time I was in the Army, I rolled my sleeves the right way (Marine Corps) and wore boot blousers, none of that tucking in junk for me. I've had soldiers ask me why I didn't roll them their way, but was never ordered to roll them the Army way. Was there an actual regulation on the proper way to roll them? I've even had soldiers tell me the reason they rolled them their way was because it was more tactical, you didn't have the light colored fabric showing. I said "In the Marine Corps when we're tactical we roll our sleeves down, I'm sure the bad guys aren't going to notice those two pasty white sticks you call arms sticking out of your tactical sleeve rolls". Anyway clue me in on their rationale and if was it actually a regulation.

 

Allegedly, when rolled properly, you should be able to grasp the cuff and the sleeves unroll. The standard is also to have the sleeves rolled to the crook of the elbow; I always went one more roll so that the 'USMC' portion of my tattoo would show, hence I could never get my sleeves to unroll in case of chemical attack.....dodged that bullet. I did the boot band route as well and wore green jungle boots with white cotton socks. I have a copy of the 670-1, the portion referring to the wearing of green jungle boots, laminated in my left breast pocket at all times. I did a lot of push ups; which of course is why I could never unroll my sleeves in case of chemical attack. You gotta love Marines.

 

Ya gotta have the melon and hair cut for it. It takes a couple days for it to get formed correctly so it looks right a week of constant wear for them to look good. Some people can wear wear the sh*t out of a beret, while others, not so much. The part I hated the most with the things was having to shave them.

 

But when you're cool, who cares if the sun and rain is in your eyes. And Brad is right, when the beret was worn properly, it looked good. Tending to the beret and spit-shining jump boots was a source of pride. It's one of those "you had to be there" sort of things.

 

Do you have anymore paintball war stories to share with us?

 

Thanks for the info. However, wouldn't it make more sense if you're operating in a situation where there's the possibility that you'll be slimed to roll your sleeves down beforehand?
Yeah, the green jungle boots were the sh*t, I think the only time I didn't wear them was when I was actually at Jump School. I was fortunate, not long after entering the Army, I became friends with a former Ranger corporal that was quite the sea lawyer. Don't get me wrong he was a heck of a soldier, he just knew how to manipulate the system to avoid a bunch of the B.S.

As someone that formerly made their living on their feet and can appreciate a good pair (i.e. the jungle boot) of boots. The new MCCB's (Marine Corps Combat Boot) are the stuff, good tread pattern, comfortable, they come in hot weather and temperate versions, the latter has a Gortex Lining so your feet actually stay dry, I've had several pairs given to me by my son's and their friends. I wish we had had them when we were in. Best part is they've got the emblem on the side.

 

I really like our mountain uniform in Alaska. Black mountain boots (capable of being used with cross-county skis, snowshoes, and mountaineering), green field pants, wool OG shirt, OD in color (same pattern as the Navy CPO jacket I believe) w/OD green scarf and topped off with a maroon beret. We usually wore a field jacket liner or a 3 button wool OD sweater under the wool shirt during to avoid having to wear the arctic parka in garrison. Of course when we went to the field we wore overwhites, no camo. Most of the time we removed the overwhite top and just wore the bottoms. The reasoning for that was that at a distance you couldn't distinguish a soldier standing in the woodline or wooded area from the snow covered trees. The trunk of the trees are brown, and the tree itself was white, as well as the ground. What we were wearing was white boots, field pants w/overwhites, OD shirt, topped off w/white steel pot, no camo cover. On the left side of our helmet was a pair of crossed tomahawks and the right side was a parachute patterned after the parachute patch worn on WW2 paratroopers garrison caps. Now that was a cool AND fully functional uniform.

 

Yeah the wool scarf and the three button sweater are great pieces of gear, still today. When Chris was in Iraq it got really cold during the winter (20-30degrees in the daytime) and they would sometimes go on missions where they'd be standing in the gun turret for 18-20hrs at a pop. The vehicles would be running 30-40mph so they got pretty cold. One of the mothers of another Marine decided that she'd contact all the parents through the Key Volunteer and try to raise money to get them all UnderArmor to keep them warm. Well I still subscribe to Leatherneck and Marine Corps Gazette magazines and had read that the Marine Corps had banned UnderArmor because it exacerbated the effects of IED's. The heat from an explosion would melt the synthetic material to the Marine and cause horrific burns. If the blast and shrapnel injured the Marine the plastic melted to their skin created additional problems. If they were fortunate to have been uninjured by the blast and fragmentation, and they would have otherwise have survived unscathed, the melted material caused severe injury. Wool was the answer, I convinced her we needed to send wool scarves, three button sweaters, wooly pullies, wool glove inserts, and Nomex flight gloves, etc.
That reminds me, I was in the Marine Corps when we first adopted the Wooly Pully, that was a great piece of gear. I really didn't like it for wear with the service Bravos, but it was great as a layer under your ripstop jungle cammies when in the field. Thermal shirt, t-shirt, wooly pully, cammie blouse, field jacket and liner. When you're humping remove the field jacket and you were warm, when you stop put it back on and you're warm.


Wooly Pully

 

The Wooly Pully is the ticket!!! I am convinced that you can survive anything if provided:

1. Wooly Pully
2. Field Jacket Liner
3. Poncho LIner
4. G-J-Bs
5. MRE spoon

Those are things every man should have in his closet