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Everybody is doing it!

By The Armorer on June 14, 2004 | | Comments (18)

...so we'd better do it too!

Army gets new combat uniform

By Sgt. 1st Class Marcia Triggs

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, June 14, 2004) - The Army will be fielding a new combat uniform designed by NCOs and tested by Stryker Brigade Soldiers in Iraq since October.

Meet the new Army uniform, unveiled today.


Sgt. 1st Class Jeff Myhre, the Program Executive Office NCOIC, sports the Army Combat Uniform, the recently approved wear for Soldiers. It contains 20 new improvements.

Zippers. Velcro (for when that zipper fails). Got rid of the lower pockets on the blouse and moved 'em to the shoulders (still room for patches - can't look like the Marines!). Must annoy the Marines, to have adopted the "Hey-look-at-our-new-digital-cammies-so-we-don't-look-like-the-Army" uniform... if they'd just waited, they'd have been unique! But no, they went first, so we copied 'em!

There were 20 changes made to the uniform, to include removing the color black and adapting the digital print from the Marine Corps uniform to meet the needs of the Army, said Sgt. 1st Class Jeff Myhre, the Clothing and Individual Equipment noncommissioned officer in charge.

Perhaps most interestingly... the Army has rediscovered the Hush Puppy suede boot. Just like it did in WWII (when the Sergeants-Major made sure they got spit-shined anyway) and just like before Korea, when they tried again (and the Sergeants-Major made sure they got spit-shined)... sorta like the BDU, which was never, ever, supposed to be starched (which the Colonels and Sergeants-Major made sure got starched, if lightly, anyway).

At $88 per uniform, about $30 more than the BDU, Soldiers will eventually reap gains in money and time by not having to take uniforms to the cleaners or shine boots.

At least deployed, as most of 'em are these days. But, when the garret-troopers reassert themselves...

All snarkiness aside - and a wince at the $30 increase in cost - it's got that Star Trek look - but it does look like they've done a pretty good job so far. Good thing it's not red... since we all know what happened to new guys with no name who wore red shirts on the Enterprise!

If you'd like to read the whole article go here (I recommend it)

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18 Comments

By Russ on June 14, 2004 8:39 PM
Man, could they have made it any uglier? Well, at least this way its ugliness level matches that of the Classes A and B uniforms.
 
By Calliope on June 14, 2004 8:48 PM
It looks like an old Soviet Spetznaz uniform or something. I guess I'll get used to it though. :|
 
By John of Argghhh! on June 14, 2004 8:53 PM
Good point, Russ! And I almost brought that up, Calliope, but I figgered that copying the Marines was enough of a slam...
 
By The Commissar on June 14, 2004 8:58 PM
Looks like a graphic of hard drive being defragmented.
 
By Neutral on June 15, 2004 7:06 AM
I love it! wrinkle free ...no need to sew on patches anymore thanks to the velcro ... a really dependent friendly uniform:)
 
By Stephen Mohr on June 15, 2004 7:40 AM
I wouldn't want to get anything out of the velco pockets if I'm trying to surprise anyone at close quarters. Say, before an ambush.
 
By John of Argghhh! on June 15, 2004 8:29 AM
Good point, Neutral - we copied the Air Force, too, with the velcro for patches. Wow - a Joint Uniform... kinda. BTW, are you revealing your era there, 'dependent'? I was one of those - but when I was a LT that word was banned for family member! Stephen - you have a point, but one would hope that well-trained troops don't have anything in their pockets they are going to need while conducting an ambush! It *should* already be out, I would think. I would hope. I know I'd smack any of my troops who were fiddling around just prior to initiation!
 
By Neutral on June 15, 2004 10:08 AM
John ... I rather think I am revealing my total ignorance of all things military - which might just be appropriate for a citizen of a neutral country : )
 
By Michael on June 15, 2004 12:02 PM
John, I hate to say this, but I hate the uniform. I've only been in the Army for a year, but I think the BDU's and DCU's are much better. I really have some doubts that the ACU will be able to conceal soldiers properly. I hate the velcro on insignia. And I really hate the no-shine boots. There's just something good in making your boots shine up really well.
 
By Boudicca on June 15, 2004 8:03 PM
Ohhhhh, I don't like it. I keep coming back to the picture trying to figure out what it is. It just doesn't look very masculine, which I guess is fine since women are in the military too. The pattern on it kind of looks like rain clouds or something. Maybe it's the way he's showing it. Is there really a high zipper failure with the old uniforms?
 
By John of Argghhh! on June 15, 2004 8:59 PM
There weren't any zipper failures in the old uniforms. No zippers. Because they fail.
 
By J.M. Heinrichs on June 15, 2004 9:20 PM
Okay, the original version of this pattern is here: http://www.army.dnd.ca/lf/English/2_0_68.asp?uSubSection=68&uSection=3 and: http://www.army.gc.ca/Chief_Land_Staff/Clothe_the_soldier/hab/1/13_e.asp Unfortunately, the Canadian Army does not believe in zippers on shirts, but on jackets, the zipper is backed up by buttons. And in the latest interation of my uniform, the buttons are now concealed. And no patches except for the flag on the shoulder (I keep the cammo version tusked underneath, to change if circumstances become too exciting); nametags are cammo pattern, as are my rank slipons. Cheers JMH
 
By homebru on June 15, 2004 9:30 PM
The point of using zippers is that they effectively make the jackets "throw-away". Almost any troop with (the used-to-be mandatory) sewing kit can replace a button. Heck, you can even make a temporary replacement out of a twig. But a zipper? Nope. Throw it away. Buy another. Side note: where will the selection officer(s) be working after they retire? And what is with the insignia on center-chest? Has anybody figured out how often young enlisteds are gonna get chewed out for checking out that nurses "rank"? I wonder how long after implementation before someone declares a requirement for an ascot to make this a "class-A" uniform. I think I hear my old solid-green fatigues snickering in the closet.
 
By Fûz on June 16, 2004 2:34 PM
USAF hasn't used velcro to attach insignia on the combat uniform for about a decade (still in use on flight suits, just not BDUs). Still, this looks like a step forward, with the exception of the zipper. See my post on this topic.
 
By Heartless Libertarian on June 16, 2004 3:07 PM
Wow...I know SFC Myhre (pronounced Meyer)...worked with him in the Stryker Brigade...great guy...stogie fiend. When I was there, the uniform we tested was in the standard woodland green camo pattern, and I don't remember any zippers. The velcro was there, though. Incidentally, replacing buttons with velcro is a modification a lot of guys make, at least to garrison uniforms, because buttons make impressions in the fabric when it's starched. If you're wondering why the chest pockets are angled funny, it's so troops can get into them while wearing body armor, by reaching through the arm holes. The cargo pockets on the pants, if you look close, are also angled, to make them more accessible for troops riding in vehicles.
 
By Lee on January 4, 2005 5:41 PM
I wonder whats going to happen to the "new" aviation uniform?
 
By Lee on January 4, 2005 5:41 PM
I wonder whats going to happen to the "new" aviation uniform?
 
By RaquibDaoud on February 28, 2005 8:39 AM
There are definitely some pretty squirelly features on the new uniform: I hate the zipper/velcro replacing buttons, and absolutely ABHORE the rank on unbelievably fay chest-tab (which I hated on the goretex jacket.) On the other hand some of my reluctance stems from ::ahem:: sleightly subjective grounds: you used to be able to tell other guys in the special operations community by their velcro'ed ID patches. Now every Joe will have 'em. Pockets as well. Gone are the day when I would pick up a new set of BDUs and drop them off with complicated instructions to remove the chest pockets and put them on the sleeves (?) remove the lower pockets and put them on the chest (??) and then put swaths of fuzzy-side velcro wherever an identifying mark would have been ???.) And then ($20 a pair lighter) pick them up three days later. (sigh.)
 
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