I remember seeing the US soldiers around during one of our the training camps and wondering where they hell they were fighting that the higher ups decided this camo was the best choice. Poor guys & gals.
night time amphibious ops I'm guessing?
E: it isn't new
Most people working on the outside of the ships wear brightly coloured clothing, so this new camo baffles me.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...for_launch.jpg
This is the only thing I've seen ACUs blend with. My time in the service was spent in the Air Force and I was pissed the day I had to trade my BDUs/DCUs in for those horrible digital tiger stripe things. I heard that the USAF uniforms were designed to look like the Army from far away, but distinctly different up close. Since both services work together a lot (at least in my career field), they wanted us to appear from a distance as one unit. I don't know why the higher-ups thought that was a good idea unless they thought the next war was going to be in grandma's living room. Hopefully, like the little brother that we are, we follow the Army's lead and change those things.
I used to work a building across from a Recruiter's office, would take smoke breaks with some of the guys working there. When they got the new camo, I pointed it out to one of them and he just said: "Yeah, I hate it. It's going to be impossible to recruit people to wear this stuff."
They were phasing the ACUs in as I was getting out and whomever thought it was a good idea to use velcro for anything never spent a day in the field. The only positive thing that anyone took from it was no need to shine the boots or starch the uniform which I honestly enjoyed anyhow.
Depending on the Laundry Detergent and/or Fabric Softener used it could cause you to stand out. To make colors appear "brighter" etc they had fluorescent/phosphorescent chemicals that adhere to your clothes and make the colors appear brighter. They stand out in certain lighting conditions so I assume IR would be one of them.
Why does the Navy even need its own uniform? Give them MTP, same as everyone else. They just crack their own anyway.. Blue shirt, sleeves up, White shirt, peak cap, blue jumper and white shirt, blue jumper and blue shirt, foulie, beret, baseball caps, ones, twos, coveralls, seriously, who the fuck in the Navy knows what to wear when they wake up in the morning? Do they just spin a roulette wheel?
MTP's ok, I'm keeping my PCS issue because it's thinner for range packages etc though..
Also, for those that think it's just the USA that can't sort its uniform out - the UK military is currently having a minor mutiny over MTP. It appears wearing a shirt untucked is so uncouth it threatens to annihilate discipline at an individual level thus rendering the British military unable to soldier. No, seriously, there's an almighty mud-fight at a senior and junior level over whether we should wear the new MTP top (read: JACKET) tucked in or out. Infanteers and people of a more practical persuasion at the sharp end all say "out".. Camp Commandos and chairborne warriors that take personal appearance in a desert rather seriously all say "in".. My money's on the fat-knacker REMFs.
Last edited by mmoc36f8af66e9; 2012-06-25 at 07:10 PM.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O02WseVFBw8 Your comment made me think about this.