thedrifter
07-13-04, 02:16 PM
Issue Date: July 19, 2004
Uniform envy
The Army’s new cammies look a lot like Marine utilities — but with a few changes for the better
By Christian Lowe
Times staff writer
They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Maybe it’s OK for the Army to latch onto something uniquely Marine as the “every Marine a rifleman” credo or to lift the Marine Air Ground Task Force concept for its brigades.
That’s already happening, but at least those are issues the guys in the head shed have to deal with.
But now it seems they want to look like Marines.
The Army announced in June its plans for a new combat uniform, doing away with the old-style woodland cammies — which soldiers know as their “Battle Dress Uniform” — once and for all.
The replacement uniform? A pixel-pattern, slant-pocket, wash-and-wear uniform and brown rough-side-out boots. Sound familiar?
At first glance, they’re awfully similar to the Marine Corps “digital cammies” that debuted in January 2002 as a uniform unique among the four services.
The uniform was the brainchild of then-Commandant Gen. James Jones, who recognized that setting Marines apart in battle would bolster esprit de corps among leathernecks and perhaps strike fear in the hearts of the enemy. Jones knew that during operations in Somalia, for example, enemy forces recognized the Marines by the way they rolled the sleeves of their utilities.
But now the Army has jumped on the bandwagon. The soldiers’ updated blouse, trousers and boots feature many of the same refinements found on the Marine uniform.
Shoulder pockets, knee- and elbow-pad pouches, roomier pants, wash-and-wear finish — seems like the Army adopted the Corps’ cammies out of whole cloth, right?
Not exactly. From the looks of it, the Army took the Marine design and tried to improve on it. Could the Army have designed the ultimate combat uniform? In at least some cases, the Army’s changes are pretty sharp.
New threads got a jump-start
Initially, the Army wasn’t planning to follow the Corps’ lead. The service was working on a more advanced combat uniform that could incorporate cold-weather layers and protection against exposure to contaminants from nuclear, biological or chemical weapons — a much more high-tech solution that was more than a few years away.
But after Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld appointed Gen. Peter Schoomaker to be the Army’s new top officer a year ago, the search for new threads got a jump-start.
In October, Schoomaker told reporters he wanted to foster a warrior ethos in soldiers.
“Everybody in the United States Army’s gotta be a soldier first,” he said, explaining that artillerymen in Iraq, for example, are running missions that are normally the purview of military policemen or grunts.
“Everybody’s a rifleman first,” the former special operations commander reiterated.
Along with that philosophy change came more focus on the practical side of war fighting — and the push for a new “Advanced Combat Uniform” began.
What emerged was a pair of utilities that mate a soldier’s needs with modern technology.
“It’s a warrior’s uniform; it’s a uniform designed by soldiers for soldiers,” said Sgt. Maj. of the Army Kenneth Preston, the service’s top enlisted man.
Gone are the days of using an iron and starch — the new Army cammies are wash-and-wear. New sleeve pockets and slanted chest pockets will sound familiar to the pixel-patterned leatherneck.
The pants feature many of the same improvements of the Corps’ digital duds, with reinforced knee patches that accommodate slip-in pads, more functional cargo pockets and a roomier fit.
“The goal was not to change the look of the Army,” said Army Lt. Col. Dave Anderson, one of the new uniform’s chief developers. “The goal was to find a more functional uniform.”
Funny, but the new camouflage pattern makes soldiers look a lot like Marines.
Army chooses a pixel pattern
The Army examined about a dozen camouflage patterns to replace the woodland pattern and the tricolor desert cammies. Several schemes were evaluated and rejected in favor of a pixel pattern similar to the one that the Corps adopted.
The pixel pattern hadn’t been considered at the outset, but garnered particular interest from rank-and-file soldiers who responded to an informal poll conducted by Army Times in December 2002. The Marine Corps pattern finished second among the 12 patterns. Army officials briefly considered, but rejected, the possibility of adopting the Marine Corps pattern straight away.
Soldiers may have saved themselves a lot of time and effort with that decision. The Marine pattern features tiny Marine Corps emblems throughout the fabric and Corps officials were quick to copyright the scheme. However, they apparently were at least willing to share the idea.
After Jones’ tenure as commandant, he went on to serve as Supreme Allied Commander Europe and head of U.S. European Command. Reached for comment via e-mail on July 8, he said the notion that the Army might be taking something away from a uniquely Marine look didn’t faze him.
“I have not seen the Army’s new look yet, but when we designed our new uniform we wanted to share the fabric technology with the other services because it saves so much money in upkeep,” Jones said. “The Marine Corps has a patent on the Marine uniform, and it is up to the Commandant to decide what, if anything, needs to be done to protect the idea.”
Fortunately, the Army’s final pattern choice is no carbon copy. It’s a digital pattern, sure, but the color scheme is very different, one intended to serve on any battlefield. The Marine Corps chose two schemes that incorporate virtually the same colors present in the old woodland and desert utilities, but the Army took a hard right turn, opting for a more muted combination of gray, tan and green.
But try telling that to a Marine. The colors may be different, but leathernecks are possessive about their pixels.
“We try to separate ourselves, and they do the same thing,” said Gunnery Sgt. Kelly Norman, a radio chief serving at Quantico, Va.
Yet the Army’s color change may have one-upped the Corps. The color black is conspicuously absent from the Army color scheme. Developers say the color draws the eye more than it distracts.
And at least one Marine who teaches basic field-craft firmly agrees.
“The color black does not occur in nature,” said Gunnery Sgt. Jason Urban, a tactics instructor with Officer Candidates School at Quantico, as he taught officer candidates how to apply camouflage paint on their faces. “So just throw that tube of black paint away,” he added.
Whether the lack of black will make a difference remains to be seen, as only a few soldiers have test-driven the new uniform. But for the Corps’ part, officials with Marine Corps Systems Command at Quantico say the “limited” amount of black worked well during testing, and the color scheme is here to stay.
By and large, Marines have worn the desert version of the new cammies in combat operations, and scuttlebutt from the field indicates that the desert scheme — which has no black speckles at all — works well. It does the job in both urban and rural environments in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to some Marines, and is nearly invisible at night when viewed through night vision goggles.
A flashy uniform
Like other Army uniforms, this one is flashy, with a few more bells and whistles than the Marine Corps cammies.
On the blouse, the chest pockets are more radically slanted to allow easier access while wearing body armor. The arm pockets are larger than those on the Corps’ cammies and feature a built-in infrared marker tab for combat identification; pen loops are included on the wrist area of the left sleeve. All patches and name tapes attach with Velcro so they can be easily removed or changed.
The blouse also features a two-way zippered closure concealed by a flap with Velcro, doing away with buttons. The new “Mandarin” collar can be worn folded down, or can be worn up and wrapped around the neck to guard against chafing from body armor or to keep debris and brass from falling into the jacket. (It looks a lot like the collar on a dress blue blouse.)
Meanwhile, external trouser adjusters are out, replaced by an internal waist drawstring. The two thigh-area cargo pockets are slanted and expandable, closing with a Velcro flap and drawstring. The pants also have a pocket at each calf, enough to stash a couple chem-light sticks or an extra rifle magazine.
The calf pocket drew a favorable review from a CH-46 Sea Knight pilot, Maj. Vincent Ciuccoli, which stands to reason because the Army adapted the pocket from its helicopter aviator uniform.
But one Marine scoffed at the extras.
“They have a drawstring waist, so they’re doctors’ scrubs,” said Gunnery Sgt. Ruben Velez, a Marine Security Guard instructor at Quantico.
“And I see they’ve got a rigger’s-style belt, which is what we do,” Velez said. “Except ours stands for something.” Once a favored but unauthorized item for most Marines, the rigger-style belt is now the external symbol of a Marine’s progression through the martial-arts training ranks.
All soldiers will be required to wear the cammies, which carry a price tag of $88 a set, by December 2007.
Despite the calls of copycat thrown the Army’s way by leathernecks getting their first look at the nouveau digital threads, they’re still confident the Corps’ uniform is the best there is.
And some things will never change, Velez said.
“They always gotta do something to look better than us,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Every service does their own thing to show off.”
Matthew Cox and C. Mark Brinkley contributed to this report. Cox covers the Army.
continued...........
Uniform envy
The Army’s new cammies look a lot like Marine utilities — but with a few changes for the better
By Christian Lowe
Times staff writer
They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Maybe it’s OK for the Army to latch onto something uniquely Marine as the “every Marine a rifleman” credo or to lift the Marine Air Ground Task Force concept for its brigades.
That’s already happening, but at least those are issues the guys in the head shed have to deal with.
But now it seems they want to look like Marines.
The Army announced in June its plans for a new combat uniform, doing away with the old-style woodland cammies — which soldiers know as their “Battle Dress Uniform” — once and for all.
The replacement uniform? A pixel-pattern, slant-pocket, wash-and-wear uniform and brown rough-side-out boots. Sound familiar?
At first glance, they’re awfully similar to the Marine Corps “digital cammies” that debuted in January 2002 as a uniform unique among the four services.
The uniform was the brainchild of then-Commandant Gen. James Jones, who recognized that setting Marines apart in battle would bolster esprit de corps among leathernecks and perhaps strike fear in the hearts of the enemy. Jones knew that during operations in Somalia, for example, enemy forces recognized the Marines by the way they rolled the sleeves of their utilities.
But now the Army has jumped on the bandwagon. The soldiers’ updated blouse, trousers and boots feature many of the same refinements found on the Marine uniform.
Shoulder pockets, knee- and elbow-pad pouches, roomier pants, wash-and-wear finish — seems like the Army adopted the Corps’ cammies out of whole cloth, right?
Not exactly. From the looks of it, the Army took the Marine design and tried to improve on it. Could the Army have designed the ultimate combat uniform? In at least some cases, the Army’s changes are pretty sharp.
New threads got a jump-start
Initially, the Army wasn’t planning to follow the Corps’ lead. The service was working on a more advanced combat uniform that could incorporate cold-weather layers and protection against exposure to contaminants from nuclear, biological or chemical weapons — a much more high-tech solution that was more than a few years away.
But after Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld appointed Gen. Peter Schoomaker to be the Army’s new top officer a year ago, the search for new threads got a jump-start.
In October, Schoomaker told reporters he wanted to foster a warrior ethos in soldiers.
“Everybody in the United States Army’s gotta be a soldier first,” he said, explaining that artillerymen in Iraq, for example, are running missions that are normally the purview of military policemen or grunts.
“Everybody’s a rifleman first,” the former special operations commander reiterated.
Along with that philosophy change came more focus on the practical side of war fighting — and the push for a new “Advanced Combat Uniform” began.
What emerged was a pair of utilities that mate a soldier’s needs with modern technology.
“It’s a warrior’s uniform; it’s a uniform designed by soldiers for soldiers,” said Sgt. Maj. of the Army Kenneth Preston, the service’s top enlisted man.
Gone are the days of using an iron and starch — the new Army cammies are wash-and-wear. New sleeve pockets and slanted chest pockets will sound familiar to the pixel-patterned leatherneck.
The pants feature many of the same improvements of the Corps’ digital duds, with reinforced knee patches that accommodate slip-in pads, more functional cargo pockets and a roomier fit.
“The goal was not to change the look of the Army,” said Army Lt. Col. Dave Anderson, one of the new uniform’s chief developers. “The goal was to find a more functional uniform.”
Funny, but the new camouflage pattern makes soldiers look a lot like Marines.
Army chooses a pixel pattern
The Army examined about a dozen camouflage patterns to replace the woodland pattern and the tricolor desert cammies. Several schemes were evaluated and rejected in favor of a pixel pattern similar to the one that the Corps adopted.
The pixel pattern hadn’t been considered at the outset, but garnered particular interest from rank-and-file soldiers who responded to an informal poll conducted by Army Times in December 2002. The Marine Corps pattern finished second among the 12 patterns. Army officials briefly considered, but rejected, the possibility of adopting the Marine Corps pattern straight away.
Soldiers may have saved themselves a lot of time and effort with that decision. The Marine pattern features tiny Marine Corps emblems throughout the fabric and Corps officials were quick to copyright the scheme. However, they apparently were at least willing to share the idea.
After Jones’ tenure as commandant, he went on to serve as Supreme Allied Commander Europe and head of U.S. European Command. Reached for comment via e-mail on July 8, he said the notion that the Army might be taking something away from a uniquely Marine look didn’t faze him.
“I have not seen the Army’s new look yet, but when we designed our new uniform we wanted to share the fabric technology with the other services because it saves so much money in upkeep,” Jones said. “The Marine Corps has a patent on the Marine uniform, and it is up to the Commandant to decide what, if anything, needs to be done to protect the idea.”
Fortunately, the Army’s final pattern choice is no carbon copy. It’s a digital pattern, sure, but the color scheme is very different, one intended to serve on any battlefield. The Marine Corps chose two schemes that incorporate virtually the same colors present in the old woodland and desert utilities, but the Army took a hard right turn, opting for a more muted combination of gray, tan and green.
But try telling that to a Marine. The colors may be different, but leathernecks are possessive about their pixels.
“We try to separate ourselves, and they do the same thing,” said Gunnery Sgt. Kelly Norman, a radio chief serving at Quantico, Va.
Yet the Army’s color change may have one-upped the Corps. The color black is conspicuously absent from the Army color scheme. Developers say the color draws the eye more than it distracts.
And at least one Marine who teaches basic field-craft firmly agrees.
“The color black does not occur in nature,” said Gunnery Sgt. Jason Urban, a tactics instructor with Officer Candidates School at Quantico, as he taught officer candidates how to apply camouflage paint on their faces. “So just throw that tube of black paint away,” he added.
Whether the lack of black will make a difference remains to be seen, as only a few soldiers have test-driven the new uniform. But for the Corps’ part, officials with Marine Corps Systems Command at Quantico say the “limited” amount of black worked well during testing, and the color scheme is here to stay.
By and large, Marines have worn the desert version of the new cammies in combat operations, and scuttlebutt from the field indicates that the desert scheme — which has no black speckles at all — works well. It does the job in both urban and rural environments in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to some Marines, and is nearly invisible at night when viewed through night vision goggles.
A flashy uniform
Like other Army uniforms, this one is flashy, with a few more bells and whistles than the Marine Corps cammies.
On the blouse, the chest pockets are more radically slanted to allow easier access while wearing body armor. The arm pockets are larger than those on the Corps’ cammies and feature a built-in infrared marker tab for combat identification; pen loops are included on the wrist area of the left sleeve. All patches and name tapes attach with Velcro so they can be easily removed or changed.
The blouse also features a two-way zippered closure concealed by a flap with Velcro, doing away with buttons. The new “Mandarin” collar can be worn folded down, or can be worn up and wrapped around the neck to guard against chafing from body armor or to keep debris and brass from falling into the jacket. (It looks a lot like the collar on a dress blue blouse.)
Meanwhile, external trouser adjusters are out, replaced by an internal waist drawstring. The two thigh-area cargo pockets are slanted and expandable, closing with a Velcro flap and drawstring. The pants also have a pocket at each calf, enough to stash a couple chem-light sticks or an extra rifle magazine.
The calf pocket drew a favorable review from a CH-46 Sea Knight pilot, Maj. Vincent Ciuccoli, which stands to reason because the Army adapted the pocket from its helicopter aviator uniform.
But one Marine scoffed at the extras.
“They have a drawstring waist, so they’re doctors’ scrubs,” said Gunnery Sgt. Ruben Velez, a Marine Security Guard instructor at Quantico.
“And I see they’ve got a rigger’s-style belt, which is what we do,” Velez said. “Except ours stands for something.” Once a favored but unauthorized item for most Marines, the rigger-style belt is now the external symbol of a Marine’s progression through the martial-arts training ranks.
All soldiers will be required to wear the cammies, which carry a price tag of $88 a set, by December 2007.
Despite the calls of copycat thrown the Army’s way by leathernecks getting their first look at the nouveau digital threads, they’re still confident the Corps’ uniform is the best there is.
And some things will never change, Velez said.
“They always gotta do something to look better than us,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Every service does their own thing to show off.”
Matthew Cox and C. Mark Brinkley contributed to this report. Cox covers the Army.
continued...........