JACK ARMY, scanning my sector!
Remember this is the first generation of this uniform. There are bound to be changes as feedback from combat zones are incorporated. They've already made a bunch of changes since the uniform was first introduced last year....
Sand and other crap in velcro makes in inoperable, as well. Just seems weird without the black, too.
I'd like them to keep the subdued drill sergeant badge as part of the uniform. From what I understand, Drill Sergeants will be wearing the badge they normally wear on their class A's and B's on their ACU while on duty. ugh.
Geesh....I'm FINALLY gettin tha hang wut all tha dang initials stand for, and da Army changes yer uniform! Ugh!
Now, for a stoopid civilian question....wut do ACU stand for? Army cammo uniform?
ACU = Advanced Combat Uniform
maybe a post with tons of acronyms and then a link to that post whenever I use an acronym? Would that help?
My son thinks that my day to day dialogue is ALREADY peppered with too many Army, Marine acronyms, but SURE! That would be great!
Thanx
While on the subject of uniforms, I have another question;
I have "adopted" many that are in country, and they, at times, send me lil souvenirs. One is a DCU blouse, still adorned with his Airborne patch, unit patches, CIB patch, etc... I wear it 'round the house instead of a sweater. Would this be considered inappropriate, or offensive to the uniform?
I have seen the new ACU and I am not impressed either. Our DCUs did fine in Iraq, although a lot of us tore off the lower blouse pockets and sewed them onto our sleeves. (Easier to get into when wearing body armor.)
As far as "Badgefinders" go...I think there should be 2 options. Wear nothing or wear it all. I remember when I could wear my foreign jump wings and jungle warfare patch. I agree that the ones that are making the rules are those that have jockeyed desks and never heard a round fired in anger, in general.
Draco
RLTW
Just a note on skill badges, SFC, do you plan on wearing your SF Tab while you wear nothing else? Also, because you didn't need to go to Air Assault school to learn those skill,s doesn't mean that the new trooper in the 101st did, or the guy coming there straight from his heavy unit did. Hell I know how to patrol, I've been to PLDC and I was taught how to write and give an op-order, do I need to go to Ranger school to make me a better leader? Bad enough they took the 101st off jump status, now you wanna take away the only wings they got?
These are based on the uniforms that the Marines have been wearing for a couple of years, very comfortable! No need to iron, wad it up, toss it in a sack and it comes out looking like it's been hanging in a closet. Plus the inserts for knee pads and elbow pads, very nice.
Can you take another civilian question? What's the deal with the requested "Under Armor" T-shirts? I know what they are, but are the soldiers allowed to wear them? They only come in black, not Army green. At $25 each I don't want to send any if they aren't allowed to wear under their uniforms. One of the soldier blogs I read was complaining they couldn't wear them, but they are a requested item from my 'adopted' soldiers.
And yes to the explanation for the acronyms being appreciated.
This former CPT was far from a badge collector, but I wore with pride (not arrogance) my 5-jump-chump wings and am sorry for those who no longer can.
Hey Chevy.....
UA shirts come in ALL colors.
http://www.goldmanbros.com/gc/
cu...d=ga001_001_001
Check it out.
I don't like the new uniforms either.
I like the lighter green more than the darker/brighter green on your blog. Looks good.
I think the money that went into the new uniforms could have been better spent on something else. I know my husband's unit has a lot of equipment that has been loaned to other units so they could deploy to Iraq, and they also have stuff that desperately needs to be replaced or repaired before they deploy again.
Plus I've been told the new uniform is expensive and doesn't include those brown tshirts. So what is the old uniform going to be used for now, or is it just going to disappear?
Hey, wasn't the General that got canned today (or yesterday) in charge of the command that has the say in the uniforms and such?
Sounds like he not only signed off on velcro vestments, but got his velcro stuck in some other ladys velcro other than his wife's.
What goes around, comes around...
Said Ol' Waylon...God rest his wild and wonderful soul.
Papa Ray
West Texas
USA
Interesting.
I'm at Benning right this moment in my barracks writing this from airborne school. I'm anxious about my jump wings, it's my first "real army" accomplishment. Chances are I'll only be able to wear them my senior year (this year) on my BDUs until I go active and commission in May then I'll be on my own with ACUs.
If they do gotta toss the badges I think they should at least keep the CIB and combat patches, which I have seen they kept the combat patches. Those patches show who's been in combat and who has risked their life... They should be respected and the uniform highlights them for their efforts and accomplishments.
Oh, if you wanna check out and see how I'm doing at airborne school peep my blog at http://www.mebreezy.com
Yo! Word-up homey, thanks for gettin us the straight dope on the Jumpizzle Schizzle!
I'm sure you'll make a great Officer!
(Maybe in Compton...)
Lay off the street lingo and talk like an adult!
While I haven't worn the ACU yet, I've seen and talked to a couple of guys who have. They told me the velcro just isn't workable, debris mats the velcro, patches and name tapes are lost, and wearing the pin on skill dadges wears holes oin the chest. When the uniforms tear, which they seem to do easily in the field, they tend to shred as opposed to how the ripstop BDU's tear horizontally, making sewing repairs easy. They also stated, and I can attest to this, that they are way too light for any wooded environment, and make you almost glow at night. All in all, they gave them a big thumbs down. THey said to make it workable, they needed to be ripstop, tweak the pattern(s) (suggested adopting both the woodland and desert Marine pattern) ditch the velcro for tried and true buttons and sweed on name tapes, and go back to sew on badges (or just ditch them all together).
Here's a small story from last month in the AJC, which is covering the 48th BCT, supposedly the first unit to be issued the ACU, doesn't seem to be getting many good reviews....
http://www.ajc.com/news/content/
..._ga_troops.html
You do have a point our pattern is way better but then you would have to look like us! Wearing the uniform that I wore to Iraq twice, never had any problem velcro, it's only on the breast pockets, the rest of the pockets use buttons. Also the cargo pockets in the pants still retain their shape after spending 7 months with a paperback in them. Not to shabby, I think most of the problem that you guys are having is change.
Actually, I for one think in this day and age of shrinking budgets that the DoD would allow it's services to waste money on 3 different combat uniforms.
Marine Pattern is good. ACU pattern I've seen is pretty good too. I think pics tend to wash out the color. Obviously, the army pattern seems geared more towards desert/urban.
The guys on my team and I find the chest pockets next to useless. There is a thin velcro strip that requires multiple tugs to open the pocket. You can't get to these pockets with body armor on. The shoulder pockets are better but we had modded uniforms before.
The calf pockets are useless. Try to walk with something slapping your calf all the time.
It is a VERY noisy uniform. And patches fall off.
The badges? Well, people deserve to wear them in garrison. To get rid of them is to ignore the tradition of awards and skill badges. No one wears them on deployment -- pressing dammets against your skin with body armor on is uncomfortable.
I'm not sure rank should be below one's torso -- it worked better on the collar.
Do we really need camo patterns anymore?
This uniform seems REALLY hot, much hotter than DCUs. We regularly soak them through here in Baghdad.
The pant legs seem longer so they tuck in better.
People get stuck to each other with the velcro all the time, if they brush by each other.
Overall I'd say this uniform needs a lot of work and the only real benefit is being able to sterilize the uniform quickly and the shoulder pockets.
Another thing... They should've issued sweat-wicking tees with the uniform, and the collar tends not to stay down. It tends to fold upwards or not crease.
We have to pull our collars up when we wear body armor or the velcro scrapes up our necks.
I have not worn a uniform in 19 years and they all had buttons back then.
But I have learned alot about velcro since then. Velcro does not work when it is wet. Notice real river guides switched to clip style Teva's back in the mid 90's rather than the velcro ones. Nothing like watching your footwear float past a client. There is also a reason Teva supplied little ruberband thingies because the velcro would wear out. Another note, high performance mountain climbing clothes has very litttle velcro. These are all civilian applications for velcro. I'm sure the utility of velcro goes down even more when you are taking and returning fire
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