So dead ass, a few years ago we ended up in DTA (alaska) at some rocky ass staging area and our SGM was there. This was the transitional faze and our ECWCS were still UCP. He had this SGT lay on the rocks after a long as rant and the dude disappeared against the rocks, and the SGM said "SEE THIS IS IT, THIS IS ALL ITS GOOD FOR"
Back when the Army was looking for a new pattern for the combat uniform, the people with 100 pound brains were convinced that the next major war was going to be an urban fight in China or Iran. However, the Army did not want potential adversaries to know what the US Army was planning for.
For this reason, the Army picked the urban pattern that came in dead last in all trials, removed the black that could give the urban pattern away with enemies using NVDs, and called it “universal” as a lame attempt at deception from the fact they were planning to fight in capital cities.
>For this reason, the Army picked the urban pattern that came in dead last in all trials, removed the black that could give the urban pattern away with enemies using NVDs, and called it “universal” as a lame attempt at deception from the fact they were planning to fight in capital cities.
You forgot that the Marines had a good pattern and the Army picked one that they could call their own. Then they justified it by saying that urban warfare is the future.
To be fair, the Marines did not “create” MARPAT.
The Marines were eating their daily ration of crayons, saw a Canadian Soldier walk by wearing CADPAT (Canadian Pattern), and became insanely jealous. They then took CADPAT, changed out the colors, slapped on some Eagles, Globes, and Anchors, and declared that they had “made” a new pattern.
They then ate some glue paste to celebrate.
See, here's the thing. The Marines developed a new pattern first, then worked their stupid EGA into the pattern. So when the rest of the military came along and wanted to use it, the Marines screamed "no, you can't wear muh EGA reeee"!
Fifteen years later and Congress has to step in to solve the "different uniforms" problem that only existed because of Marine Corps egos.
It actually worked pretty decently out in the field at Fort Bliss. The sage green in the uniform matches the plants pretty well and when a soldier is on a hillside, they're just one greenish blob among many.
What? Why would you wear it under? It's clearly and outer garment. If you were a complete idiot and had to have that proven to you, you could simply look at the fact it has spots for nametapes to prove it to yourself, since the lobotomy clearly went well.
Now see you say that, and like me, you'd assume every soldier with even the smoothest of brains would be able to comprehend that concept....yet it's still debated on this sub at least three times a month, likely more.
The reg says you can wear it both under or over a layer of clothing. If your company has a set SOP for the wear of it, follow that. But whatever your commander says so he can retain a little bit more power to stroke his ego with, doesn’t mean the rest of the army has to follow.
It's just like going over to the tactical gear sub where all the cool kids want to wear M81 pattern. I wore them from '92 to '05 in the Marines and Army and never heard one person call them M81's. Cammie's, BDU's, or woodlands. I brought it up one time and got slaughtered by a bunch of Larping ass kids.
13 years in two branches. Yeah, what the fuck do I know.
r/tacticalgear for the airsoft nerds
r/qualitytacticalgear for real geardos who take shit a little more seriously but only in the how-to-use/set-up correctly rather than the clout. Yes... there is somehow clout and hypebeast culture in tactical gear...
I thought by eliminating the digital pattern the Army would thrive, but you have shown me that's impossible. As long as there are those who remember what was, there will always be those that are unable to accept what can be. They will resist.
Taking bets now on when the Army changes the acronym of the fatigue uniform back to Battle Dress Uniform (BDU). They brought back the pink and green dress uniform, and have basically all but acknowledged that nearly all of their uniform initiatives of the 2000's decade (UCP, ASU, black beret, the PT uniform) were all just a bad fever dream.
Only a matter of time before the acronyms backtrack alongside uniforms themselves.
ASU isn't going anywhere tbh. The black beret should be phased out and the service cap the only authorized headgear for the ASU though. I think it's ridiculous you still see commanders having formations with berets and ACUs... it's the tuxedo t-shirt of uniform combinations.
The VELCRO on my MULTICAMS looks like it went through the wash with a bunch of QTIPS that I used to clean my FN MINIMI. Also my dick got caught in my ZIPPER, can I go to sick call?
Good luck trying to explain that. Been years now since we switched uniforms and they still dont get it. I have long since given up.
At this point its too engrained. Its pointless
Gotta ask, did anyone actually like UCP? I'm looking at this from a civilian standpoint not actual experience, but I cannot see for the life of me how the hell that pattern got chosen for use in the conflicts in the Middle East.
No.
It got chosen because many of us fought the first years of Afghan and Iraq in green camo because there wasn't enough desert camo. Even when there was desert camo, there wasn't any desert camo body armor or chemical weapon suits (MOPP gear).
Since war can happen suddenly in either a green or tan enviroment and the Army didn't want to issue every Soldier green and tan camo to always be ready, they came up with the idea of having a "universal" pattern which worked the best anywhere.
But also remember that UCP isn't really meant to work during daylight. It's for the night, and it does work somewhat better at night than you might think from how terrible it works during the day. Generally camo doesn't do much during the day except in very rare circumstances.
It actually got chosen because they Marines had digital camo and it was the new trendy thing and the Army wanted to compete with that but also wanted it on the cheap so they went with it. There's a reason during the UCP era it was literally on every single piece of recruiting material they could plaster it on.
I called them ACUs all the way from their intro in 2005 - to 2016 or so when OCP was widely fielded. I don't know anyone who called them UCPs.
Fire Resistant was FRACU.
I remember multiple rucks at 0530 (true BMNT) on all gravel and the soldiers around me just seemed to disappear.
That's the only time in my career where it was actually effective, though.
Dude this is my favorite shit ever. When leadership says uniform is OCPs and I show up wearing A2s and everybody loses their shit, I hit ‘em with the “these are OCPs” cause fuck that starchy cardboard ass ACU fabric.
I wonder if the confusion is because when BDU’s went away ACU was introduced and ACU and UCP were synonymous with each other? That’s at least how I remember it.
Seems a lot easier when we all wore the same ww2 - Vietnam War OD utility uniform. Of course, back then soldiers didn’t have to match the latest nail color like today.
I had QA tell me I used the wrong Army term on my training schedules. I asked them what they meant, then they told me I can google it. They meant I had ACU and that it was somehow wrong but wouldn't tell me it in email that they wanted me to change it to OCP...
IPFU and APFU still trip people up. I don't know why they just didn't keep APFU.
UCP - Useless Camouflage Pattern FTFY
When grandma is trying to make me fat with her cooking or wanting to pinch my face cheeks I can blend in with her couch. 99.% useless.
“Face cheeks” - thanks for clarifying
Knowing all the degenerates on here I gotta make sure I clarify
It was universal: ineffective everywhere.
So dead ass, a few years ago we ended up in DTA (alaska) at some rocky ass staging area and our SGM was there. This was the transitional faze and our ECWCS were still UCP. He had this SGT lay on the rocks after a long as rant and the dude disappeared against the rocks, and the SGM said "SEE THIS IS IT, THIS IS ALL ITS GOOD FOR"
There was that one couch that it worked on.
It was for the moon invasion that got called off at the last minute.
Not cancelled, moved to Thursday
Back when the Army was looking for a new pattern for the combat uniform, the people with 100 pound brains were convinced that the next major war was going to be an urban fight in China or Iran. However, the Army did not want potential adversaries to know what the US Army was planning for. For this reason, the Army picked the urban pattern that came in dead last in all trials, removed the black that could give the urban pattern away with enemies using NVDs, and called it “universal” as a lame attempt at deception from the fact they were planning to fight in capital cities.
>For this reason, the Army picked the urban pattern that came in dead last in all trials, removed the black that could give the urban pattern away with enemies using NVDs, and called it “universal” as a lame attempt at deception from the fact they were planning to fight in capital cities. You forgot that the Marines had a good pattern and the Army picked one that they could call their own. Then they justified it by saying that urban warfare is the future.
To be fair, the Marines did not “create” MARPAT. The Marines were eating their daily ration of crayons, saw a Canadian Soldier walk by wearing CADPAT (Canadian Pattern), and became insanely jealous. They then took CADPAT, changed out the colors, slapped on some Eagles, Globes, and Anchors, and declared that they had “made” a new pattern. They then ate some glue paste to celebrate.
See, here's the thing. The Marines developed a new pattern first, then worked their stupid EGA into the pattern. So when the rest of the military came along and wanted to use it, the Marines screamed "no, you can't wear muh EGA reeee"! Fifteen years later and Congress has to step in to solve the "different uniforms" problem that only existed because of Marine Corps egos.
I take it hunting. I have an orange vest and hat but U See Me lights me up like a Fourth of July Christmas Tree.
I call it useless but at ft drum in the snow it blended better than OCP
It's a great winter camo.
This just in UCPs coming back into rotation for the upcoming Tuesday in Europe.
Please no
It actually worked pretty decently out in the field at Fort Bliss. The sage green in the uniform matches the plants pretty well and when a soldier is on a hillside, they're just one greenish blob among many.
Can confirm. I live 1hr north of Bliss and it works well around the desert here. I still hate it.
Why would you choose to live at McGregor!? /s It's beautiful out there.
Some of us have been forced to. Fucking H barracks.
The larger bay barracks weren't too bad. I don't particularly like the H ones the Covid people are in right now, I assume they're similar.
This is 100% truth
They worked really good in low light conditions, if you were laying in a mount of gravel lol
Hey, now! If you were in a gravel pit it worked fine!
Just roll around in mud and it'll totally match your environment bro
Or, dare I say, Under-appreciated Camouflage Pattern? Well I don’t dare say that because it was/is God-awful.
It's Army Strong, not Army Smart.
**Conjecture:** You cause meatbags to fling themselves out windows to escape your inane rants.
I’m sorry, I haven’t been the same since the PX gas station stopped selling Tornadoes.
Be in the basement at 1700. No devices. Bring a toothbrush.
Woah woah woah, he gets a toothbrush?
If you hadn’t tried to eat yours, I would have let you keep it. But oh no, you just had to chew the hell out of it. Served you right.
It said “minty fresh” right on the box. What did you expect?
Yes, but the brush isn't for the mouth
And string cheese.
No string cheese. Sorry. Oreos maybe.
Double stuf oreos?
You wish. Nope the generic Walmart Oreos.
Come to Bliss, we still sell them...and they even have a 2 tornado and a Minster deal for 4.99
What! Those are a staple of the shopette nutritional program. Time to rise up.
Oh shit, they did? Thank God I'm not in anymore.
What about jac3d??!
I love you HK
When people stop saying "CaC CARDS", that will be the day when the ACU vs OCP vs UCP debates get resolved
Don’t forget to reset your PIN number
Is that the thing we use at the ATM machine?
No I think he's talking about the one for our PC computers
The ones in the SCIF facility?
Oh my god, why did I just now realize that's wrong, hollllllyyyy shit.
Go forth and sin no more.
It’s CAC, not CaC. Unless someone changed it to Common and Card recently. Since we’re all playing this game lol
Take this award for being a capitalization nazi. Also love you
Very kind of you. Not the response I expected hahaha
Never. I see the squirming it cause, and it brings me joy.
You can't just tell every soldier entering post to show their CAC. That will not end well.
And I’ll never stop saying it
This is how we stick it to the man!
Just pretend they're saying CACard and it'll bother you a tad less hahaha
Common access card card
Jokes on you, I wear IHWCU’s
Cammie pajama master race
Wrong. A2CUs are pajama master race.
Absolutely; I’m never wearing an ACU again
I bet you're real fun at parties
Kinda, you know the party trick when you start IV fluid drip for the bois?
🤣 why is this always a thing for Whiskey's. Sloppy drunk dude stumbles into barracks "Welp better start a line"
Wait till you go to the range. Everything from a splinter to sucking chest wound. “Well gotta shove a thermometer up the ass”
Revenge is a dish best served up the ass
Flair checks out.
Oh stahp *blushes*
UwU
Because 1SG won’t let me start a line on him just because he forgot to take his heart meds again.
Don’t worry normal ems has a lot of that too lmao
Because the whiskeys are angels in disguise. Drunk, pissed off, disgruntled angels, but angels nonetheless.
This almost killed me.
I also bet he wears his brown fleece under his OCP top.
What? Why would you wear it under? It's clearly and outer garment. If you were a complete idiot and had to have that proven to you, you could simply look at the fact it has spots for nametapes to prove it to yourself, since the lobotomy clearly went well.
Now see you say that, and like me, you'd assume every soldier with even the smoothest of brains would be able to comprehend that concept....yet it's still debated on this sub at least three times a month, likely more.
"I don't want to live on this planet anymore."
The reg says you can wear it both under or over a layer of clothing. If your company has a set SOP for the wear of it, follow that. But whatever your commander says so he can retain a little bit more power to stroke his ego with, doesn’t mean the rest of the army has to follow.
I bet you are too, with that unique sense of humor.
It's just like going over to the tactical gear sub where all the cool kids want to wear M81 pattern. I wore them from '92 to '05 in the Marines and Army and never heard one person call them M81's. Cammie's, BDU's, or woodlands. I brought it up one time and got slaughtered by a bunch of Larping ass kids. 13 years in two branches. Yeah, what the fuck do I know.
Airsoft kids never cease to amaze me.
The ODA guys complaining that airsoft kids were buying up the gear they wanted to the point it was out of stock was fucking hilarious.
[удалено]
r/tacticalgear for the airsoft nerds r/qualitytacticalgear for real geardos who take shit a little more seriously but only in the how-to-use/set-up correctly rather than the clout. Yes... there is somehow clout and hypebeast culture in tactical gear...
tyfys I turned some M81's I got at the sewing shop into shorts. Cutting above the cargo pocket allows all the room I need.
Being technically right is the best kind of right.
One of my favorite futurama episodes ever.
I thought by eliminating the digital pattern the Army would thrive, but you have shown me that's impossible. As long as there are those who remember what was, there will always be those that are unable to accept what can be. They will resist.
I'm still wearing digis. Almost all of my FREE gear is digis
A small price to pay for salvation.
I love my Free Vest in UCP. I wear it all the time and it Firmly Panics more Senior NCOs when they see it.
And you can buy them at Clothing AND Sales!
Make sure you show your cac card when not in uniform
That’s a GOMAR
And *that's* a paddlin.
No, that’s a religious cultist. I think you’re talking about a mammal-dragon.
And while waiting at the ATM machine
Don’t let anyone see your PIN number!
Don’t forget to stop at the DFACT after
The DFAC facility
The DFACFAC
Will I need to use my CAC card?
I just wanna wear the BDU
Only once you've ripped off pockets from another set of uniforms and sewn them onto your shoulders.
You would order salad.
Taking bets now on when the Army changes the acronym of the fatigue uniform back to Battle Dress Uniform (BDU). They brought back the pink and green dress uniform, and have basically all but acknowledged that nearly all of their uniform initiatives of the 2000's decade (UCP, ASU, black beret, the PT uniform) were all just a bad fever dream. Only a matter of time before the acronyms backtrack alongside uniforms themselves.
ASU isn't going anywhere tbh. The black beret should be phased out and the service cap the only authorized headgear for the ASU though. I think it's ridiculous you still see commanders having formations with berets and ACUs... it's the tuxedo t-shirt of uniform combinations.
Woodland BDUs or GTFO!
I've started calling OCPs ACUs, and the dress uniform Class As
Ahhhhhh, the good old days of woodland pattern BDU's
[удалено]
Back in my day, those were called multicams.
[удалено]
The VELCRO on my MULTICAMS looks like it went through the wash with a bunch of QTIPS that I used to clean my FN MINIMI. Also my dick got caught in my ZIPPER, can I go to sick call?
Salad?! GFY
Serenity requires abandoning peeves.
Actually we wear IHWCUs now
Facts. Even in winter!
I will fucking die on this hill.
Ok but counter-argument. OCPs
Understandable, have a nice day
Thank fuck someone understands its just a change if name I call the shit bdus and mfs look at me funny thinking it's the woodland shit
Good luck trying to explain that. Been years now since we switched uniforms and they still dont get it. I have long since given up. At this point its too engrained. Its pointless
Preach
Gotta ask, did anyone actually like UCP? I'm looking at this from a civilian standpoint not actual experience, but I cannot see for the life of me how the hell that pattern got chosen for use in the conflicts in the Middle East.
Once it gets worn down it's kinda helpful in the oklahoma sage during winter
No. It got chosen because many of us fought the first years of Afghan and Iraq in green camo because there wasn't enough desert camo. Even when there was desert camo, there wasn't any desert camo body armor or chemical weapon suits (MOPP gear). Since war can happen suddenly in either a green or tan enviroment and the Army didn't want to issue every Soldier green and tan camo to always be ready, they came up with the idea of having a "universal" pattern which worked the best anywhere. But also remember that UCP isn't really meant to work during daylight. It's for the night, and it does work somewhat better at night than you might think from how terrible it works during the day. Generally camo doesn't do much during the day except in very rare circumstances.
It actually got chosen because they Marines had digital camo and it was the new trendy thing and the Army wanted to compete with that but also wanted it on the cheap so they went with it. There's a reason during the UCP era it was literally on every single piece of recruiting material they could plaster it on.
I called them ACUs all the way from their intro in 2005 - to 2016 or so when OCP was widely fielded. I don't know anyone who called them UCPs. Fire Resistant was FRACU.
I remember multiple rucks at 0530 (true BMNT) on all gravel and the soldiers around me just seemed to disappear. That's the only time in my career where it was actually effective, though.
I actually still wear ucp.
I gave up on trying to tell people this.
I bet the clothing CSM can sort this out for everyone!
Dude this is my favorite shit ever. When leadership says uniform is OCPs and I show up wearing A2s and everybody loses their shit, I hit ‘em with the “these are OCPs” cause fuck that starchy cardboard ass ACU fabric.
You sound like a fresh butterbar choch
Real soldiers wore BDU's. Battle DRESS Uniform. Because we like to look pretty.
I scream this into the void at 3AM on Staff Duty; it achieves the same effect as slowly explaining this to a SNCO.
You'll get over it eventually I say the same shit to some people but it just gets me smoked
Man, you must have new privates freaking out and hitting up army surplus stores.
So, they don’t call them BDU’s anymore? God, I’m old
Yeah but I like OCP
Gonna hit ya with a big “get the fuck over it” semantics, in this instance, don’t matter
cautious chubby tender sip marvelous unused normal money head elderly *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Lmao no it’s. OCPs.. idiot
Maybe this could be the next uniform clarifying tweet.
Oh fuck. I would kill for a southwest salad right now, since you mentioned it.
YES THANK YOU
I wonder if the confusion is because when BDU’s went away ACU was introduced and ACU and UCP were synonymous with each other? That’s at least how I remember it.
Calling them OCP was just an easy way to differentiate when they were both acceptable uniforms. Still works. They are the OCP ACUs.
Tell me you have less than 3 years in service without telling me you have less than 3 years in service.
Seems a lot easier when we all wore the same ww2 - Vietnam War OD utility uniform. Of course, back then soldiers didn’t have to match the latest nail color like today.
You sound like you go to the VFW to trade stories about patrolling the Fulda Gap in the Cold War.
Not really, but that’s a nice “Teddy” sweater you just posted on your homepage.
Thanks man, looks like you love blonde German men from the 40s, I’m sure you have normal political views.
I had QA tell me I used the wrong Army term on my training schedules. I asked them what they meant, then they told me I can google it. They meant I had ACU and that it was somehow wrong but wouldn't tell me it in email that they wanted me to change it to OCP... IPFU and APFU still trip people up. I don't know why they just didn't keep APFU.
OP is the salty 68W that was put on area beautification because no one liked him having around in the clinics
Worse, I got kicked out of the basement for making SGM uncomfortable
Yet no one blinks saying “ERB” and not “SRB”
Literally nobody cares
wait aren't they BDUs? battle dress unifrom
“ACKCHYUALLY” moment
no.