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Slowly the ACU changes are backed out

Bouhammer — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 04:03:31 +0000

I have written on here several times about how bad the ACU is and how some of the characteristics of the ACU were bad ideas. Velcro has long been a topic of controversy among soldiers and how bad it is for the uniform for several reasons.

So not only are we getting rid of the ACU in favor of the much better camouflaged Multi-Cam, but our military is now getting rid of the velcro on the pants and replacing them with the old BDU-style buttons.

www.usatoday.com/news/military/2010-06-14-army-uniforms-velcro_N.htm

The Army is ripping space-age Velcro from its uniforms and replacing it with the humble button, which turns out to be tailor-made for the rigors of Afghanistan.

Hook-and-pile tape — the generic term for Velcro— strains to keep jam-packed cargo pants pockets closed. And when the Taliban attacks, the last thing soldiers need to worry about is spilling their gear.

Someone needs to be held accountable

Bouhammer — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:50:22 +0000

So who is going to be the General or other person held accountable for the waste of millions, if not billions, of dollars for the outfitting of our Army in ACU uniforms and gear? I want to know why the Army did all these supposed tests that proved the current UCP (uniformed camouflaged pattern) ACU was so good and better than other patterns. Yet just a mere 5 years later and three new additional tests, the UCP Pattern failed miserably and was not even in the top patterns that did the best at their job, providing camouflage. The new multi-cam pattern did so well in all three tests that now the Army is about to spend $300 million dollars to begin outfitting new units going into Afghanistan with the new multi-cam pattern.

Not only are they doing that, they are starting to remove some of the much-complained about velcro enclosures and replacing them with buttons again. This is the uniform that was sold to the Army population and America as the one size, fits all uniform. One with velcro so soldiers would save money on sewing. Now after just a short five years the uniform is being replaced with one that does a great job of providing camouflage and is practical. I am not sure why they had to do all these tests, just look at the units that had already implemented the multi-cam pattern from their own budgets; Delta Force, Special Forces and Ranger Battalions. Honestly that should have been enough right there as those professional soldiers only use what is best to do the job. They don’t acquire gear that just looks cool or because a friend is selling it. They get what works.

To put it in perspective, the woodland style Battle Dress Uniform was in service for a little over 20 years in the Army. It had one, maybe 2, changes done to it during that entire time. That was it. It worked, it was a uniform and it did its job at the time. During Desert Storm we had the old “cookie chip” desert uniform which seemed to work for me when I wore it. Not long after the end of Desert Storm the Army adopted the tri-color desert uniform, which was worn from Somalia through the Global War on Terror (in desert environments) until the Army shoved the ACU down our throat. The ACU is currently going through its fifth revision in just five years. So five changes in five years versus two changes in twenty years.

Now let me be clear to say I like the way the ACU felt and fit. I remember getting my first pair at Camp Shelby when I was preparing for Afghanistan and loving how they felt like pajamas compared to the BDU. But even then when my team and I got our ACUs and were trying them out, we questioned the effectiveness of their camouflage. It looked like it would work great in an urban environment in the desert (i.e. Baghdad), but not in a pure desert environment. Maybe the designers and deciders at the time were actually that short sided to use Bagdad as the environment we would always fight in. I am not sure, just an assumption on my part. The bottom line was that we did not have to be human factors specialists or environmental scientists to know the ACU was not going to provide the camouflage we needed in Afghanistan.

It just pisses me off that the Army KNOWINGLY selected and fielded the wrong uniform. It makes me think of the stories my Dad would tell me about the Army buying weapons from Westinghouse during the Vietnam war back when Ladybird Johnson was a huge stock owner of Westinghouse Corporation at the time. So I wonder what General or CSM or engineers who were part of the ACU selection process that went to work for the company that made the ACU? Not making any accusations, just curious.

The bottom line is that we have wasted a lot of money on uniforms, gear, etc. in the ACU pattern knowing the whole time that the uniform’s camouflage capabilities were crap. Was someone afraid to speak up, did someone have a hidden agenda for personal gain or selfish reasons? It is a shame and a sham that the uniform which was supposed to be the “one size fits all” uniform is not making grade and in fact was failing the test well before it ever got issued.

New Camo Arrives in Afghanistan

Bouhammer — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:16:55 +0000

Military.com|by Christian Lowe

The Army has revealed which units in Afghanistan received experimental camouflage uniforms designed specifically for Afghanistan’s varied terrain.

Col. Bill Cole, the program manager for Soldier individual equipment at Fort Belvoir, Va., told Military.com that the 3rd Squadron of the 61st Cavalry Regiment had been issued the “Universal Camouflage Pattern-Delta” uniforms designed by the Natick Soldier Systems Center in Massachusetts, and that Soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment have been issued MultiCam duds.

This is the first time the affected units have been identified by official sources.

Both battalion-sized units operate in Afghanistan’s eastern Kunar province, which features rocky, sub-Alpine terrain and lush green river valleys â€“ an environment that some argue is unsuited for the Army’s current universal pattern because it stands out against the more forested backgrounds.

After initially resisting the move, the service relented to calls from Congress and within the military to seriously look at how “universal” the Army’s current camo is given the varied terrains where U.S. troops are fighting, particularly in Afghanistan.

A 2009 study by Natick buttressed claims by UCP critics that the all-terrain pattern fell short; the Crye Precision-made MultiCam performed better than the UCP in seven of nine environments.

In September, the service announced a plan to study how well their uniforms match up to Afghanistan’s environment. Those results could cause the Army to make a wholesale return to issuing different uniforms for different terrain.

Cole said the cavalrymen will wear uniforms and helmet covers in the UCP-D, which looks similar to the current UCP but with more coyote brown sprinkled in, while keeping their standard UCP plate carriers. The unit will also receive a new chest rig that attaches to the plate carrier patterned in the experimental UCP-D.

Soldiers issued the MultiCam ensemble will don full-MultiCam uniforms and helmet covers and will be issued MultiCam-patterned plate carriers and molle pouches. About half the UCP-D chest rigs and MultiCam molle has been issued, and Joes should begin receiving their MultiCam plate carriers next week, Cole said.

A small team from the Army’s Program Executive Office Soldier is in Afghanistan to help issue the new uniforms and track any problems that crop up. Natick is in the midst of collecting data from an initial survey of the uniforms and their effectiveness in the combat zone and will conduct another one in mid-December, once the uniforms have been used in operations.

Cole said, given the mission and terrain they’ll be required to operate in, it’s up to the unit commanders to decide which uniform the troops should wear on patrol.

Army to field New Uniforms for Afghanistan

Bouhammer — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:24:00 +0000

The Army is set to field new combat uniforms to two battalions in Afghanistan next month in an effort to better equip combat troops fighting in the varied terrain found in that rugged country.

For years some Soldiers have complained about the current multi-environment Universal Camouflage Pattern, arguing that the toned down grey and green stood out in desert environments, rocky ridges and forested valleys found throughout eastern Afghanistan, where most Army units now operate.

The new camo schemes include the Crye Precision-made MultiCam and a new pattern designed by the Natick Soldier Systems Center in Massachusetts.

Read the whole story at www.military.com/news/article/army-to-field-new-uniforms-for-afghanistan.html

Hmmm, so glad we spent all that time and money on ACUs to just have them replaced so soon. In order to put this in perspective. We have had the ACU uniform for 5 years and it has went through 4 variations and is now being modified again for a 5th time.

We had the Battle Dress Uniform (BDU) for over 20 years and only had one uniform modification.

We have had a Desert Uniform for 15 years and only had one change, the cookie chip pattern to the tri-color pattern.

My vote is for the multi-cam by the way. It gets the Bouhammer seal of approval.

Congress Orders New Uniforms for Afghanistan

Bouhammer — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 17:12:00 +0000

www.armytimes.com/news/2009/06/military_afghanistan_uniforms_061509w/

â€œCongress is about to order new combat uniforms for troops in Afghanistan after hearing complaints that camouflage that was fine in Iraq doesnâ€™t work so well in a mountainous and often muddy environment.â€

Bouhammer can tell you that we knew this in 2006. This just goes to show how slow Government moves. It took over three years for them to figure out that the all environment combat uniform is apparently not well designed for â€œallâ€ environments.