Boyd, take a look about 3/4 down page 11 of my enigma thread. you’ll get the gist of what out guys will be doing.[whstl]
Ahh, I will do that. It has been too long since I checked in on that thread anyways…
Most if not all of the Regular units sent to Saudi in '90 had transitioned to the M16A2. Reserve and Guard units still had M16A1s up until the turn of the Century. I think my Guard unit finaly got A2s after 9/11 and we got brand spanking new A4s to go overseas with.
Stik
That is interesting. I have always assumed that most Army units jumped from the -A1 to the -A4 or the M4.
There was a large part of the US Army still wearing regular BDUs during Desert Storm. We got two chocolate chip sets, but without laundry service coming to the back of my tank, I had to use BDUs just to have something fairly clean to wear. I also had two sets of Nomex, but they don’t wear well (butt ripped out on them). My Kevlar cover was a well faded BDU pattern.
We wore old training OD green MOPP suits to keep warm and kept new ones in an ICE pack (Individual Chemical protection Equipment) close at hand. We still thought they were going to slime us at any minute. My for real MOPP suit was OD (I still have it), but some guys had the BDO MOPP suit. We had the tanker’s M25 protective mask (one piece face shield with a built in mike for use with the CVC helmet).
I wore my regular issue black combat boots (sanded down to a dull gray from wear) and had a pair of OD green/black jungle boots. Hans is right that the two little metal vents usually fell out and left two big holes to let the sand in, but it wasn’t anything a piece of 100 mile an hour tape (OD green duct tape) couldn’t handle. Just put a piece of the tape over the holes from the inside of your boot and it kept the sand out for quite a while. Just change the tape when it eventually stuck to your sock as you took off your boot. Regardless of what you wore, sand got into everywhere.
I do not recall seeing the later 3-color DCU during Desert Storm. Even my subsequent redeployment to Kuwait in 1992 we still wore chocolate chips. Around the sixth month or so, we started getting the 3-color sets to replace chocolate chips. They didn’t always swap out your floppy cap so you’d see guys with chocolate chip boonie hats in 3-color DCUs and vice versa. You’d see either hat on a guy in BDUs. I guess it was a factor of how ragged out your hat was and if they had your size. Some of the higher ups had 3-color DCU pattern soft caps (traditional BDU-style baseball cap), but they weren’t common.
During my 1992 deployment we still got the green/black jungle boot. I took along a couple pairs of my old cruit boots because of the sand issue. We were eventually issued tan desert boots during the summer of 1992. I still have a pair from that deployment that I wore on the flight home.
Towards the end of 1992 (October-November), we got field jackets in 3-color DCU, but had to turn those in upon redeployment. I just remember being “freezing cold” when the temperatures dropped into the 80s at night! I got home in mid November; we had a welcome home Thanksgiving dinner at the dining facility a short while later.
Each of our tanks had an M16A2 rifle during Desert Storm. Our unit still had the M1911A1 .45 cal pistol. I didn’t get a 9mm until the 1992 deployment. I used the same leather shoulder holster and lanyard for both deployments.
Did ya still have the M3 Grease Guns or were those gone by 91?
The 88 crews and CEV crews still had the grease guns. The bulk of them (2 per tank) were turned in when we transitioned from M60A3TTS to M1A1 in 1989. They were COEI (component of the end item) to the M60, just like the M85 .50 cal or any of the tank’s BII.
The mechanics on the 88 had M16A2s so keeping up with the grease guns was a hassle. The two from our company’s 88 were signed over to a couple of the loaders. If all you have is a .45 in a combat zone, the grease gun is a welcome addition.
Hard to believe how long it’s been. I was just digging through a lot of this old stuff for my 15 year old when he went to some sort of FFA week long camping thing.
Yup, been over 20 years for that one. Kinda puts a new persepctive on things.
Yeah, I was still a kid back then. This photo was from 1992 (I made captain in Sept 1991).
We didn’t get our DBDUs until two weeks before we left SA, lol… They were still sitting in KKMC when we went over the berm… Hell, half of our wheels and most of the guns were still in NATO camo, partly because of the time-crunch, but mostly because they didn’t have enough CARC…
Heh… I was the Bn NBC NCO back then, and man… I got so many NBC-1 Reports the first 24 hours that I couldn’t collate ‘em into NCB-3s because I’d get a new slew of NBC-1s before I could finish the last set… Everyone was so jumpy about gettin’ slimed that every smoke grenade, WP round, or even dust was a chemical attack… It scared hell outta me too, at first, but It settled down after a day or so but before, wow…
Oh yeah… I got CDMs (Chemical Downwind Messages) every six hours, and everyone within ear-shot would freeze and listen to my radio… All they heard was the word “Chemical”, lol… (A CDM is basically a just a weather report/forecast) It got kinda comical to me, but I got it, why everyone was jumpy… We’d heard nothing BUT how Saddam was gonna use everything in the toolbox on us…
Plus, we had the new (at the time) M8A1 Chemical Alarms, and EVERYTHING would set those damn things off… Especially exhaust fumes… So we were in and out of MOPP-3 for half the march into Iraq and practically every time we stopped, since SOMEBODY would park right near a vehicle with one mounted on the bumper or someone else would get behind a track or truck that had a dirty air-cleaner…
Me neither, but the REMFs back in SA were starting to get them by Feburary and March of ‘91, IIRC… Think some of the Wing-Wipers were gettin’ em before then… I ended up buying two sets of the DCUs back in '93 because they were organizational clothing instead of personal clothing, and the two sets that were issued just flat weren’t enough…
Boyo, you ain’t kiddin’… I was still finding Iraq in my gear a year later… Don’t think I ever got it all out, and took some of it back with me in '03… That sand is nothing I’d never seen before… I think that desert is only place I ever got wet sand sand stuck to me and could still get a faceful of it from the wind…
Never got a DBDU or DCU boonie-hat until I bought one, either… Never thought much of it though… Most of the guys wanted to wear “Rambo-rags”, and did until the CSM put out a directive about 'em… Said if he saw any, we’d be needing them for their true purpose (as a pessure-bandage, for you civilian-types) cuz he’d cut 'em offa us “at the neck”, lol… Never got a DCU field jacket…
Had a couple M60-gunners that “went 'Nam” and started walking around with one or two belts of 7.26 over their shoulders whenever the JIB-rats (reporters) were around, but I put the kabosh on that since they were just getting the ammo dirty…
I think I finally had everything “deserty” I was gonna get when I deployed to Kuwait in '00… Even had the boots by that time, along with a reversable desert/woodland wet-weather suit … But still no DCU field jacket…
As for M16A2s, I think that the Marines replaced all their A1s at once, with the Army replacing the A1s as they wore out or broke… Closest I got an A2 in '91 was a set of A2 hand-guards, because the Army was out of Left hand-guards for the A1s and I had replace both… We had a mix of A2s and A1s at one time, enough that it caused a small ammo problem in the battalion… The Guard unit I was attached to in Kuwait in '00 had problem getting ammo for the A1s they had… Something about the green-tip A2 ammo was to used only in emergencies (is there a firefight that is NOT an “emergency”?)… For OIF, I had to dual qualify with the M16A2, M9, M249,and M203, then got in-country and they gave me an M4 (and an M9)… Got to fam-fire a couple hundred rounds through it, but never qualified with it until after the invasion…
Luckily, I retired beofre I was forced to wear that cockmamee digital POS, the ACU… “Universal Camouflage Pattern” my butt… Think they suffered from a collective anyuerism in Nattck… Heard the Amry is getting rid of that uniform too, now… The next one may take a hint from the Marines… Wear a green one in temperate areas, the brown ones in the desert…
I was a kid then too, even at 32…
The paragraph on the boonie hats was from 1992. We didn’t get desert boonie hats until my second trip in 1992. In Desert Storm, we wore the Kevlar or the BDU soft cap, no boonie hats. Many guys used the dust rag on their heads (dust rag was an OD green sling for a broke arm but used as a bandana mask). Sorry for the confusion.
That’s what I meant by “Rambo-rags”, lol…
Funny thing is the Natick folks developed both the MARPAT and the ACU. Strictly from a logistics standpoint, having one uniform pattern is the most efficient use of your resources. One uniform pattern for all gear, so you don’t have the BDU cap on the DBDU or DCU, etc.
Unfortunately, nature and the surrounding environment don’t like to cooperate. Like the beret, the only ones to benefit are the ones who made the items.
True… From a logistics stand-point it’s a fiasco… Natck says that the ACU pattern is good for “everything”, yet their “test” is little more than a sophisticated version of “Where’s Waldo?”… Models dress in the camo, and then Soldiers try to spot them in pictures on a computer-monitor from as far as as they can…
They said that the six-color camo didn’t work… Well, it actually DID work in the desert it was designed for, the Sanai Desert ( Operation Bright Star and for the MFO), which is a “greyer” and rockier desert than the Arabian Desert… So on came the “Coffee-stains”…
Frankly, I’m glad I doged the ACU bullet…
The ACU bullet is going away too. welcome back to the future…
The" chocolate chips" actually work pretty good in western US environs such as NTC as well, where there is a lot of rocky desert. But I don’t think war with Mexico is likely any time in the near future. Maybe its just me, but the new Multi-Cam stuff that they are using to replace the ACU digital pattern sure bears a strong resemblance to a washed out faded version of the ERDL tan based leaf pattern in use during the late 70s early 80s and was replaced by the Woodland BDU…Which actually did give a decent multi envionment capability. But hey, even nature has variety of color on teh same animal’s fur/feather color in different areas. One size does not fit all, no matter what the propeller heads want to think for economic and logistical reasons. Can you say overwhites? The Bundeswehr came up with a reversable version that was plain white on one side, and on the reverse had white with patches of a pine needle pattern that worked superbly in the snowy forests.
The original DBDUs had the same problem as the original BDUs (aka Elvis collars); to darn hot. At least the DCU went to the lighter rip stop material.
The ACU had a couple of benefits in the 7 years it was out. One, it got rid of starched field uniforms. And two, it got rid of the need to sew on patches (8 for my uniform, added an additional $15-20 to the price of the uniform).
I’m glad I do not have to go through another uniform change over (OGs to BDUs to ACUs). The only uniform I remember being pretty good was the jungle fatigues, and they were just a quick blip in the 80s. Last time they gave us a zipper fly too.
Damn I was soooooo happy that the Marine Corps didn’t jump on that stupid patch grenage that the Army tossed. Jeezus, you guys sure do cram a lot of decorations on your cammies. Hell, I remember how ticked of some of the “old timers” were when the Corps added nametapes the the “US Marines” tape over the left pocket. Until then, the only ‘decorations’ our cammies had was the EGA iron-on that cost about a buck…
All that is required under Army regs is the US Army and nametape. Everything else, skill badges and rank can be pin on. Just like you Marine types[;)] Unit patches are required in garrison, but under certain operational circumstances are removed for OPSEC purposes. As far as rank and skill badges go, the sew on version has its advantages. When I was Mech, I banged my head more than a few times on the interior of a track and put divits on my forehead from the pin on rank on my soft cap- big plus for sew on ranks. During parachute operations, pin on ranks are removed from your collor to prevent possible serious injury- those risers are a beach when your chute deploys and will give your neck the worst and biggest hickey you can imagine at 135 knots, add pin on ranks and just imagine what chevrons will do… and skill badges…hey, who does not like to show off a little bit? Even you Marines have your pin on Gold parachute and aviator wings and Silver Scuba bubble on BDUs. Of course I have seen PAC clerks with enough skill badges to make a Latin Dictator jealous…[;)]
After 9/11, the BDU/DCU still required a minimum of four sew on patches; the name and Army tapes, unit patch and US flag patch. The flag patch kind of made sense because you had to put it on in theater and take it off upon return to home station. With most soldiers going through multiple deployments, it seemed rather silly to keep taking it off and on. Why we wore it on the ACU while stateside is beyond me.
As a young lieutenant, I was castigated for wearing pin on rank and branch insignia on my BDUs. I’ve sewn the junk on ever since. The only times I wore pin on insignia after that was for promotions. The last time I wore pin on I was in BDUs in Dec 2005 when I pinned on LTC.