Hi all!
I just wonder which of the many MERDC schemes were in fact used on vehicles of the era? Every single AFV pic I find on the net is either the summer or the winter variant of the US & Europe camo.
Was there really never any stuff painted in those fancy desert colors? Or the tropic version or the snow variants?
Your help here is very appreciated, and yes, of course I´m asking to find some justification to paint something in desert MERDC 
Kind regards from Germany,
Eric
Great question–one I’ve always wondered myself?!
Waiting…[;)]
At least one brigade of the 24th Mech had the desert MERDC camo back in the 80s, and the winter stuff was in use by the Alaska ARNG…
During deployments to NTC while in the regular Army and sevice in the CA Guard I saw several different variations of the MERDC schemes on vehicles (M-60s, M-113s, M-109s, etc.): Field Drab/Earth yellow w/Sand and Black; Sand/Dark Green w/Earth Yellow and Black; Sand/Field Drab w/Earth Yellow and Black. The first two colors listed were the two main camo colors and the last two were the highlight/shadow colors. In Europe I also saw 8th ID vehicles with the Sand highlights painted out with Black on the winter Field Drab/Dark Green scheme.
Marine M-60s that were prepositioned and arrived in Saudi for Desert Sheild were often in Desert MERDC colors when they first arrived also…
Ditto, I had seen the Desert scheme MERDC used on vehicles when I visited NTC back in the mid 80’s.
As posted the only two others used were the desert (24th) and winter (Alaska NG/ 6ID)
Many units did not follow the plans exactly, sooooo…you can start with the standard but if you modify it slightly…no big deal.
Also remember when MERDOC came out units were given brushes and paint and the templates to cover their old OD vehicles. No paint job was perfect so a real nice AB paint job is not what really existed. The camo was up to the interpretation of the guy marking out with the chaulk!!
Rounds Complete!!
New Zealand used MERDC on their Walker Bulldogs in the late 70’s.
Check out the Concord publication on the M113 family of vehicles. Included are several photos of a variety of tracks from the California ANG on exercise at Camp Roberts. They are in the desert MERDC.
In the 80’s at Ft. Lewis and in Korea the dominant MERDC pattern was the Temperate/Summer Woodland pattern. These required foliage to be added when training in Yakima or on Team Spirit, otherwise our vehicles really stood out as TARGETS for the airdales.
This is great information, thank You very much guys!! This brings me one step closer to what I´m going to build next.
Kind regards from germany,
Eric
My scans of the camouflage pattern painting manual may be of assistance.
http://www.armorama.com/modules/gallery/albums/albus46/
Some years ago, there was an article published in the IPMS Journal about a guy who spent part of the 80’s at, IIRC, Fort Hood in Texas. There were several pictures of armor painted in a red desert scheme, including a highly stylized M577. While the pics were black and white, the colors were much lighter than the typical verdant colors.
Also, the AAVP7 was deployed in Desert Storm in red desert colors:
M113’s were also done in this scheme:
From what I’ve seen on trucks on the road and from images online, I have to disagree with the previous poster about MERDC being somewhat slapdash brush painted only. In the two pictures above, you can clearly see these were at least in part sprayed. I agree SOME vehicles had at least the smaller color segments brush painted, but this was not done on all vehicles.
A great source of armor picters is Global Security
The French learned the hard way in WW1 that if you paint all your guns in the same camo pattern that you would lose them in combat fairly quickly once the enemy knew what to look for.
You would have thought that this logic would carry over when the MERDC was devised.
Then again, I’m no expert.
My [2c].
Well the MERDC schemes never really saw much combat in US hands. At the tail end of Vietnam for the 72 Spring offensive, some of the reinforcements sent in had their vehicles camo’d in MERDC. The next time was in Grenada in 83. In the mid 80s MERDC began to be phased out in favor of the NATO Tri color scheme, and by the time Desert Shield became Desert Storm the monotone Sand finish.
The MERDC scheme was applied by brushes in the 70’s in Motor Pools, with the outlines in chalk and numbered like a paint-by-numbers picture to cover the OD and white stars… Vehicles leaving the factory and some that went to level 3 maintenence shops got sprayed. At battalion OMS’s it was all brush in Fort Hood… So whether you brush or spray, you’ll be ok if it’s late 70’s/early 80’s…
Yes indeed. In my old battalion we had vehicles that were sprayed, and brushed in the MERDC patterns, and others that were sprayed in the colors but not in the standard pattern. Both M901s I was assigned to fell under the last catagory. The M113 I drove later was in the short lived four color test scheme that was seen between MERDC and NATO tri color.