At the conference, I kept hearing that this is about performance and not a fashion show, but spending money on a camouflage pattern that won’t work most places sounds like a fashion statement to me. The more specialized patterns the Army develops, the fewer places the Soldier can use them. The chance that a Soldier’s camouflage will work against him actually increases based on this requirement. Based on this current requirement, the Army is asking for generic patterns that will work well in some environments and not so great in others. A woodland pattern will still have to be a compromise for all woodland or jungle areas. And really, what’s worse, is that two or even three patterns won’t be enough to truly provide 90% or better camouflage in the world’s disparate environments. The perfect piece of kit sitting in a warehouse somewhere has zero effect on the outcome of a battle. Soldiers will fight with the equipment they have rather than the equipment they desire. The Family of Camo Pattern program will produce exactly the same set of circumstances in future conflicts. So long as we issue specialized patterns, individuals as well as entire units will risk deploying in the wrong uniform. Make no mistake, had we not had unit stocks of equipment, these men would have deployed in the wrong uniform. Standing in line for uniforms is the last thing you want to do when you are deploying that same day. Fortunately, we kept ample supplies of OCIE on hand, but this still held up their processing for deployment. These technicians literally reported for duty that morning with news that they leaving on a flight that evening for an Intermediate Staging Base in the Middle East. Their specialties were normally accomplished at home station but the unique nature of the burgeoning War on Terror required them to deploy forward. Even in a unit that issued all deployable personnel desert equipment, September 13th 2001 found me rounding up DCUs and other field equipment for support troops that were not slated to ever go to war. I spent much of my career in the 72-hour contingency business serving in both the Army and Air Force. While the implementation was lacking, there is no need to throw the baby out with the bath water. One pattern for clothing and equipment so that Soldier’s could deploy at a moment’s notice, anywhere in the world. UCP was envisioned to overcome these issues. Consequently, we had troops that wore a combination of desert and woodland clothing while some received no desert issue at all. Unlike post 9/11 operations, the military had ample time to procure and issue specialized desert clothing and equipment prior to the commencement of hostilities with Iraq, yet they failed to accomplish that task. Ten years later, this same situation was repeated during the early days of Operation Enduring Freedom and what’s worse, once again during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Unfortunately, during 1991’s Operation Desert Storm many American troops wore Woodland clothing due to the shortage of desert issue. The 3-Color Desert pattern was considered specialty equipment and only issued to select personnel based on operational requirements. All Soldiers were issued Woodland clothing and equipment regardless of posting. Prior to the adoption of UCP, the US Army relied upon Woodland and Desert camouflage patterns. In fact, by working to field multiple specialized patterns, they are repeating failures from THIS war. My biggest issue with this program is that the authors of this latest requirement have failed to learn from the past, and worse yet, the recent past. The problem with this? We are at war now. This means a decision won’t be made until then at the earliest, with implementation not taking place until well into FY13. The program’s timeline, which I will discuss in more as the week progresses, ends with a plan of action being presented to Army leadership at the end of FY12. The Army should continually assess technologies to reduce the signature of the American Soldier. Overall, is the requirement valid? In my opinion yes, but to a point. Before I can comment on any of the information presented at the conference, and there was a lot, I feel it is important that I address the underlying issue at hand the requirement itself. I attended the Army Camouflage Improvement Industry Day held last week at what was once called Harry Diamond Labs in Adelphi, Maryland. The Way Back Machine takes us to December 13th, 2010 when I published this opinion piece regarding the Army’s upcoming requirement for a new family of camouflage.
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