That's a fantastic page. I was in from '03-'08, and was issued woodland BDUs, desert DCUs, and finally the UCP ACUs. Multicam and the new OCP pattern have come since. I had 2 versions of the PT uniform (which have changed once or twice since), and narrowly avoided having to purchase the new dress uniform.

Overall, the Army needs to find a uniform that it likes and stick with it. Particularly for something that does not affect combat effectiveness (PT, Dress), a single style should be good for decades.

I think that the Army should define a garrison uniform that they can stick with, something along the lines of the BDU with the additional pockets of the ACU. Then define a combat uniform for different terrain or combat theaters as needed.

> Particularly for something that does not affect combat effectiveness (PT, Dress), a single style should be good for decades.

Completely agree.

> I think that the Army should define a garrison uniform that they can stick with, something along the lines of the BDU with the additional pockets of the ACU.

The garrison uniform should be what the Navy terms a 'service uniform': polished leather shoes, trousers, a long- or short-sleeved blouse depending on the weather, and a cover, with optional coat and tie. It doesn't ever need to change, except maybe slightly in cut to keep up with civilian styles.

Camouflage should only be worn when actually fighting, or training to fight. Anyone sitting at a desk outside of a war zone should be wearing a service uniform, not camo.

> Anyone sitting at a desk outside of a war zone should be wearing a service uniform, not camo.

But how will you feel cool if you're not wearing your BDUs?

I find that the camouflage itself can be alright, but the way soldiers use it can make them stand out a lot. This became very apparent to me when I was a conscript and we had foreigners visiting, often to do winter training.

They would all be wearing just winter camouflage, brand new, extremely white, or just woodland. Making them stand out in basically any winter environment. We would, on the other hand, almost exclusively wear winter pants and woodland top, and make sure that the pants were kind of dirty. When the backdrop was, as it usually is, forest covered in snow, you stand out a lot with all white or all green.

This article describes how some of the camouflage field tests were performed:

http://www.stripes.com/news/reports-army-selects-new-camoufl...

Makes sense - The article mentions that the only reason the squares were used in digital camo is because they had a 2" roller when making the tests, so that is the most natural shape

Having left the Army just as the awful ACUs were being phased in, I have to wonder which politicians and/or general officers got their palms greased for that to have become the uniform pattern.

The trick with UCP is to roll around in the dirt and the lighter colors will blend in perfectly with your area and the darker shades will provide darker shades in your area. While this doesnt really work with sand it works perfectly with more traditional soils.