Here at AUSA, I’m hearing the same reason now that I heard in May relating to the postponement of the Army Birthday announcement for a new camouflage pattern. And that reason is perception. The Army apparently doesn’t want to be seen as extravagant by announcing a new camouflage pattern while no one has any money. Never mind that continuing to purchase UCP is a waste of money. It’s all about appearances sake. As for OCP, the “plan” is to purchase it as they go and somehow, someway, it will transmorph into the Army Camo pattern.
Now this isn’t an official announcement because the Army doesn’t want to talk about camouflage at all, well at least not with reporters, so take it as you will.
Has anyone thought of writing their congressional reps about what may be a coming fiasco?
Several of the vendors have.
I’d say that’ll be enough then. Should carry more clout than an individual.
A legit grassroots effort by thousands of vets and current soldiers might actually bring about the sort of pressure Big Army might respond to:
Legislators rank correspondence, in terms of importance, from constituents thusly:
handwritten letters
typed letters
phone calls
e-mails
http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
it’s bound to be more effective than using up SSD’s bandwidth to bitch about Big Army’s stupidity. Plus, it has broader appeal than having the vendors contacting their reps.
I don’t care what pattern they choose as long it is the best and our soldiers can start getting UCP off their backs.
This is just ridiculous. The Army’s risking a lawsuit by keeping the competitors in legal limbo.
I think the time has come that the Army is forced to make a decision on its Pattern. They are wasting more and more money by not making a descision than it would to pick a pattern and go with it.
So right now we are still buy UCP and OCP, but OCP can only be worn in Astan.
So OCP will be a transitional pattern that will eventually yield to a better pattern some time down the line?
Hell, I thought there had been an announcement made that the new camo pattern was going to be a “re-colored” multi-cam variant.
Time to get more people involved and make the Army make a decision since they are proving themselves of not having the ability too.
But not picking a pattern the Army is actually wasting more tax payer dollars buy still purchasing UCP and OCP, yet OCP is only allowed to be wore in Astan.
Their lack of making any decisions is hurting many in the industry and soldiers just want a Camo that works
This shows how great government works.
Announce the choice, don’t leave vendors/soldiers holding the bag with gear that will be useless/outdated, and grow a pair some time in-between.
It’s going to be great if/when they switch to a new camo for the mandate universal uniform for all branches. This is a perfect example of a clustf****.
UCP forever.
Looks like its not going away anytime soon
Optics and no guts…
Why we just didn’t adopt MARPAT in ’03…
Why UCP got selected over more effective…
Why we just didn’t adopt MARPAT in ’08…
WHY we just didn’t adopt AOR in ’10…
Why we can’t announce the results of the most extensive & expensive camo selection process in history today…
Not right.
Not surprised.
USMC wouldn’t let any other service adopt MARPAT since they own the rights to it. We didn’t adopt AOR because at that point other camouflages were proven to be more effective hence the camo improvement effort
How long will that copyright to the pattern hold up to the politicians? snowballs chance in hell. If they want a pattern for all the services like the Woodland BDU’s then they will make them adopt universally Multicam or MARPAT. Just like revoking don’t ask don’t tell. Professional liars and cheats run the government and the military!
Ralph – FYI ERDL (Nam era camo OG107s) was copyrighted by the US Army. Just to showcase the difference in approaches.
The USMC can assert a “patten” all day long. The reality of the situation is simple. The USMC may own MARPAT but the Navy owns the USMC. They WILL share it if the SECNAV, SECDEF or President tells them to. That’s called following orders, and being professional.
I wish people would stop being stupid and saying that the USMC “own the rights to MARPAT”… they may have developed it and good for them but as a part of the NAVY Department and DOD as a whole they don’t own shit. If the SECDEF says all the branches are going to wear what is currently known as MARPAT then all the branches will and the Marines are just going to salute and drive on.
I wish the senior leadership would read SSD once an awhile….
It took an act of congress to allow Soldiers to wear a functional camo uniform in combat, in the first place. Are they waiting for someone to make a decision for them? I know I would not be happy if I was in a position that my bosses were making decisions for me that I should have made as a leader.
And people wonder why Congress is all set to start dictating military-wide camo patterns.
Mike/Sal, I don’t know how much influence allegations of fraud/waste/abuse might have these days, it makes sense and might work….or it might just get a few laughs. You could find yourself vilified as a member of the 1% because now everyone is entitled to as much fraud and waste as they can dream up…and you’re just trying to keep them underfoot by pointing out shortfalls in logic. Pres and his legion of lightweights act damned quickly to sprint out of any AOR, increase the debt and experiment with military order and discipline but hide behind their desks when a simple, clear-headed decision is needed whether it’s a team of mortar-trained fighters overrunning an embassy, a debt that will ruin the country or a budget standoff where Veterans aren’t getting paid…..and guess what? This is evidently perfectly acceptable to over half the country: Yee. F’ing. Hah. What is needed is leadership, plain and simple, and it appears that most of the military’s current crop of GO’s have been hand-selected to play staff games and sit tapping emails/editing PPT’s instead of running of USDOD. The hue and cry over Army camo/Senior GO decision-making failures is pissing up a rope, on a windy cold day. Hopefully this generation of 80’s/90’s-raised, non-combat experienced, 100% CYA+PC-oriented poseurs is put out to pasture, the sooner the better. The camo decision should be an easy one, dare I say butt-simple, considering the time, expertise and money invested in the test program. I usually don’t throw darts at the top as most problems, downrange or in garrison, should be solvable by the men who know the fight, E-1 through O-3, but in this case we seem to be dealing with an unusually inept crew at the top who are not only being allowed to but are encouraged to drag their asses across the carpet. I guess we can all just be glad that a culturally-sensitive, carbon-neutral pink tigerstripe wasn’t in the running….
“I guess we can all just be glad that a culturally-sensitive, carbon-neutral pink tigerstripe wasn’t in the running…”
NAILED IT!
Norbis, don’t give anyone any ideas. Hopefully someone won’t advocate why we need to have pink uniforms to match the Navy’s blue uniforms.
Pink tigerstripe will get all the village people types lining up in recruiting stations!…..lLeft, left, left, right……..Y-M-C-A!
This; +1,000,000!
In whose district/state are the mills that will be cranking out this fabric?
Just imagine how different the world would be if either guy to created UCP or the guy who stamped the approval for UCP were murdered before either could cause all this to happen.
This has become one of the biggest cases of waste and malfeasance that I have ever seen or heard of in my life.
I watched the press conference and opening remarks by the Secretary of the Army. Overall, they seemed pretty coy about naming specifics about any program, artfully dodging and then getting in jabs over sequestration and financial woes. They seemed to take to the lectern to pontificate on how Congress has totally boned them by not having a steady budget. That’s it. I think that’ll be the party line everyone will tow and that there won’t be any announcement.
UCP wasn’t supposed to be “universal”. It was an urban uniform made for Iraq’s Desert/city/light brush. Scorpion/Multicam was the answer to the real “universal” uniform, but UCP was a recruiting method for Iraq. No one will fess up…
UCP = Universal Camouflage Pattern not Urban Camouflage Pattern…
Yes, is named “universal”, but it was selected for reasons other than being universal.
Retirement is lovely! Have fun boys!
Is it ironic the Army says they do not want to appear extragent because there simply is no money; but here we are putting on the annual show for industry vendors to purchase new weapons, vehicles etc?
AUSA is the Association of the United States Army, a private organization. The US Army does not run this show.
But how much money is being spent by the Army to send all the senior officers and senior NCOs?
Honestly, as quick as the main stream media is to run with a story without checking the facts, I don’t blame the Army. You know CNN or Fox would pick this story up and run with it as an example of wasteful spending without looking into the backstory.
My wife walked up to the SMA at the Army Ten Miler. She asked him if he was wearing the new PT uniform, which he was excited to discuss. Then she hit with the, when will the new camoflage be rolled out. He got very defensive and would not answer.
In the meantime, I need a new uniform but I don’t want to pay over 100 bucks for a new one if I’m only going wear it for five or six months before the new ones come out. I hate the ACU, but I don’t care anymore… I’m tired of this being an issue and I’m too old to be excited about another new uniform. I just want to know whether or not I’m going to be wearing it a year from now…