If you find yourself this far into any over-schedule undertaking such as replacing the camouflage for the US Army, you will constantly hear rumors of anticipated announcement dates and speculative pattern types. Why, just a week or so ago I was told that the Army was going to make a camouflage decision on May 5th.
At this point I’m jaded, so I flippantly shrugged the information off. After all, hadn’t the Army just started their reexamination of the entire camouflage process a mere two months ago? And hadn’t Phase IV taken two years? Two months vs two years. It just didn’t add up. Not to mention rumored announcement dates that kept shifting to the right. Plus, May 5th? Seriously? Cinco de Mayo? What an arbitrary date, especially with the U.S. Army’s birthday coming up in June.
Then, I get a cryptic email yesterday morning. During a briefing to industry, the Commander of the Defense Logistics Agency, VADM Harnitchek announced that the Army had in fact made a camouflage decision but unfortunately, he did not know which pattern had been selected. Even if he had, as a Navy Admiral. it wasn’t his place to tell the Army’s story. The meeting was a buzz with speculation.
At this point I was thinking, “Finally, a decision…any decision.”
Who knows if the choice was actually made on Cinco de Mayo or not, but wouldn’t it be ironic if it had been? Think about it. A decision of that importance would’ve been much easier to make over a couple of shots of tequila.
But I’ve gone on long enough leading you up to the punch line of this post.
Today, Col Robert Mortlock, Program Manager for Soldier Protection and Individual Equipment at PEO Soldier showed up to discuss Army programs. He’s just finished addressing a large ballroom filled with representatives from the military services and the industrial base that serves them. Everyone came into the room waiting to hear, right from the proverbial horse’s mouth, which Course Of Action the Army is going to take. Would it press the ‘easy button’ and choose OCP (MultiCam)? Or maybe MARPAT? Or Navy AOR? Or perhaps the Army would defy the NDAA and introduce the fabled Digital Transitional Pattern (pixelated MultiCam)? Would they be bold and go old school, announcing they had reconsidered a 2003 decision and adopt Scorpion? Or would the Senior Service just stick with status quo and remain in the dreaded UCP for garrison wear and OCP for the remainder of OEF?
Lots of options on the table.
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