In a directive issued in late September, the Commanding General of Marine Special Operations Command orders the cession of wear of MultiCam uniforms and equipment. Instead, MARSOC Marines and Sailors will wear FROG uniforms until the command can procure SOF Peculiar uniforms in MARPAT patterns. Additionally, they will no longer use field equipment in MultiCam but rather procure gear in OD Green.
This will cost millions of dollars after the decision was made to streamline SOF procurement to one colorway, the MultiCam pattern.
It will cost $27 million dollars to be precise. Another example of the toxic leadership and mind virus that is present in the Corps. Similar in regards to the decision to move Raiders to Camp Lejeune. This has nothing to do with effectiveness in combat. Shame.
Agreed. Good luck finding OD fabric.
Absolutely gosh darn right! Not to mention there is no standard shade of OD, and it contrasts violently with the desert version of MARPAT. Ranger Green is more versatile, but still not optimal with the desert MCCUU.
Actually there is milspec OD shades. OG106 (also referred to as OD106) and OD7 were the ones still being used until woodland camo got the boot. Believe it or not there was actually an official color shade known as Marine OD Green (ODGNME) also. Marine OD Green webbing/trim was actually used from time to time with Ranger Green fabric in the early days if nothing else was available. This was before solution dyed Ranger Green became the standard for fabric and webbing.
When did marsoc started wearing multi cam?
What is the rationale for OD Green equipment, especially since desert MARPAT exists?
The uniform switch is weird but the equipment/LBE color makes 0 sense at all to me.
Eric
We have been stocking OD on CORDURA and Laminate for a while
I hope the new SECDEF mandates one camo patter for all US Forces, in Arid and Temperate.
End all the gucci pattern garbage. The Marines are THE WORST most childlike about pedantic uniform theater. Socks with sandals! LOL.
It baffles me, The Marines were the ones whom started the whole vanity pattern trend of the 00s when every service had to have a TM’d Digital pattern. Even the Navy wasn’t allowed to touch MARPAT save for Corpsman or Chaplains.
OD for gear? Wasn’t the Coyote Brown color developed to match both Desert and Woodland MARPAT?
Yes. Outside of Tees and Silkies yeah. Web gear, bags, watch caps, gloves, boots, plate carriers it’s Coyote brown. Same Coyote brown as in MARPAT. Same Coyote brown as used in Army boots, tees and OCP kit.
So unless they are giving these guys ALICE gear or relics from the Afghan ops when they were wearing M84…
It seems our military has been going back and forth between black boot, and brown boot for a hundred years now. was part of the black boot era. Out in the boonies without polish they became brown boots before long. Although not very attractive brown boots.
Weak leadership caused this mess in the first place. Just like the SSP…couldn’t police themselves and it gets so far out of control where it gets the attention of the GO level. Should have stuck with MARPAT or woodland (was that not special enough?).
The transition to MultiCam was to provide a common uniform for deployed SOF personnel and to save money by streamlining procurement.
No. MARPAT is not special. You go through selection, train to a higher standard to be outfitted with different – better – equipment. The Marine corps doesn’t deserve Recondos or Raiders. Complete waste of talent.
At least it’s good for the industry 🙂
This would be really funny except for the fact that it will be paid for using our taxes
“Flecktarn” from Germany would have been the better choice.
Not smarter but better… or something have Chinas PLA Units to offer?
they might have some Leftovers for a fair price 😉
Preparing for the future is a task, a burden and a virtue!
You’re missing the point here. The General’s goal is to remind his troops (and others) that they are Marines.
It’s a shame that MARSOC is too stupid to remember what branch they enlisted or commissioned into and that they’re too weak in the head to remember they’re Marines, rah?
That’s sarcasm, for the Marines among us.
Sounds like the general is a manager, not a leader.
Generals need to have their ability to dictate uniform and equipment changes revoked.
This decision is just plain dumb, on so many levels.
Remember – it was a General who took the black beret away from the Rangers and gave it to the entire Army, it was a General who forced the disastrous UCP camo on the Army, it was a General who forced the Air Force Tiger Stripe and ABU on that force, and it was General-equivalent who put the Navy in blueberry camo. And it was also a General who started all this nonsense in the first place by giving the Marines a recolored version of CADPAT.
Stay in your lane Sirs.
Good luck trying to find a reputable source and shade of OD green
The last 8-10 years of ALICE gear production was CG483
Silly upper “management” not cluing in to what’s been thrown down
What a waste of time, $s, and effort. Everyone involved in this decision making process should be crimalinaly changed, prosecuted, and sent to Federal prison for fraud.
At first I assumed it was MARSOC trying to get the ball rolling on gear with a fight in Asia in mind. But of course not. The amount of petty decisions pushed for the sake of “professional appearance” over practicality is mind boggling and says a lot about the people making those calls
The “frog” uniforms they have look silly. It’s supposed to be dessert marpat but they have an odd shade of pink to them lol
He meant Ranger green not OD Green. He’s just an old bag of bones and doesn’t know any better.
I was curious about that as well, but if it says Olive Drab on the doc, it too late now…
This has been an ongoing issue that the DoD and numerous SecDef’s have refused to address. Vanity uniforms are dumb. MARPAT was a solid upgrade from existing M81 and DCU but the Marines were allowed to keep it for themselves instead of the whole military adopting it as a standard. Then UCP and ABU came along because someone else wanted to be different and MARPAT was forbidden. Ten the Navy decided it needed camo even though the old USN Utilities uniform was perfectly adequate for most jobs and the coveralls good for dirty jobs. Then the blueberries turned out to be bad and the Navy still wanted camo. About the only branch who has consistently gotten it right is the USCG who has everyone wear the dark blue working uniform for almost all working tasks. The Navy seems to be on the right path with its blues and khakis NWU’s finally although it still uses the stupid whites for enlisted personnel. Ask a sailor on a dirty ship just how much they like the whites. Those need to be dumped in favor of the black uniforms they already have.
If you need uniform items to differentiate branches, use service, name and rank tapes that can fit standard velcro patches. Uniforms should be functional first and foremost. Everyone should be wearing the same thing as much as possible, which for the Corps, likely means Multicam. If someone needs a specialty uniform, there needs to be a justification.
The Marines need to stay in their woodland and desert cammies. We do not need to match with the silly ass army or navy or any other of those shitbags. We have hands down the best and most functional uniform out of all the branches in the DOD. We are not going to match their bullshit because we are not their bullshit, we are 100% different than all the rest and should dress different as well. We put more fear in the enemy that the army ever could. We have a image to uphold
Hold on there buddy. We are all on the same team.
No? Then “Army Paratroopers – because even Marines need Heroes! ???
I had the understanding that the Navy blueberry uniform was actually a useful change with the mindset of blending in with the environment. Not meaning blending into the water, but when working on a ship, if a drop or stain got on the uniform it would be less noticeable than if it was a solid color. This would reduce the overall need to replace uniforms since they would look “serviceable” for a potentially longer period.
What’s wrong with the multi cam
Whatever the decision, the Command failed to prepare the battlefield by working with their PAO to justify and publicize the need for and roll out of this decision. Now they alienated the community they have to work in…
The wildest thing here is that they decided on OD instead of their already existing very-much-USMC-color CB498… My guess would be that exactly 0 of their current contract-holders have any stock of OD, but plenty of CB.
I thought we did all this foolishness already almost a decade ago. I guess the powers what is wanna keep burning through their budget every five or ten years trying to be special for…reasons that aren’t readily apparent.
This decision has to have come from an Officer that came up in the later end of the M81/Alice era and has had very little to do with day in-day-out leadership since the MARPAT transition.
That’s literally the only way any of this, even conceptually, makes sense.
I think everyone should have stayed in OD green fatigues.
OD Green was the original multicam 😉
I didn’t know any Marines were even using Multicam, or it’s variants.
The DOD should make up its mind about things, hopefully intelligently for a change. At least the Marines smartly went for two color patterns, as we all know one hardly cover all the areas we get ourselves involved in these days.
If uniformity is important, why does MARSOC actually need to wear anything different than standard MARPAT utilities? Now tax dollars will be spent on a “SOF peculiar” uniform in MARPAT because the wearing a SOF peculiar uniform in another pattern “unnecessarily creates a distinction between members of our formation and the Marine Corps”? It seems no one mentioned the SOF peculiar multi cam uniforms being worn are a completely different design and fabric from MARPAT utilities- it’s not just camouflage pattern.
It’s a little absurd to me but then again this is the Marine Corps, isn’t it? It exists to fulfill a mission the Army can and does perform, but to do it with better PR. If the Marine Corps dresses like the Army, maybe Congress will start to wonder why they aren’t just part of the Army. This is hardly sarcasm, by the way. This institutional insecurity is why the Marine Corps is constantly worried about trivial nonsense like this. Congress should disband the Navy’s Army already. You could do this tactical mission with a single amphibious Army division and two or three amphibious regiments forward deployed with the Navy. Maintaining a Marine Corps for any reason other than pride and heritage makes as much sense as if the Army’s airborne divisions were a separate branch.
The USMC’s Force Design 2030 (budget priority/modernization plan) has basically settled the issue.
They cannot fulfill their reason for being (amphibious assault) and that’s straight from the commandant’s mouth.
They have given up all of the tools and institutional support for specialties related to peer-level ground combat (tanks, cannon artillery, ect).
They have a backwards, half baked plan to modernize and expand their amphibious landing capability (for uncontested landings only), one that will be dwarfed by the Army’s by the end of the decade.
And their only reason for existence, according to FD2030, is to sit on islands in the SCS and shoot missiles at the PLAN. Except the Army’s missile options are more broad, longer ranged, and exist within an integrated network of sensors that the USMC doesn’t have and has no plans to build.
I will also add that the USMC envisions doing this with 0 SHORAD or M-SHORAD capabilities outside of Stingers and short range jammers mounted on Polaris ATV’s.
Sooner or later, one of the bean counters is going to smell blood in the water.
Follow the money! The person responsible for this will end up with a huge payday or sitting on the board of the company who gets the contract.
No, they won’t. Most of it is set asides for NIB/NISH.
How about disband the DOD and return to the Constitutionally mandated Militia?
With the trillions of “Defense” spending dollars saved, States could outfit their Militias with a common pattern of Camouflage. And the joint Navy/Coastguard/Marine Corps could wear whatever uniforms they want to protecting the coastal areas from assault or invasion, conduct counter piracy, and freedom of navigation patrols to protect American exports.
There was nothing wrong with the old woodland camo BDU. Cheap, easy to get, everyone used it and just changed the insignia ro make it service specific.
Americans fought and won WW2 with the inferior gear they had.
The marine raiders and force recon ain’t gonna like that – the whole reason they prefer multicam/OCP is because it WORKS better than woodland MARPAT.
It’s the black patches. “Fake” shadows (which black blobs are supposed to emulate) look fake! Let the environment make the shadows, and just BE the color of the environment.
Browns, greens, tans, etc.
Seriously, if you are in dense woodland or scrub the foliage you are in will cast shadow. But if you are in open grassland or arid vegitated desert … “shadows” will look out of place
When was the last time you saw something black in open grassland or arid vegitated desert?
Great example of micro management at its finest. They’ll probably try to give them something stupid like the Air Force Digital tiger stripe or army ACUs.lol The OCD and jealousy of a few people who got in power by being yes men degrading the readiness, lethality, capabilities and moral of one of the best fighting forces in the world. They will deal with it because they are professionals but one of the biggest draws for the best soldiers and marines to nearly kill themselves getting to a unit like that is the opportunity to be different and use their own brains. Without that they might as well just go infantry.
MARPAT, it’s right in the directive.