This photo isn’t from the 90s. It was taken just this year at the 25th Infantry Division Tropic Lightning Academy’s Jungle Operations Training Center.
Staff Sgt. Ascension Lopez, right, teaches a student how to tie a figure-eight knot.
Learn more about the Army’s Jungle School at www.armymagazine.org/2015/07/15/having-fewer-boots-in-the-creek-aids-jungle-school
It really wasn’t broke…so the Army “fixed it.” And for all its good points, OCP/Scorpion/MulitCam is not that great in the jungle from a colorway standpoint.
OCP never was good for woodland/tropical and it never will be.
but as we all know Big Army f*&#ed over whatever chance it had at acquiring something effective in those regions by premature termination of Phase IV. oh well…maybe in another decade Big Army will find something else to replace or supplement OCP.
Some of my friends in the USARNG have woodland ACUs as their OPFOR uniforms…
I still see tons of BDUs in woodland here at the local Guard building. Was a bit surprised at first, but then remembered it’s a small REMF Guard Unit, they were likely never issues ACUs
What surprised me was that it wasn’t BDUs, it was ACU cut uniforms in woodland, unlike the ones seen above which are old BDUs.
No surprise that woodland is the camo of choice in the jungle. It was developed from ERDL.
Now if they start issuing tigerstripe and panama sole jungle boots, then we’ll know the Army is getting serious with jungle warfare.
I think we may see an Panama-style sole.
Oh really ssd I would like to hear more on that
It’ll also add more to the pile of crap that has been the last decade of uniform circle jerking.
Concept of Woodland pattern is proven to be good. At least, look at foreign patterns such as Swedish M60, British DPM, French CE, Polish Pantera, Swiss TAZ 90. But speaking of US Woodland, it has questionable green, which is too blueish, especially after long use and washing in case of NYCO fabric.
Indeed, nature is very different everywhere, but only needle-leaved trees actually have that blueish variant of green, because of waxy substance protecting needles. If you look at other patterns developed for broadleaved trees background, you will see another green, closer to yellow. Only Finnish cold weather M05 has that blue-green in it (and it’s understandable, because it was designed for winter conifer forest).
“Jungle green”, indeed, should be dark – plants on lower level have dark leaves, so it shouldn’t be that pale green from French CE. But I would avoid blue tint.
woodland was more or less designed for fighting in germany like the black forest so i see why its a greenih blue color …im more of a erdl fan myself
Green Dominant or Brown Dominant ERDL? :p
Dont put me on the spot like that …lol green dominant
You should like Czech Army VZ85, probably. At least, it’s still possible to get new (and quite well-made) uniform and gear in it.
You mean vz.95 don´t you? And yeah its pretty good camo for jungles too, at least it didn´t heard any complaints from people that used them for FFL jungle training in french guyana. Here is a foto for comparison.
Yup, vzor 95 or vz.95 My mistake.
In a lot of areas in HI woodland is way too dark, my BN practically lived in the field there.
Jon, OPT
Agreed. Hawaii’s jungle is thick, but still very green.
IME, M81 performs best in dry, scrubby conifer woodlands (like the pinion-juniper-pine woodlands in the western U.S.)
Was Multicam Tropic not allowed or unavailable?
Ndaa of I think 2013 2014 say only patterns that are in current use or used befor the date can be used
I thought that had no teeth/wasn’t being enforced.
They did order a few multicam tropic uniforms if i remember correctly
My guess is it was much easier for 25th ID to pull out some old bdus than get multicam tropic, which may have been impossible. Having used both I would not have gone with woodland. It really is too bad the Army decided not to just pay up for multicam with its bookends.
I agree with you. Multicam arid is awesome. Also, in the link provided on the top of the article, there is a soldier in the water wearing multicam and it seems to work very well.
Actually, if you look at the article again, there are a number of fellows in Multicam in the third picture in the article (the lecture). Only the one in the combat shirt stood out at first, but after downloading the larger image I noticed were four others (3 in OCP ACUs and 1 more in a combat shirt with suspenders, which served to break up the solid color enough to not notice). So actually pretty effective to my poor eyes at least.
Good, don’t change what works. Please, no more camouflage confusion. I don’t want to see a “new” woodland pattern that looks like current M81 Woodland but be called Operational Temperate Pattern…
Swedish M90 and Pencott Greenzone work nicely in subtropical and jungle terrain. Cadpat TW also works.
🙂
I suspect that it has more to do with it being the most easily / readily available ‘no brainer’ pattern than it being “the Camo Pattern of Choice”.
Let’s face it, the red clay in Hawaii is tough. I suspect we’ll see a lot of UCP at that school now that it’s being phased out. Wear it at jungle school and then toss it in the trash.
Or just toss it straight in the trash… 😉
That’s what I did. I’ll be curious to see how much OCP is incorporated into JOTC. They have to be running out of woodland, I’ve seen dudes with woodland uniforms and UCP patrol caps so I assume they’re at least short on the head gear.
The head gear was never a CIF item in HI, they did however have BDUs authorized back in the day for people attending Ranger School and other courses. It was also one of the few CIFs that would DX jungle boots due to excessive wear and tear encountered in training areas.
Jon, OPT
They look like…..soldiers.
I haven’t seen regular guys look like that in over a decade
It made me very happy to see the SSG with his BDUs set up correctly!!
PLEASE bring the rank (and branch) back to the collars!!
Not bad at all although the shoulder sleeve insignia looks a little low.
Momma-san don’t forget!!
You guys are beating a dead horse here. OCP is here to stay. UCP was a fooking nightmare and Woodland wasn’t the end all be all pattern either (too much brown and black isn’t in nature). Cammo arguments, 45 vs 9mm and my AR is better than your AR threads are getting tiresome.
The old “black isn’t in nature” argument is tiresome.
Where are they even getting these uniforms? Are they just buying them on ebay? They haven’t sold BDU insignia and OD patches at the PX in over half a decade.
It looks good still. I never wore this uniform, but it has a very nostalgic look to it. It just looks “right”. Makes me want to get a pair of Crye G3 pants in woodland….
Propper, Tru-Spec, etc. still make brand new BDUs in woodland and other patterns.
They are on our new items page, we will be selling tops, bottoms and boonies within a couple months. The military probably has millions in storage, Schofield CIF also had them as issue items years ago and probably still does.
Jon, OPT
Supposedly, JOTC cleaned out all of the Woodlands and Jungle Boots at DLA.
They sent me to iraq with woodland BDU’s… Army probably being cheap and hasn’t updated all their units yet lol. (Woodland bdu’s are still my camo of choice BTW)
Good training, if only we had gotten the crye color ways