Recently, two fairly significant events happened regarding military camouflage. First, on 14 March a vanload of illegal immigrants and their smugglers were apprehended east of San Diego by Border Patrol agents. At face value this sounds pretty routine, except that these illegals were wearing MARPAT uniforms and sporting high and tight haircuts. What’s more, they had swapped their van’s tags to US Government plates and had a simple cover story explaining that they were on their way to nearby, March AFB. Fortunately for us, one of the Border Patrol agents was a former Marine and asked one simple question that tripped up the illegals. That question? “What is the birthday of the US Marine Corps?” The bad guys didn’t know and are now cooling their heels in detention.
Next, US European Command (EUCOM) announced that military personnel are not allowed to wear camouflaged uniforms off post. This includes while commuting back and forth to work and comes in response to the recent fatal attack on US Airmen in Frankfurt by a Muslim gunman. Similar edicts have been made in the past so this isn’t a first but it does show how seriously EUCOM is taking this most recent threat.
