It’s no real surprise but word has leaked. It might be the Army’s announcement to make, but rumors are swirling around the Army on which of the four families of patterns has been chosen to replace the so-called Universal Camouflage Pattern. What the heck, you’ve got a one-in-four chance of being right.
Multiple sources have verified that the Secretary of the Army plans on announcing the new camo selection on June 14th, the Army’s birthday. But, at this point, the selection may well be common knowledge by then.
I’m contacted regularly with “insider” information to tell me which family of patterns were chosen. Often, they are wrong. When they are right, I ask the source of their info. Yesterday, I received a very interesting answer to that question. According to the contact, the ultimate source of the info was Sergeant Major of the Army, Raymond F Chandler III. Interesting. He knows. According to the info I received, SMA Chandler discussed the choice with another Sergeant Major who “sits on a board” with the SMA. The CSM passed it along, and so on. Normally, I’d ignore that as static except that the pattern was described, in such a way that someone who wasn’t a geardo might pass along to another. There was enough right and enough wrong that it sounded like it was the result of a game of ‘telephone.’ That got my attention.
Now, something you need to know as background. When the Army fielded the ACU and UCP on the Army’s birthday in 2004, the Major Army Command CSMs were all briefed on the uniform and allowed to offer feedback. As an amusing aside, the USAREUR CSM at the time was quite concerned that the ACU be offered in a maternity cut. At any rate, it would be no surprise that the Army’s Senior Enlisted would be familiar with the decision at this point.
The truth is out there, you just have to know who to ask.
