new Army uniform

[winterbadger]

This is just...weird. I'm glad to know that so much effort was put into getting feedback from combat troops to make the uniform more functional. And the no-shine boots have got to be a godsend. I tend to wonder if all the velcro is a good idea, but I guess the majority of troops don't need to operate in the kind of stealth conditions that would make RRRRRIIIPPP a bad sound to associate with just slipping your hand into your pocket to get out a map or a pen. The velcro-on tapes and badges look totally retarded, IMO, and I'm inclined to wonder whether my experience with how fast velcro that gets used every day wears out is unusual. But, well, the Army's got its collective mind set ojn this now, so the chances of changing anything are probably poor.

Comments

[flyingwolf.livejournal.com]

well, that's what they *say* they're for. But I can see it as a way to easily hide what your rank is - for safety's sake, or for mischief.
I wasn't in the military long enough.. plus I think our ranks were metal tags on the colars (can't do that with this kind of colar).
I have a friend that can't use velcro at all because her dog has thick long hair that sheds everywhere.

[winterbadger]

For most people in the military there isn't any need to hide your rank or other identifying information, and for those who need that (e.g., Special Forces in enemy territory), my impression is they usually wear plain BDUs or local clothing so as to blend in; I doubt they would mkae thin major a change just for something like that.

They used "subdued" (i.e., black-painted) metal badges for rank insignia on combat uniforms (BDUs and the combat fatigues that came before them) for a while, and I think it might still have been an option, but most of the officers and enlisted personnel I've seen in the past ten years wearing BDUs had patches showing their rank sewn onto the BDUs. One less thing to get ton off, lost, etc, I think. I was interested by their moving the rank insignia to the chest from the collar. A lot of the guys I worked with in the Army had done that with their Goretex; I don't know whether it was official, or just easier, since the Goretex didn't have a collar as such.

Probably off topic-ish but ...

[mazzie.livejournal.com]

I read in the NYer back in February that the soldiers at the Guantanamo detention facility actually don't wear the velcro patches that identify them when they are in the company of prisoners. They don't want the detainees to know their names.
Interesting, no?

Re: Probably off topic-ish but ...

[winterbadger]

They don't have the velcro patches yet. The only unit that's been given the new ACU, IIRC, is the Stryker Brigade, in Iraq. It's probably the regular tapes that they meant.

Given the facts that (a) detainees from Gitmo are being released back to the world, (b) detainees at Gitmo communicate among themselves constantly, and (c) detainees have threatened camp guards and their families personally and by name (when known) I think it's probably a very smart thing to have the guards' names not be know to the detainees. If it were a regular prison, or a POW camp, that would be one thing. But that's the problem; it's neither of those. Some of the detainees are terrorists who are never going to see the "war" as being "over" and who will strike at their enemies any way they can. And they're sending information home; that's almost guaranteed. No, I see the ramifications in terms of abuse, but that's why (IMO) there needs to be some way to work out more ICRC supervision of the camps. But telling terrorists the names of their captors in a world where you can websearch almost anyone and find their high school their home town, and probably their family with little or no cost? Nope, bad idea.

[mazzie.livejournal.com]

actually, you're right.
now that i think about it, their names are obscured by tape, nto removed.
i had considered the aspect of the threat to individuals and their families and it is, perhaps, a valid one.
it's odd, though, to juxtapose that against our own prison system, where men getting raped is a joke, and they know the names of their captors (especially odd in the shadow of GWB making a statement after the Abu Graib pictures were initially released about how that's not how Americans treat prisoners).
just the same, the lack of humanity involved in not even knowing the name of your captors, in conjunction with the fact that the prisoners being held at Guantanmo are being held under extraordinary circumstances, makes me fidget.

[winterbadger]

it's odd, though, to juxtapose that against our own prison system, where men getting raped is a joke, and they know the names of their captors (especially odd in the shadow of GWB making a statement after the Abu Graib pictures were initially released about how that's not how Americans treat prisoners).

I think someone needs to send GWB a copy of Season One of "Oz"...