Uniform Changes

As B-man prepares his gear for his upcoming deployment, it's getting harder and harder to be in denial about him leaving. But, as long as he's home, I can be in denial a little longer.  He pretty much has to go through all of his gear every time he goes somewhere to pack what is needed for the environment where he'll be. So he usually lays everything out in the garage or den and filters through it all. They were just issued new uniforms and gear in Multicam (the pattern of Army combat uniform that is worn in Afghanistan). So, it got us talking about all of the different uniforms that he's had in his twelve years of Army life.  Take a stroll with us down memory lane.

He started out in 1998 in woodland camo BDUs (battle dress uniform).

He deployed to Kuwait in Nov 2011 in DCUs (desert camo uniforms).

When he got back from Kuwait in May of 2002, it was back to woodland camo.

And when the war with Iraq started, he deployed in DCUs again from April 2003-March 2004.

Upon their return from Iraq, they switched into the woodland BDUs yet again.

And then, the world got crazy with digitization and pixels. The powers that be jumped on board and adopted this digital ACU (Army combat uniform) pattern. The theory was that it would provide efficient camo in desert and woodland situations.
He wore them during his second tour to Iraq in November 2005-November 2006.  And this has remained the daily uniform since then.

Earlier I mentioned that he was issued new uniforms/gear. This is multicam. It's the approved combat pattern for the Army in Afghanistan.
We both agree that it's our favorite pattern so far.
But, when he gets back from Afghanistan, it's back to the ACUs. Darn it, we really like this one.


So, you can imagine how much 'stuff' he's had over the years in all of these patterns.
He's pretty much gotten rid of all the woodland and desert pattern items. He just has a few keepsake pieces.
But, now we have a pile of ACU and Multicam stuff.

Just thought it was interesting and blogworthy.