BDUs

[Dr.T]

Came across an interesting article today in Army Times:

http://www.armytimes.com/article/20140505/NEWS/305050061/Soldiers-earn-tab-wear-BDUs-tough-new-jungle-course?fb_action_ids=10203560426989908&fb_action_types=og.recommends&fb_ref=artsharetop

(If the long URL is a problem, google the subject line: "Soldiers earn tab and wear BDUs in tough new jungle course")

"When it came to equipping its soldiers, the 25th ID went old school, scouring the Army for its remaining sets of woodland battle dress uniforms and Vietnam-era black jungle boots.

It managed to get about 17,000 sets of BDUs; each soldier going through the JOTC is issued two sets. So far, 3,500 sets have been issued.

The camouflage pattern on the BDUs works better in the Hawaiian jungle than the Army Combat Uniform, Fuller said, but leaders also didn't want soldiers ruining their ACUs during training.

"In that terrain, it's this red lava dirt, and it stains the uniforms we have to the degree that you can't get it out," he said. "Using the woodland BDUs you don't even notice it."

The BDUs also are made from thinner, more breathable material, and they dry out faster, Johnson said."

Dr.T

[Майор Хаткевич]

To motivate his soldiers, Fuller authorized the Jungle Expert tab for qualifying soldiers assigned to the 25th Infantry Division.

Unless it's adopted by the Army, soldiers who earn the tab can only wear it while they're assigned to the division.

But anyone else who passes the course will at least get the tab as a souvenir.

"Soldiers love to be recognized when they do something really hard successfully," Fuller said. "This is a very difficult course to get through. It's 21 days of living out of your rucksack in some of the worst terrain in the world. They deserve some kind of recognition for doing that."

Soldiers love a good challenge, he added.

"Being put in a new environment and being challenged gives them some bragging rights. Soldiers who've got their Jungle Expert tab are strutting around pretty good."

Something that isn't done enough in CAP, and when it is done, sometimes is...overdone.

[Garibaldi]

And someone said BDUs were drying up...17,000 sets? Wow.

[NIN]

$5 says that they came out of DRMO. If they had already been screened by another organization 17,000 sets  wouldn't have been in the system..

[Майор Хаткевич]

$5 says that they came out of DRMO. If they had already been screened by another organization 17,000 sets  wouldn't have been in the system..

With our recruit churn, that wouldn't last too long.

[NIN]

Yeah that's only 17 sets per unit