I am planning to include a couple of US Army figures in a forthcoming diorama.
The time-frame will be 2017. At this point, would the Universal Camouflage Pattern
have been completely replaced by the Multicam Pattern?
Thanks,
Paul
A very minor point - the Army adopted the OCP camouflage, which was made available around 2015. It is subtly different from multi cam. but to answer your question, plenty of soldiers were still wearing the UCP in 2017.
18Bravo,
Thanks for that. A specific question relating to the German Tour 2017 ‘Iron Brigade’ … which would be the most common camouflage pattern during this deployment?
Paul
The standard answer would be to see if you can Google Iron Brigade 2017 and see what you can find in the way of photos.
I myself have not been to Germany since 2010 since we trained Slovenian SF there.
But here’s a best guess based solely on experience: When I went to Korea in 2017, (third trip) they wanted us all to be wearing the new OCP even though UCP was still authorized. When working with partner nations they wanted us to have the latest and greatest. Having said that, it took years before many units actually issued their troops OCP helmet covers. You’ll see many soldiers from that transition period wearing OCP’s with UCP helmet covers. I myself am a little OCD about things like that. True, when I went the the Field Artillery 40 level course few years ago I wore FOUR different kinds of camo at one time, just to be an ass. Nobody said shyte. But normally I like things to match. Foremst when it involved wearing that damned UCP. So I purchased my own helmet cover. I was one of the few who matched.
I retired in 2017. In 2015, I changed to OCP, but UCP was still authorized until Sep 30, 2019. The last two years of my time I taught Command and General Staff College and my students were about 1/2 and 1/2 between the two uniforms.
Many thanks for your informative responses.
I wasn’t aware of the distinction between OCP and Multicam.
In my Tankograd publication, ‘Iron Brigade’, there is little evidence
of UCP being worn. I guess either OCP or Multicam would be most
appropriate for my diorama.
I need to Google the two to check out the difference.
Paul
I’m just adding my $.02 here, but in my experience the switch to OCP from UCP was quite rapid because the latter was so despised. I went out of my way in July 2015 to buy two sets of Scorpion OCP uniforms because, frankly, it made me feel like a soldier again. And I was a National Guardsman at the time. Regardless, by 2017 I was working full time as a Guardsman and I knew of only one or two people who were still wearing UCP. They were made fun of mercilessly (in a more or less good natured way) for their lack of professionalism. One was a senior colonel who didn’t want to buy another uniform before retiring. But this was in an environment consisting of mostly senior captains and field grade officers who are expected to afford the newest uniforms.
Soldiers get a clothing allowance, but that is usually just beer money. It depends on how motivated they were to get the newest camo and, if they weren’t issued it, whether they could afford it. The ACU cut uniforms are not cheap! Sometimes motivation only comes from being issued the new stuff or being forced to adopt a uniform appearance by a senior NCO.
Therefore, at the soldier level, the issue would be more spotty. But by 2017 I can’t see most line unit first sergeants and sergeant majors tolerating a grab bag of UNIFORMS in a formation, but as 18 Bravo pointed out, gear and accessory issue would be less consistent. Helmet covers, FLC’s or TAP Racks may still have been UCP. It’s very odd how hard it seems to be for the Army to issue uniform helmet covers. One would think those would be among the first things that are easily issued. Rucksacks and sleeping bag systems would still likely be UCP. Tanker coveralls would still be UCP. The Army does like to put its best foot forward with deploying units, so that is probably why you aren’t seeing much in the way of UCP as they may have a priority RFI issue.
In almost ten years of Scorpion OCP the Army still hasn’t managed a complete turnover of gear and it will probably take the Guard/Reserves another decade to shed all the grey digital garbage. By now all of the Regular Army is wearing 100% OCP except for the odd cold weather items or poncho liners.
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