Thread: Coolest Camo
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Old 04-09-2020, 08:39 AM
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StainlessSteelCynic StainlessSteelCynic is offline
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So I'm not unhappy to be revisiting this thread and as an Aussie I'm going to wave the flag for the first piece of camo gear officially issued to Australian forces in the Cold War era - the Smock, Tropical.
Aside from using the same material on the hootchie holder **, there were no other items of camo clothing officially issued to Australian forces (the SASR were allowed to get cam but they're special so I'm not including them).

** For those of you not familiar with US & Australian military slang, the word Hootchie refers to a groundsheet that can be used as a single person tent or when clipped to another such groundsheet can form a larger tent. Hootchie is I believe, derived from the American term "Hootch" AKA "Hooch" meaning a hut or simple/crude dwelling and used during the Vietnam War to describe the places soldiers in the field had to live in (the term may have even been used by US troops in the Korean War but I'm unsure of that).
So to get to the point, the Hootchie Holder is just a simple bag that clips onto your web gear to carry your groundsheet.


You can see an example of the pattern here, courtesy of Camopedia http://camopedia.org/index.php?title=Australia



HOWEVER...
Despite what Camopedia says, this rain smock was never designated the "psychological smock", it was the "Smock, Tropical". But Aussies troops being like their counterparts in allied armies, soon came up with a different name for it based on the fact that it was the only item of issued clothing that was camouflaged but it wasn't for general use as it was only for tropical regions.
They mockingly nicknamed it the "Smock, Psychological" because they figured the cam pattern wasn't actually useful unless you were in jungle terrain, anywhere else in Australia it didn't really do anything to hide you, so any perceived benefit of wearing it was all in your head, i.e. psychological.

There were no other items of clothing officially issued in a cam pattern but I am not 100% certain that a rainproof cap in the same cam pattern was not issued. I've never seen one or even photos of one and I don't recall anyone ever talking about them. If there were some floating about, they may have actually been soldier made rather than official issue.
A number of soldiers did modify the tropical smock into other garments - one corporal I knew had a rifle bag made out of the material and I also personally saw a tropical smock that had been cut down and tailored to look more like the US BDU smock.

I vaguely recall in another life that I emailed Camopedia to update the info about the Smock, Tropical but I could be confusing it with another site, it was about 7 or 8 years ago or so.
But anyway, while I don't contend that the Australia tropical smock camo was particularly "cool", it's a nearly forgotten piece of Aussie military gear and an example of Aussie military humour so I thought it was worth mentioning.
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