Quote:
Originally Posted by Brit
…The photos I have seen for the US Army Commemorative Parade show all the vehicles, i.e. M1 tanks and M2 (?) Bradleys painted totally green. Is this common? I have not seen a photo of non-'cammo' / MERDEC or 'desert sand' ones...
|
Pre-GWOT our vehicles were the three color (green-black-brown) camo scheme, painted with CARC paint every couple years in the installation paint shop. We’d usually get spare parts in either green or the more rarely the old yellow colored desert sand (if it was a recovered part). They’d usually go in to the paint shop within a year to get carc’d- not for uniformity as much as to ensure the vehicle had the chemical resistant coating. Some units used the camo colors in a different scheme, or added the more modern grayish desert sand CARC.
When we deployed we took our three color camo vehicles as was, with prepo off the boat coming in the desert sand. In theatre we ended up painting add on armor and other theater mods in a “pac-man yellow” that was sold as sand. FWIW new vehicles were either fielded in solid forest green CARC or desert sand CARC.
For T2K, I’d say MERDC would be rare; it was on its way out by the end of the 80s, so there’d by enough time for standard maintenance to repaint with CARC. Forest green was pretty common in Europe during the 80s, and would probably still be around for some equipment, especially factory replacements. Most other stuff would be in three color carc or some kind of theater applied scheme. In centcom, the old yellow sand would still be common, maybe with some camo schemes. New builds and replacement kit may be in the grey sand, not sure when that came in.