Coolest Camo

[pmulcahy11b]

Coolest? My vote would be the Vietnam-Era Tiger pattern. Not the best pattern, but it does look cool.

Best? As much as it pains my Army soul to say so, I think its the US Marine digital camo. (Yes, I know they stole the idea from the Canadians, but they improved it.) The Army ACUs -- I simply don't believe in "One camo pattern fits all."

[waiting4something]

Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b

Coolest? My vote would be the Vietnam-Era Tiger pattern. Not the best pattern, but it does look cool.

Best? As much as it pains my Army soul to say so, I think its the US Marine digital camo. (Yes, I know they stole the idea from the Canadians, but they improved it.) The Army ACUs -- I simply don't believe in "One camo pattern fits all."

Everything he said. I also thought that "sky camo" the urban camo with blue in it looked cool. Very Nintendo Contra looking. I don't think anyone ever used it of course. I see the Russians use blue in one of there camo patterns(Gorod). Personally I think Blue stands out to much, but it does look cool.

[natehale1971]

Has anyone seen the new Chinese Digital Camo?

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by natehale1971

Has anyone seen the new Chinese Digital Camo?

I may be wrong, but blue camo can't provide much camouflage.

[HorseSoldier]

Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b

I may be wrong, but blue camo can't provide much camouflage.

It looks to me like they assumed we must have known something they did not understand with out ACU pattern, so they copied us with similarly dismal results.

[Targan]

Originally Posted by natehale1971

Has anyone seen the new Chinese Digital Camo?

Digital camo? Does that mean it has pictures of fingers all over it?

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by Targan

Digital camo? Does that mean it has pictures of fingers all over it?

Of course not! It has numbers, and they count down to the time of your death!

[bobcat]

Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b

Of course not! It has numbers, and they count down to the time of your death!

why do my fatigues have a 00:01 on them?

[Panther Al]

I picked flecktarn for a number of reasons but they all boil down to personal preferance.

But in all honesty I have to say "other" was my true choice: dark khaki. Call me old school but I feel that for the most part camo isn't needed save for troops in special roles. I've seen many a trooper use camo as a crutch to excuse poor field skills and by and large the various patterns seem to foster an idea that you don't have to try as hard to stay hidden. Dark Khaki (or Flat Dark Earth as the "operator types" (and that's another rant) call it) is a true multi environment colour, it blends well in the desert as well as the green sorts of places. Besides proper design of the uniform itself can lend to one that works well in the field and looks sharper than hell in garrison.

[B.T.]

Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b

Coolest? My vote would be the Vietnam-Era Tiger pattern. Not the best pattern, but it does look cool.

..."

Kryptek and Multicam are cool, too, as Tyg and Raellus mentioned. Problem: Not available in the original or even the 2.n timeline.

My choice was not mentioned in the poll. It would be the Italian M1929 telo mimetico. First version fielded in 1929, still in use with certain units in the early 90ies.

Does it work? Hm, not shure. It's been in the field for such a long time, it has to have something. And: You can see a coverall in this scheme in the beginning scenes in the first (pilot-) show of Firefly. If it is still around 500 years in the future, it certainly has to be cool

[StainlessSteelCynic]

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.

[Raellus]

It's not used very much these days, but back in the 1990's, here in the States, "hoochie" was a commonly-used slang term for a woman of loose morals.

Also, saw this a couple of weeks ago. Old meets new. It's a cool-looking combo, IMHO.

http://soldiersystems.net/2019/09/02...ning-exercise/

-

[Legbreaker]

Originally Posted by StainlessSteelCynic

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).

Hmm, I was issued one of those in 91. Never bothered actually using it though.
There's also at least one other item using that pattern - a two litre water bladder carrier which I still have!
Pattern's a bit worn, but I don't think that actually detracts from it's effectiveness (if any). Has a an attached shoulder strap as well (which I've taped up out of the way) as well as a belt loop. Printed on the inside is the year of manufacture (1972), a serial number and manufacturer (Cantas Pty Ltd). Damn thing's as old as I am, if not older by a few months!

Attachment 4366 Attachment 4367

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Ha! I remember the collapsible water bladder now that you mention it! The ones we had in my last unit were straight olive drab but seeing those photos sparks some dim memory in the decaying corners of my mind!
Come to think of it, half the hootchie carriers I saw were olive drab as well.
The material used for those hootchie carriers was utter crap and I'm pretty sure most infantry guys didn't bother carrying it, just one more item of dead weight.

But yeah, as for camo clothing, Australian troops basically had sweet FA until the DPCU was issued and it's ironic that before then, the only items of equipment that did get any sort of cam where small bits of kit that were not common use items.


But as for Cold War era cam uniforms, there's quite a few patterns I like but in terms of coolest, for me I'd choose the 1970s South African Police camo, examples of which can be found in it's various incarnations on Camopedia, here, the last quarter of the page.
http://www.camopedia.org/index.php?title=South_Africa

Generally, it looked like this (again, courtesy of Camopedia)


or this