U.S. Army Colonel John Norwood Program Manager of PEO-Soldier does a great job--without a script or rehearsal--of explaining the new Army Combat Uniform (ACU) its rationale and features excepting he forgot about the elbow and knee pad pockets which 1st TSG (A) was instrumental in getting adopted.

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The DESIGN features of the ACU are great progress long overdue, the material is too soft so you should buy some Brigade Quartermasters patches to mend tears:

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The main ACU problem is that its "ACUPAT" camouflage pattern DOES NOT WORK!

LineDoggie writes:

"ACU pattern sucks balls anyway. When the first Brigade (48th)wearing them showed up in Baghdad, we could spot them dismounted at Approx. 800M further away than those wearing DCU's."

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U.S. Army Colonel O'Neil at Natick Labs discovered that the human eye perceives things differently than just straight-up color blending. Irregular shapes trick the mind. Then the Canadians adopted it, the USMC copied it and lied that it was their own, the Army removed the USMC's BLACK from the patterns under review but then selected the WORST pattern to be ACUPAT!

The Sad Story:

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"The Urban Track pattern, which received the poorest ratings from the Natick Soldier Center's testing, was modified and selected as the basis for the Army's Universal Camouflage Pattern."

Former Army Chief of Staff General Schoomaker selected the least effective pattern to be the ACUPAT without it being field tested to be shown camouflage effective based on how it looked to HIM from the point of view of FASHION instead of FUNCTION. The desire to get one camouflage pattern to work in both dry and wet terrains is a good one but not necessary since we can print two camouflage patterns on reversible BDUs/ACUs so we don't have to waste $$$ and fumble around like the USMC does with its two MARPAT uniforms non-sense.

Green MARPAT Sucks because:

1. Too much BLACK in the pattern

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"The color scheme of the Army Combat Uniform is composed of a gray, tan and sage green digital pattern. The color black was omitted from the uniform because it is not commonly found in nature.[14] Pure black, when viewed through night vision goggles, appears excessively dark and creates an undesirable high-contrast image."

2. You need sets for wet areas and sets for dry areas, more weight, cost and complexity.

MULTICAM is far better; no BS blacks in the pattern and it works fantastically well in BOTH wet and dry areas. MULTICAM ACUs are now the uniform of choice by elite Army units. Notice Colonel Norwood states that patches would be REMOVED before going into combat unless vitally necessary and then they'd be made of glint material like the American flag patch he showed. This guidance has not been followed as we have Soldiers wearing full-color American flags in Iraq and Afghanistan which ruins whatever camouflage effects we are trying to obtain. In our later Fx videos we show how the ACU's velcro features can be used to show POSITION and TASK identifiers that increase Soldier proficiency and can help command & control if worn during operations.

ACU Identifiers Part 1
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ACU Identifiers Part 2
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If for some reason you cannot obtain/wear MULTICAM, then TURN YOUR ACUS INSIDE-OUT to at least get a lighter color to blend in with the TAN that is all around you in Iraq/Afghanistan.

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Maybe this will shame HQDA into switching over to MULTICAM sooner?

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