If you’ve been in the military for any length of time, one thing that you will notice is that change is the only constant. The military loves change. For example, let’s examine boots. When I first came into the Army. The standard ‘cruit boots (military issue boots) that the military started issuing toward the end of the Vietnam War were basically black leather lace-up combat boots that had to be shined with shoe polish and a brush. When soldiers were assigned to jungle climates such as Central America or Panama or later, the Middle East, they were issued the DMS jungle boots first designed and developed for use in Vietnam. Later, post-9/11 when the second Gulf War broke out, the military switched to a tan rough out combat boot which was basically a suede leather boot that they called the Army Combat Boot. There were two versions of the boot. The first version is a temperate weather tan colored boot made with a moisture resistant suede leather and a waterproof breathable membrane. There is also a hot weather version made with moisture resistant suede leather, but it doesn’t have the waterproof membrane. Like I said, the one constant about the military is change. Another thing that I noticed was the constant state of change that the military uniform was in. When I first joined the Army, I was issued the Vietnam era Type II utility uniform, cotton sateen, olive green 107, or OG-107. When soldiers were assigned to jungle climates such as Central America or Panama, they were issued the Vietnam era olive drab ripstop jungle fatigues, olive green 107, or OG-107. In the late 1970’s, the Type III utility uniform, cotton sateen, poly cotton blend, olive green 507, or OG-507, was introduced. This uniform was known as the Dura-Press or Permanent-press uniform. This uniform was a key and essential uniform for me in my military career and I’ll explain why a bit later. But all good things must come to an end, and it was the same for the Permanent-press uniform. The Permanent-press uniform was phased out starting in 1980, and it was finally fully replaced in 1989 by the Battle Dress Uniform (BDU) Woodland pattern. During the same period of time that the Battle Dress Uniform was worn in service, a Desert Combat Uniform (DCU) was also issued for soldiers being deployed to the Persian Gulf region and the Middle East. It featured a three-pattern desert camouflage pattern. Not forgetting to mention its predecessor, the Desert Battle Uniform (DBU) or better known as the ‘chocolate chip camo’. In 2005, the military replaced both the BDU and the DCU with the Army Combat Uniform (ACU), which itself has gone through a few changes since its introduction. Those of you that are currently in the military service are familiar with this uniform. The current variant of this uniform is known as the Operational Camouflage Pattern (OCP) ACU. Those of you that have been in for more than a few days may have some of its predecessors, the Operation Enduring Freedom Pattern (MultiCam) ACU. I don’t know how strict the military is with its uniform retirement policies now, but the MultiCam was supposedly fully replaced by the OCP’s in October 2019. That meant you had to stop wearing the MultiCam. Maybe they even enforce that. I know when the old Permanent-press uniforms were phased out, we were given a do not wear after date after which we could not wear the Permanent-press uniform. Back when I was in, the Army held inspections to enforce the do not wear policy to ensure that soldiers had the new Battle Dress Uniform and that it was being worn properly. Like seriously. How in the hell does a soldier not wear the Battle Dress Uniform properly? Well, I guess I can think of one way. There was that bullshit, convoluted method of rolling up the sleeves in the summertime where you turned the sleeve inside out and pulled it all the way up over itself. Then, you rolled it and folded the flap down so that the camouflage lower part of the sleeve would be showing when you were done. The Marines didn’t do all that bullshit. Oh hell no. They just rolled the sleeves up in the normal manner. They didn’t give a shit. But the Army gave a shit. Camouflage had to be shown even when the sleeve was rolled up. What kind of serious ass bullshit was that? To me that was some Class A, pure, unadulterated bullshit. When I went to OCS, the powers that be at OCS said, thou shall have four (4) BDU uniforms. They didn’t say anything about how many Permanent-press uniforms you could have. As a result, I brought my four required sets of BDU uniforms and four sets of Permanent-press uniforms. Here’s another dumb rule that the Army had about the BDU. When the BDU first came out, the Army said, thou shall not iron the Battle Dress Uniform. Their logic was that the heat from the irons would ruin the supposed infrared defeating properties of the camouflage pattern over time. The key there was over time. Then when generals and colonels started wearing the BDU, they noticed that the uniforms looked like shit when they were worn without being ironed. Hello. That’s a big DUH. Those uniforms weren’t exactly permanent-press. They weren’t any kind of press. Oh wait. Yes, they were. They were manual-press. Question over there. What’s manual-press? Manual-press is where you press the uniforms yourself, manually. Get it. Manual Press. So, wait for it, wait for it. They changed the policy. That’s right. You gotta love these guys at headquarters. Eventually they get their shit together. It usually takes a while, but they usually find some lonely Captain or Staff Sergeant working in the basement of the Pentagon making the coffee who says, “Sir, you ought to let them iron the uniforms.” I’m not saying that’s how it worked, but that’s probably how it worked. As a result, the ironing policy and hence the starching policy for BDU was in effect when I went to OCS. As a result, I had all four sets of my BDU’s starched so that I could display them in my wall locker. Notice I didn’t say so that I could wear them. I had no intention of wearing those damn things. I wore the Permanent-press uniform all the way through OCS. I did that for a few reasons. First, I was advised to do that by lieutenants who had recently finished OCS. Second, the Permanent-press uniforms were much easier to maintain. All I had to do was wash them and dry them in the washing machines at the company. That saved me a lot of money in laundry costs. Third, the Permanent-press uniforms looked neater and could be worn more than one day before being changed. The battle dress uniform could not. Once you broke starch in the BDU, it started to wrinkle pretty quickly. Therefore, you had to break starch in BDU’s pretty much every day. Candidates at OCS who only had the BDU’s were running to the cleaners two or three times a week in their spare time and spending lots of money. I had better things to do with my time like pogey bait runs. Fourth, the Permanent-press uniforms were generally much more comfortable to wear than the BDU’s. In short, the Permanent-press uniforms were a lifesaver for me while I was in OCS. But during my time in the Army, I wore four different utility uniforms. As I said at the outset, in the military change is the only constant, a constant exercise in futility.
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