U.S. ARMY, Later-Cold War, 1980s-On:
Sergeant, 77th Infantry Division “Liberty Division” 1980s:
I’m going to guess that most of my friends who went into the Army after graduation, whom I went to school with, most likely wore something pretty similar to this. They wore different sleeve patches and insignia, but it was the standard from the mid-1970s through the 1980s. the BDUs were around for a long time and overlapped with the prior and following patterns as well for a while, and, the Marins had their uniforms pretty much the same, different utility cover, but then that could be said about the Navy, then, Groud elements anyways, and the Air Force had theirs with a ball cap, so, what a wonderful concept, I think, but this was way too practical, and all have changed several times over, some soldiers still have various issued patterns. Standardization in the military is a good thing. I had friends that went over to Lebinon with the Marines, and some of the Army, on was even in the Pentagon Building when that was hit on 9/11!
I’m guessing that on the dates of these uniforms, there was a ton of overlap time of the different color variations of cut and materials over the next forty years, and regulations changed, albeit slowly. I have not found out any real history, of the 77th and this uniform. The Division served in the Pacific in WWII, after that, It may have been a Reserve unit for a while. And I think at this point it had actually the 77th sustainment brigade, stationed Stateside at Fort Dix, this is how I got it anyways, so. Being a platoon sergeant, he may have 4-5-6 years in the military already, and several enlistments under his belt, and likes the duty.
The 77th Infantry Division is perpetuated today by the 77th Sustainment Brigade, Army Reserve, and headquarters at Fort Dix, N.J. 2011, the brigade deployed to Iraq in support of Operation New Dawn. And as of February 1, 2020, the Brigade was still at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait.
Specialist, Thunderbird Division, in the 1980s:
Another BDU is represented here, I just thought I’d put as many uniforms on the site as I can, and while not a battle uniform, it is a service uniform, he joined and wasn’t drafted, moving ahead in quickly, he has earned his expert infantryman bar proudly sewn on it, these are not the CIB, but when you get them it is still an achievement, they tend to disappear fairly soon though and are rarely seen. The jacket and cap are summer weight-rip stop material and was a practical uniform, generally well received, used by all the US Forces, and seen all over the USA and Europe at the time.
Corporal, 10th Mountain Division, BDU’s, 1980s:
Command Sergeant-Major, 35th ADA (Air Defence Artillery Brigade) 1980s:
This rank has only one MCO rank above it, and there is one ofe them per division (E-10) These are the ranks of lifers, that have been in so long that they have few things they can do with them. There are 5 different levels of Master Sergeant. Where in the US Marines one might strive to make it to the rank of Gunnery Sergeant, (the equivalent of the Navy Chief Petty Officer, or Army, Sergeant First Class, the Air Force has many in the higher levels NCO Sergeants ratings, even 2 different levels there! and they keep adding more levels.
My Uncle was the top-level NCO for the USAF in the 1970s, and they added 4-5 since then! This is what makes it tricky to correctly exactly time some of these uniforms. This uniform was introduced in the 80's I think it is the 4 color Woodland BDU. This Fellow is from the 35th ARDA, and like all Air Defense "Artillery units", the 35th ADA Brigade traces its lineage back to the American Coastal Artillery formations. On June 1, 1918, the 35th Coast Artillery Brigade was organized and constituted at Fort Hunt, Virginia for the defense of the Potomac River. When the United States got involved in the Great War in Europe, it was only a matter of weeks before the soldiers of the 35th were shipped across the Atlantic with the American Expeditionary Force (AEF). Arriving in France, in September of 1918, in time to participate in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. The 35th fell in European artillery pieces and helped the Allies overcome the Hun. During the interwar period, no military innovation witnessed a more extensive development than that of airpower.
Aircraft would change war forever. On 9 September 1943, the 35th Coast Artillery was involved in the Allied invasion at Salerno, as part of Operation Avalanche. Hence, they became the first Allied Anti-Aircraft outfit to set foot on the European mainland in World War II. To address its new mission, the 35th Coast Artillery was renamed the 35th Anti-Aircraft Brigade and moved to England to prepare for the Allied assault on Hitler's Atlantic Wall. During Operation Overlord in June of 1944, the 35th participated in the invasion of southern France where it achieved 406 confirmed and 286 probable kills on German Luftwaffe aircraft. This greatly assisted the Allied invasion force as it broke through the German Army's defensive line and the Western Allies’ liberation of France.
A year later, the war in Europe would be over. After WWII, the 35th Brigade returned to the United States and then was inactivated at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey. Over 25 years of the Cold War, and the Vietnam Era, the 35th Anti-Aircraft Brigade was reactivated at Fort Bliss, Texas, and moved to Fort Meade, Maryland where it provided an anti-aircraft defense for the nation's capital.
On his left sleeve, the 35th Air Defense Artillery, as with all the identification on this uniform, it too is in the subdued form. The focus of Air Defense during this period was to counter the threat of long-range bombers targeting the United States. He had his previous front-line assignment with the XVIII Airborne Corps (Airborne) as is evident by the patch on the right sleeve. It would take another twelve years before the brigade was activated again, this time stationed at Fort Lewis, Washington on 1 June 1985 in support of the US Army I CORPS. That would be about where this uniform would have started to be seen.
The Army began to reshape the design of its forces in 2003, with the Air Defense Artillery, at the forefront of the transition. In addition to (MTOE) changes and new missions for several battalions within the branch, Air Defense also changed its assets around the globe, addressing the greatest Air and Missile threats. A key part was the movement of the 35th ADA Brigade from Fort Bliss, Texas to the Republic of South Korea which began in 2004. By the end of that year, the brigade was fully operational on the peninsula, with its headquarters at Osan Air Base, 48 miles south of Korea's (DMZ) Demilitarized Zone.
Note: this is an early ' type of Kevlar' Helmet. As I understand it, and may be used with the 2 elements in operations at present, Ein l Paso Texas, in the United States, and they operate in Area III South Korea. now I would assume they are wearing a multicolor pattern being used, and the Tri-Tone Tan, and Digital-Green Anti-Infrared Dis-used. I've had real trouble with this uniform, and haven't been able to figure out if it is- correct in its insignia I can't figure it out exactly if this DUI on the shoulder-bards with the shoulder patch. It’s two different entities but comes up in pictures with the DUI-like on a table- but none on the same uniform. So, I guess I'll attempt to tell a short story about each unit.
The sleeves and elbows have re-enforcement, but the rest of the uniform is much like fatigues and dungarees have been since the ‘50s. The shoulder patch, that is the US. Army Air Defense Artillery Command (ARADCOM) Army Anti-Aircraft Command. It existed from 1957 to 1974. It had derived from ARAACOM started in 1950 and 1957 became ARADCOM. It'd primary mission, was simple, only to protect the entire Continental United States.
With the move, it was named the Dragon Brigade. The U.S. Army's only forward-stationed ADA brigade. The brigade over-saw the reshaping and expansion of the ADA defense design in theater, highlighted by the addition of a second Patriot battalion, establishing a battalion presence in both the Northern and the Southern sectors of the peninsula increasing the Air and Missile Defense capability for United States Forces Korea (USFK.)
The two Patriot battalions were serving a one-year temporary change of station from CONUS. 2009 marked the end of the battalion rotations, with the 6-52 Air and Missile Defense Battalion and the 2-1 Air Defense Artillery Battalion permanently stationed under the 35th ADA Brigade.
To this day, the Dragon Brigade remains at the forward edge of Air Defense, facing down the most substantive air and missile threats to the United States military and its allies. Constantly on alert, well-trained, and proud of its distinguished history of service to the nation, the 35th Air Defense Artillery Brigade stands Ready in Defense. Thanks for the US. Army’s History site where this story came from, I hadn't known anything about this outfit.
Fully synthetic fuzzy interior, these were warm and helpful in winter conditions and made to fit under the helmet, if you adjust the helmet's webbing way out. We have this 'Kevlar’ PASGT, a lightweight helmet, this helmet followed the M1 'Steel Pot' series. these have pretty much already become obsolete too, but with the rate, technology is moving...with thermal and night vision optics added to them and better ballistics, etc... I could not tell you exactly what the norm is anymore. The styling was criticized from the beginning. It looks like a NAZI helmet thing, so be it, the thing is it's to save your head from severe impacts and concussions and light weapons, not for its looks. It was to be the generic helmet- but we'll put it here and I think it fits with the period of the uniform.
Without the Helmet camouflage cover on there, they are not that sharp-looking, the material of the cover would have matched the BDU uniforms and the ones that followed. One of the differences between the M1 and this is there is not a separate liner, the adjustable webbing helps absorb hits too, like the old one. It won’t rust out either, but it still won’t stop a rile bullet-but then it did, the force of the energy from the hit would break your neck anyways.
The vest introduces a bit more protection with an overlapping side on it, as with the shoulders. The internal area of the vest was left green still, and many of the Vietnam Issue Types stuck around for some time, into the first Gulf War. These vests, well up to his time were not expected to stop a bullet. They were Flak-Vest used against shrapnel and fragments. These were developed during the Vietnam War, a Khaki Green then, and a little different design, like them or find them more bother than they were worth was up to the wearer. During the conflict, some in the field felt they caused heat stroke, and too heavy for reconnaissance work, and still did not stop bullets, the first had metal plates in them, and then there was Kevlar and plasma. But the thing is they got dialed-in, stronger, and do save lives, like the M1 Steel Pt helmet was with the lighter Kevlar, now there on like the mark 5 of both vest and helmet
*Staff Sergeant, 1st Infantry Division 1980s - 90s BDU’s:
There is always the 1ID, and I have more of the 1st Division uniforms depicted throughout its history from one era to another, this is what was seen near the end of the Cold War, and was used in several deployments throughout the Middle East and Europe, later replaced with the Chocolate-Chip, and tan-brown wavy pattern seen in Afiganistan patterns, the “Digital Pattern Green-Grey the Powers that be went “Goo-Goo” over, and all the Armed Forces were developing their colors and patterns? but even the “Future Pattern” was replaced by the OCP or as some call it the “Salamander Pattern” which seems great not wastefully to all the prior ones, and, not unlike the ones that had been developed in WWII for that may, there is something about practical, and the BDUs were seen for some time, and in the field were mixed with all available patterns and still this is the case, albeit, the BDUs have been near completely disappeared now, as they wave been worn out and lost or destroyed altogether, and unless deployed into some desert areas, the OCP is the standard. The BDU was one of the patterns adopted by all the Armed Forces of the United States, as a fatigue-used uniform, and from that time used as an “Office Uniform as well” rather than a “Suit” aka Class A, later Class Bs or Dress Uniform. These uniforms saw service clean through the first Gulf War, while the “New” Chocolate-Chip pattern was out, it was seen only in photo shoots, and used afterward, and then only for a short time, quickly replaced with the Sand pattern.
*Mistake: I have the wrong rank on the helmet again (Right Name though,! I’ll fix this at some point? Dang-it!
Specialist, 3rd Infantry Division, last of the Green “Class A” Dress:
“upgraded-Again” Master Sergeant, 3rd Army, Transport Group, Green Class A :
A reader gave me some updates to correct my mistakes, and I have applied them here now, I think this is how it should be now. I‘ll get a story going on this one day here. The Light Green Shirt under the jacket was regulated to the early to mid-1080s I believe, so I put one in this last picture shoot, it is the short sleeve style and I should have had a picture taken of it.
*Corporal, Green Class B (Green Shirt) 1990s:
Many different “Special Operations Groups” from all the branches, wore black berets in Vietnam, from SEALS to Recon, Scout Sniper, and Armored Forces, to separate them from the crowd and show that “they” were a special outfit. in the field they wore no insignia whatsoever, so officially the black beret was authorized for use with the Rangers, then being reorganized into Battalions. Then in 2001, “the Black Beret became the headgear for the entire U.S. Army”. The 75th Ranger Regiment was not happy about it either, there was the “Airborne Burgandy Beret” and the “Special Fores - Green Beret”, and the “Rangers had their Black one finally” feeling the black beret was a symbol of their hard-earned history. A Tan beret was offered in 2001 for the Rangers and they switched to it, as the British SAS, had used it in WWII, and the Rangers felt it would work for them too. In 2011, the patrol cap logically replaced the black beret for the primary headgear with the utility / BDU uniform that was now being worn as the base uniform. The black beret is still required for soldiers wearing the Army Service Uniform (ASU), a Blue Dress uniform, with a white shirt.
*I know the Beret has been worn with a white shirt and blue trousers, for some time now, and I do not have any of the present, base uniforms represented, but I thought, the use of the Beret for all Army Servicemen started with the green shirt, even though it was being phased out and was gone altogether by late 2001, I may be wrong on this though.
Major, Green Class B (Green Shirt) 1990s:
1st Infantry Division, Recent Past ‘Didgetal Green/Gray Pattern"‘ Winter Uniform:
“Upgraded This Uniform” Modern Sergeant, “Mobile-Artillery” MLRS unit, “OCP” (Salamander Pattern) Combat Uniform, still in use as of 2023:
I’ll get a story here, It uses a unit patch my son-in-law was assigned to not so long ago and is what his uniform looked like.
“Fixing” Specialist 7?, 101st Airborne Division, Special “Fueler” Jacket:
This is what they call the “Special Fuelers Jacket” This is one committed, Airborne Trained Troop. he has been in combat, on his second enlistment, has a mellower duty, and is fueling up vehicles now.
