Painted Uniforms
 

Quiet Professionals,


Just a quick question for you as to if you ever painted a uniform? More specifically DCU's. The reason I ask is because I recently came across DCU that has black spray paint to presumably break up the outline. I know I've run across plenty of gear and helmets that have been painted to better blend it but a uniform is an oddity.

With respect,

Red

Seen it Done
 

Seen it done with jungles - never DCUs.

Hint - wash before wearing.

lol sage advice for sure. The paint is actually quite faded so I think it's been worn/washed quite a bit and doesn't retain that smell. I've no plans on wearing it just hoping to fill in its history a bit :D

Did it with some OD jungle fatigues in the early '70s. Only did it because nothing else available.
Also dyed some OD jungle fatigues black.
Don't recommend either one with all the stuff available today..

Not sure if Grey Group still has them up but they had a wall of used pieces many of which were painted for the environment used in.

Edit: It appears they are no longer there...

I've "painted" the burlap threads on my ghillie suit to blend in better..... worked too.

Some SOG guys spray painted jungle fatigues black, depending on the AO.

Full disclosure- I was not in SOG, I got to SE Asia a little late. I do have a few friends that were, this information comes from them...

In the Q course in 1975 we spray painted our slant pocket jungle fatigues with flat black paint, just made them kind of "smokey" looking, not solid black, not the OD green. Almost impossible to see at night, and blended well in the woods. It worked well in Pineland and the Pisgah National Forest. I wouldn't know about what folks may have done OCONUS to subdue the DCU.

Thank you all for your responses to this question. Some interesting stories of use and implementation as well.

You can see examples of painted WWII fatigues at the Airborne / Special Operations Museum in Fayetteville. Guys have doing it for ages. On a side note, you can also see a WWII example of pockets sewn onto fatigue sleeves by a rigger.

x/S

Black on DCUs
 

The black in the DCU could have come from the MOPP suit. Do they even call it that anymore?

The chemical suits (MOPP) has charcoal in them and wearing the suit over your DCUs for a couple of days results in the charcoal soaking into the DCU and giving them a smokey look.

I still have a set of the chocolate chips from Desert Storm and there is evidence of the charcoal. They've been washed numerous times.

Maybe the DCUs were worn during the Iraq invasion in 2003.

Hell we paint our faces, paint all of our equipment, why not paint our uniforms?

I cringe every time I watch Vietnam war footage and see the Americans wearing "bright" patches on their uniforms in battle. You just have to wonder about the "genius" that made those decisions. The same "genius" is also designing the battle uniforms currently being worn, females are the designing the battle fatigues. Chew on that a while.

Genius.

Chocolate Chips
 

We didn't call them Chocolate Chips because of the charcoal. We called them that because the black made them look like a chocolate chip cookie.

Here are pictures of the uniform

Not Chocotale Chips
 

Not Chocolate Chips

Those are the post DS/DS Desert Camouflage pattern. And I'd say post, post because of the sleeve pockets. Regular issue in 1993 didn't have sleeve pockets.

My hat says

HAT, CAMOUFLAGE
PATTERN: DESERT
DLA 100-90-D-0586
84(?)5-01-327-4834

Your tags should read similar.