What are the current regulations for the ACU"s

[coolcav20]

Yesterday, I saw a soldier in a store and when I walked by him I glanced at his uniform. I saw that he had sew on Parachutist and Air Assault Badges on an ACU background. I always thought that only black pin on badges were worn. Have they changed anything else on these uniforms?

[hawkdriver]

Yes, now we can sew on everything but the SSI and flag. I have removed the name tape and rank velcro and sewn mine on directly. You can now sew on specialty badges as well.

[P-E]

Yes, a change of regulation happened. Please read this for more details : http://oefoif.forumotion.net/t1841-acu-cha...efault-headgear

 

That's always interesting to see the changes in regulation, moreover when you remember the transition period between the DCU/BDU and ACU. At this period, we sometime saw soldiers wearing OD Green insignia (rank, SSI, name and branch tapese) BUT ALSO SEWN ON THEIR QUALIFICATION BADGES, as you can see on these pictures :

 

(the second man on the upper)

 

[Apache26]

I am VERY surprised to see the sewn-on qualification badges in the early ACU period (2005-06). It was extremely well known that everything was going to pin-on and velcro, which is why most of us wore our BDU's until we were forced to switch before deploying in late 2006.

[jdamaso111]

[turtlexiv]

I am VERY surprised to see the sewn-on qualification badges in the early ACU period (2005-06). It was extremely well known that everything was going to pin-on and velcro, which is why most of us wore our BDU's until we were forced to switch before deploying in late 2006.

 

I was in the unit pictured above (48th Infantry Brigade) when we were the first unit in the Army to be issued the ACU. At that time, in our initial "how to wear" brief, we were told sew-on badges were authorized. Naturally we all went out and got our stuff sewn onto our spiffy new uniforms. Several months down the road (we were in Iraq at the time) we started hearing it was a no-go.

 

Incidentally, I've still got one jacket with a OD green sewn-on badge. The first issue jackets were crap quality, and one of the things that gave out quickly was the nametape velcro - ripped right off the jacket. On this jacket the velcro gave way before the rip your badges off order came down, so I'd already stopped wearing it before that happened. We didn't have replacement velcro.

 

I've got a photo somewhere of one of these uniforms, I'll have to see if I can dig it up to post.

[coolcav20]

Thanks for sharing, I'm currently trying to put together an OD patched ACU just for display. All I need is an OD rank with Velcro. Anybody got one??

[lewis505]

Thanks for sharing, I'm currently trying to put together an OD patched ACU just for display. All I need is an OD rank with Velcro. Anybody got one??

 

Best bet is use the OD Rank that was used to sew on the collar of the BDU & sew it to a piece of velcro

 

What rank are you looking for?

[coolcav20]

It really doesn't matter. I just thought it would make a cool display but it wouldn't be complete withour rank.

[P-E]

CSM Kevin R. Benson

 

BG Bryan T. Roberts

 

pictures from here : http://www.jackson.army.mil/sites/leaders/

[vzemke]

Anyone else find it rather odd that this CSM has what looks to be his Air Assault wings in a higher order position (wearer's top/right) than anything else, including his CIB?????? The CIB is classified as a "group 1" while Air Assault is part of "group 4". By regulation, group 1 badges must be worn above badges from all other groups.

I can understand some people putting the Air Assault badge higher than airborne wings, but even that is uncommon, especially for a Master Parachutist.

[Sivart]

Anyone else find it rather odd that this CSM has what looks to be his Air Assault wings in a higher order position (wearer's top/right) than anything else, including his CIB?????? The CIB is classified as a "group 1" while Air Assault is part of "group 4". By regulation, group 1 badges must be worn above badges from all other groups.

I can understand some people putting the Air Assault badge higher than airborne wings, but even that is uncommon, especially for a Master Parachutist.

 

It's more about fit than anything else. The CIB and AASLT badges are about the same height so he put them on the same row. Same for the wings. I bet he placed the CIB on the outside so that it would be visible, not covered by the lapel.

 

Travis

[vzemke]

It's more about fit than anything else.

 

Actually, as a senior NCO, it should be more about standards and regulations than anything else, but thats a diatribe for another time.

 

The decision may have been about fit, and not making the stack look off balance, but the fact remains that the badges are out of order per AR 670-1.

 

Vance