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Captured Iraqi Uniform


hawkdriver
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I had posted this once before, when we didn't have this section, so now that we have it, I will repost it.

I went to my local surplus store one day and Marine had just brought this in to get some money out of it. The story that he passed on was that he was on patrol one day near Fallujah doing a cordon and search. The guy they were searching was supposed to have been in Saddam's army, but once OIF started and the military fell apart, he went home, took his uniform off and hid it out in the shed behind some wood leaning up against the wall.

When this Marine searched the shed, he found it and kept it. Here it is for your viewing pleasure. It was made for the Iraqi Ministry of Defense, but written in English, wondering who made these.

 

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I suppose for the time he wore it, the owner probably thought he was a pretty cool dude... that is, until the Americans showed up!

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Yep, in that country, baubles like that could get you shot and I think he was smart enough to figure it out as he had it hidden pretty well. Would have been cool to get the trousers with it, but happy with what I did get.

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Hi Hawkdriver, I think the Marine sold you a story... The badge on the left pocket is for Iraqi police, the ribbon on the medal is phoney and commonly made by vendors to sell to American G.I.s. The rank is for a Captain yet the collar gordets are for a senior officer like a general... I could go on but I am sure you get the point. The uniform itself with the triangles is proper. The rest is added to attract buyers by the local vendors. If you would like to pm me I can direct you to a great Iraq forum and you can check this info out. Sorry to put this info on here but I thought you would like to know. Scott.

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Hi Hawkdriver, I think the Marine sold you a story... The badge on the left pocket is for Iraqi police, the ribbon on the medal is phoney and commonly made by vendors to sell to American G.I.s. The rank is for a Captain yet the collar gordets are for a senior officer like a general... I could go on but I am sure you get the point. The uniform itself with the triangles is proper. The rest is added to attract buyers by the local vendors. If you would like to pm me I can direct you to a great Iraq forum and you can check this info out. Sorry to put this info on here but I thought you would like to know. Scott.

maybe he just pinned his other pickups to it

 

I'll have to post my bring-back uniform...nothing this flashy, but almost a full field gear load...except the canteen I forgot to ship home :(

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O.K. guys, let me clarify my post. First and foremost I would like to say that this is for information only and not in any way meant to disparage hawkdrivers uniform. That being said here is the rundown. It is a great and proper Iraqi dpm shirt and the Republican Guard triangles only add to the potential value. The red rope or Qardoon as it is called is a bootlace and totally fake, the rank are at best post 1991 and judging from the way they are made probably post 2003. The silver badge is good but as I said above it is a police badge and does not belong on this shirt. The Saddam badge is good but again, does not belong here. The wings and sleeve patch and arc could be o.k. but more than likely were added to this shirt like the rest, by a vendor. The medal on the left with the ribbon is a fake, and the other is good. The collar gordets appear to be the army variety and not Republican Guard and as stated above they are for senior officers like a Colonel or General. The flag does not belong on this shirt and were not used in this fashion by Saddams Army, the RG used small pin on breast flags. With most of the items here you just remove them and they are decent (fakes not included), then you have a great Republican Guard dpm shirt. Scott.

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I was deployed to Iraq in 2009 for a year as an MP and worked closely with the Iraqi Police (IP) and Iraqi Army (IA). They are patch/medal junkies. The more they had on their uniform, the more important they felt/were to subordinates. We traded patches/medals like playing cards. Some really cool ones out there too. Many of them wore US patches through trading. According to them, they didn't care where the patch or medal came came from. If they received it from a higher up, they put it on their uniform. That is my experience with the IP and IA. Neat item and it is plausible to have that flashy of a uniform.

 

Aaron

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Same in Aghanistan, an ANA troop came up to me with a fistful of patches, US and Afghani, just to show them proudly and say what units were good

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I was there 08-09 and this was pretty common practice to have an amalgamation of uniforms, even for the IA. I saw marpat desert and woodland, bdu, blue acu pattern (not unlike the new navy stuff), DCU, chocolate chips, etc. They all had a ton of patches and all kinds of random stuff on their uniforms. The only ones who seemed to be uniform were the IP's. They all had their dark pants and blue shirts. I think to the Iraqi's their appearance meant more than what was they may have actually been awarded.

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Iraq was extremely corrupt pre-war. They carried that practice over. It was very common for them to promote themselves on paper, and in 07 they still were. Their pay had to be audited every month, docked, and transported back to the bank in Baghdad by US personnel. After generations of corruption, it's just accepted by them

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Great info on the post 2003 Iraqi military and police guys. However this is not a post 2003 uniform, it is pre 2003. The iraqis had regulations and uniforms prior to 2003 were not badged up like this. If anyone cares to create a free account there is some great info here http://z8.invisionfree.com/Iraq_militaria_forum/index.php Within the various forums there are also many converstaions and pics of badged up uniforms. Unfortuately it is a small area of collecting and much is still unknown. Scott.

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I hope you were able to get some good info on the Iraq forum hawkdriver. Let me know if I can ever be of any help in this area. Scott.

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Not saying this is the case with this uniform, but when I was in Iraq in 2004-2005 the markets and bazaars on base were absolutely flooded with fake flags, medals, patches, belts, and uniforms. They were produced in bulk because a soldier who never left base and wanted a trophy to take home with them so they could tell the story of finding it or pulling it off a dead Iraqi. I spent 2 years in that country and saw 3 legit uniforms from the Ba'ath party days... Two of which were in shreads from hanging on the wall of a bunker.

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  • 1 month later...

The uniform was never worn like this... most of the insignia do not match and all of that stuff would not have been worn on this field uniform. I remember shortly after the war, the locals put together a bunch of stuff like this to sell their liberators. Still, a really awesome bringback with Saddam era components.

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