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Modified Military Jackets


Nkomo
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Great comparison photos Arch. The tapes look nothing alike, even more so with these photos. They look extremely similar to the tapes I had made in Iraq complete with the wonky letter styling.

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What you are seeing is the difference between hand-made and machine-made tapes. The “crooked” ones are hand made. But that doesn’t mean they are “theater made.” Plenty of shops in the states use the hand made method and plenty of overseas shops have the computer driven machines.

 

Put another way, being hand made doesn’t necessarily mean it was made “in theater” and being machine made doesn’t necessarily mean it wasn’t.

 

 

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Patches and badges are different - if you see a hand made or non standard shoulder patch, CIB, jump wings, etc, that is very likely theater made since there’s not really a market for hand made badges in CONUS.

 

But when you are talking about name tapes, whether itâs hand made doesnât tell you if itâs theater made or not.

 

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Here are my theater made tapes I was referencing.

 

Martin there are are a few holes in your theory. Firstly the military sewing shops were making BDU tapes since the 80s with machine sewing. There wouldn't be much required to change the thread color and tape backing to do desert. There was an obvious crush before just before OEF/OIF for tapes in tan and shops as well the government just couldn't keep up. That's why you see invasion units wearing green insignia instead of desert early on.

 

The second hole would be that you would have to have visited every shop to know which ones would offer hand sewn vs machine. My guess is the vast majority would offer computer sewn, with very few offering to hand guide tapes. Tag on to this the necessity of having uniforms with tapes, rank, and unit patches and you have a big market down range. If you needed a new uniform done up, you had no option but go to the local tailors to have it done, and if you're missing pieces, you're going to buy local.

 

The third hole is that if you can get government issue tapes, why can't you get your awards such as the CIB/CAB/CMB? If these were available through supply, you wouldn't have the market for theater made stuff because you'd have it readily available, and cheap. But you made the point that there isn't a market for theater made stuff in the states which implies there is one in country, and you can bet that extends to nametapes and branch insignia as well.

 

Does this mean that there weren't hand guided stuff made in the US? Not at all, but as you pointed out, there isn't much of a market state side of oddly made uniform parts. The majority of shops stateside have been making tapes for decades and as in any industry, the quicker the better. Less time making means more money in your pocket. You can actually see this process in the patches from early on until today. The quality has improved so much so that a lot of times you can't tell a stateside made one vs an in country made patch. Even some of the vendors are outsourcing their patches to China to be made and then shipped in.

 

So as to the points above, most off the oddball desert patches, insignia and tapes are likely of theater made origin. There are a few exceptions clearly here and there, but most would fall in to the theater made category. The ones pictured were made on FOB Warhorse in 2008, but still have that janky quality about them.

 

 

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  • 2 months later...

Closer photographs of both tops to include greater detail of the modifications. Note the single sleeve pocket and the pen/pencil loops left in place. First the top with subdued BDU insignia:

 

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And the later version, same modifications but insignia is DCU desert. Last ones for tonight. Many, many more to post if there is interest

The left SSI is the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade. They have an interesting slice of history I'll let you guys Google. Not every modified piece of equipment is modified by and for "Rangers" or "Special Forces" and this is a good example of a normal Soldier modifying his uniforms to accomplish his mission.

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Very nice Special Operations Forces modification of a 2002 made Advantage Wear DCU. Chest pockets have been moved to sleeves and are straight (no angle). A large rectangle of velcro has been added to the body of these pockets. The flap of each pocket has an added vecro square for the application of glint tape or an IR tab. The cargo pockets have been moved up to the chest and angled (inward). All of the pockets retain their original button closures. Name and branch tape locations have been modified with added velcro strips. Note that these strips are aligned horizontally, and do not follow the top line of the slanted pockets. Note also that there is an added larger velcro rank square to the front similar to that found on the ACU jackets. No "ghosting" or other evidence of SSI or other patches. I like these jackets with the slanted chest pockets. Another piece that may be associated with Naval Special Warfare units.

 

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Is this a factory made experimental test jacket made during development of ACUs? The vecro for name tapes and rank (center chest) and the uniformity of the pockets with the centering stripe on the pockets would make me say that. It's still a "mod" and still fits. It's definetely SF and limited distro and the timeframe of the manufacture is right for that as well.

​My experience....Never seen anyone with glint tape in the front center of chest. Almost without exception, any typical gear, or jackets would cover it up and make it pointless.

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It belonged to the actual original poster. Probably worth shooting him a PM and ask him in regards to his unit's postings.

If he was attached to another unit, then his parent command would have still be the 81st and he would have retained that patch on the left. If he was ASSIGNED to another unit, he would have substituted the assigned unit patch in lieu of the 81st patch. The 81st patch would be authorized to wear on the RIGHT after such attachment unless there was a documented authorization to wear the patch of the ATTACHED unit upon return. (technically after 30 days in theater, and later on in the duration of OIF, it became more common for Soldiers to don their combat patches while still in theater....I digress).

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Sadly I do not have any modded uniforms to share but I have a few pics of modded 6 color desert uniforms I found on the internet. Perhaps you have seen them since 2008 nkomo, 2 also show people wearing ones that look like your modded MG rig.

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Looks like this is a lower pocket because of how big it is.

This looks like the MG rig nkomo has.

Anybody know why he has an M1 Garand?

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This one I cropped from a larger image, IIRC it was SFOD-D in Mogadishu from 60 minutes but I cannot find the video. The face in blocked out because I retrieved it from a forum with very strict PERSEC rules, wish I could find the original.

 

 

"Anybody know why he has an M1 Garand?" It is an M14, he is the Unit Designated Marksman. That's for those longer/precision shots.... Just shy of "sniper" stuff.

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Weighing in on the name tapes, "US ARMY" is a standard tape, and you can go get them at MCSS almost any time. Names were special order. So you could get them through MCSS made "wherever". You'd see different style letters on left and right side. Then you could go downtown for shop-made tapes for both sides. They would usually match. Factor in too that these tapes shown may have been made in or near installations OCONUS but NOT in theater...and you have a recipie for many many styles of letters and colors of thread etc... I would suggest that even if Mr. Melton had not said his were theater made that one can look at the fabric and determine that they were NOT of US manufacture. It's a folded fabric tape, not a tape. This was commonly seen in country. One of the most common places I saw theater made name tapes was on HATS. Boonie hats, PCs etc. Also, we would get replcement uniforms in theater. Those would have in-theater made tapes as well.

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Cuff modification as noted above. Extra stiching has been added to hold the cuff tongue flap in place. Makes it very difficult to button the cuff. Note the extra stitching lines:

 

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Cuff tongue will only open this far due to modification. Not sure on the theory behind this one ......

Here ‘s your answer!

 

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I’ll contribute with a photo. I hope this is allowed as these are not modified as extensively as seen here...

 

OCPs with Velcro removed & tapes directly attached.

 

I’m gonna put it back on now!

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One more. This time, ACUs... again, LIGHT modifications.

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Removal of Velcro on name, BOS and rank. Look at the left breast pocket. Velcro removal and sewed pocket shut. I NEVER use it and they look terrible with all the creases...so I fixed it.

 

Someone mentioned FRACUs...

 

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FRACUs on top, note the green square on the cuff. Note the color difference, fabric texture difference and color (pinker) difference. They wear like PJs and wash way different. Colors fade different. There was a GREEN T-shirt authorized for wear with FRACU’s but only for Fuel handlers & a couple other MOS’s.

 

Also comments on the “dyed ACUs”. I’ve seen these get stained in the field and launder WAY differently. The Velcro fades funny. I’m not arguing that the ones shown are dyed, but I never saw that. What I did see is a horrible uniform, worn much longer than they were intended, washed with everything from US store bought detergent to Dawn dish soap to whatever the Locals used that smelled like a mix of gas and kerosene. Soldiers in formation wearing the same uniform display various color differences.

 

I don’t miss them and have threatened to ceremonially burn them!

 

 

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  • 3 months later...
Modified BDU from a 3rd Special Forces advisor to the Afghan Commandos. Modification appears to have been done in Afghanistan due to the velcro on the sleeves. Ghosting of US IR flag on the right sleeve pocket and ghosting of Afghan Commando patch on left sleeve pockets.



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Modified BDU from an advisor to the Afghan Commandos. Modification appears to have been done in Afghanistan due to the velcro on the sleeves. Ghosting of US IR flag on the right sleeve pocket and ghosting of Afghan Commando patch on left sleeve pockets.

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  • 1 month later...
phantomfixer

here is a late 90s DCU modified...no backstory other than found in a surplus shop...thought it was an odd duck, and bought it at bargain basement price

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  • 1 month later...
  • 4 months later...

I love this thread. Great stuff gentlemen! Here are some of mine:

 

Well known and documented Ranger Battalion Modified DCU. I found this one outside Hunter Army Airfield.

 

 

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Modified DCU. Hip pockets relocated to arms and Velcro closure added. Velcro square for flag added to right arm. Velcro over chest pockets for name tapes. I found this one outside Ft. Bragg.

 

 

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Modified DCU. Hip pockets relocated to arms, and small Velcro rectangles added. Velcro added for name tapes over chest pockets. I found this one outside Ft. Bragg.

 

 

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