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Iraq camo stolen from Kuwait


Bob Hudson
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This was brought home by a soldier who served in Desert Storm and later in Afghanistan. As I understand it, the Iraqis stole these from the Kuwaitis. It has a lot of little splatters all over it, especially the pants, so many so that it almost looks like it was made that way.

 

Would Desert Storm have marked the last of the US battles where spoils of war were somewhat permitted, or did any souvenirs have to be smuggled out as became the case later on when pretty much all war souvenirs were banned?

 

1.jpg

 

These are Chinese-made I believe, but the fancy label kind of makes them look French-made:

 

2.jpg

 

Some of the splatters:

 

7.jpg

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dave peifer

these were issued to kuwait and after the invasion by iraq they were worn by iraq,a lot of these came back during and after the 1st gulf war.i have seen this pattern in desert like the ones pictured and also green and a blue color.these must have been worn a long time because i have a set sent back from oif 2,maybe iraq was getting these from france all during the time of gulf war 1 and oif............dave

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A couple of websites say that "L'Berge" was made in China or South Korea and not France. I did find one photo showing a "L'Berge" uniform with "China"
on a label.

 

The word "L'Berge" seems to be almost French, but not quite. If I recall from the three years of French I took 50 years ago, the "L" and apostrophe would go in front of a word that began with a vowel, such as "L'Auberge." If there's no apostrophe, then it should be Le Berge or La Berge. One of French members can correct me on that.

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dave peifer

i'm not sure where they were produced but they were quite common during the first gulf war.the middle east seems to have gotten supplies from all over the world.we supplied iraq for years,in fact interesting to note i have a set of us og-107 green fatigues w/republican guard triangles liberated during the first gulf war................dave

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These were used by Iraq from the time of the First Gulf War (1980-88) with Iran, through OIF. While I don't know enough about Kuwaiti uniforms to opine on the actual maker and use, I do know that the Iraqis also received the British DPM pattern under license and the Brits were not happy about that going into the 91 Gulf War. these were in existence within the Iraqi supply chain well before the Second Gulf War (1990-91). It is one of the more desirable camo patterns for Iraq collectors and generally fetch a decent price as far as Iraqi items go. I have several articles on Iraqi items in Military Trader, but have held off on uniforms as there are too many "pre-conceived" notions and feelings get hurt really easy... You have a great set for depicting an Iraqi soldier from multiple eras! Scott.

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Those pants look like my chocolate chip pants did after spending time under the oil well fire's cloud. Our uniforms all acquired those little splatters of oil that were in the clouds.

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Those pants look like my chocolate chip pants did after spending time under the oil well fire's cloud. Our uniforms all acquired those little splatters of oil that were in the clouds.

 

Makes perfect sense: I was trying to figure out what could have splattered it with fairly uniform drops in different areas: the seat of this one has denser drops than other areas, so either he was in the prone position getting his butt oiled, or he sat down outside.

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Those pants look like my chocolate chip pants did after spending time under the oil well fire's cloud. Our uniforms all acquired those little splatters of oil that were in the clouds.

 

 

Thats what I was thinking.Have seem lots of gear and uniforms with the crude/raw oil spatter.

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Bob, there was a lot of this stuff just simply laying around randomly as Iraqi troops shed it and fled, dropped or left their extra stuff, people pulled it out of bunkers or holes or vehicles, or whatever. The closer it was left to the oil wells, the worse it looks in terms of oil stains and droplets.

 

You can wash and wash and wear and wear and have it in the sun, but those oil stains are very persistent and just impossible to get out.

 

I agree 100% that oil stains is what they most likely are.

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  • 4 years later...
BeckettM101

When the Iraqis invaded Kuwait, they found warehouses of these uniforms and then reissued them to the their own troops. These uniforms were worn by Kuwait soldiers, and that staining on the ones you have photos is 99.999% likely oil from the oil fields. These were not just laying around, but were kept in supply warehouses and there were enough to supply part of the Iraqi army.

These were made in South Korea. Lots of middle eastern countries have uniforms from China, India, and South Korea that have fake labels in them or ones saying made in France. Even up to 2 years ago, the Iraqis were issuing their troops fake 5.11 gear.

 

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BeckettM101

 

On 4/17/2016 at 7:19 PM, dave peifer said:

i'm not sure where they were produced but they were quite common during the first gulf war.the middle east seems to have gotten supplies from all over the world.we supplied iraq for years,in fact interesting to note i have a set of us og-107 green fatigues w/republican guard triangles liberated during the first gulf war................dave

That's interesting, I've never seen US uniforms used by Iraqis but it just shows how complex the supply routes were in he middle east. Does it actually have a US tag on the inside? I know that Iraqi had their own utilities that were a close copy to ours.

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3 hours ago, BeckettM101 said:

 

That's interesting, I've never seen US uniforms used by Iraqis but it just shows how complex the supply routes were in he middle east. Does it actually have a US tag on the inside? I know that Iraqi had their own utilities that were a close copy to ours.

    I sent home several US flight suits from the 70s that were used by the Iraqi Air Force, a couple were even bright orange.   Scott

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On 4/17/2016 at 11:16 AM, Bob Hudson said:

Would Desert Storm have marked the last of the US battles where spoils of war were somewhat permitted, or did any souvenirs have to be smuggled out as became the case later on when pretty much all war souvenirs were banned?

 

 

From my experience, Desert Storm was more restrictive than OEF/ OIF.

 

I was in the 101st.  Early OEF/ OIF seemed that you could ship just about anything but a weapon.

 

Scott

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BeckettM101
10 hours ago, ScottG said:

    I sent home several US flight suits from the 70s that were used by the Iraqi Air Force, a couple were even bright orange.   Scott

Very cool. I have a couple Iraqi AF bullion wings. 

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On 4/17/2016 at 7:19 PM, dave peifer said:

i'm not sure where they were produced but they were quite common during the first gulf war.the middle east seems to have gotten supplies from all over the world.we supplied iraq for years,in fact interesting to note i have a set of us og-107 green fatigues w/republican guard triangles liberated during the first gulf war................dave

 

Agree...

 

Very little of their uniforms and equipment were produced locally from what I know. With oil money Iraq/Kuwait etc  buy most everything on the world market. China,Korea, India,France,Germany etc. The gas mask form the first gulf war I have seen are Drager made, seen and owned webb gear new in bags from India. The helmets from South Korea I recall. 

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I had friend who served in Kuwait/Iraq in ODS and it seems like none of them got to bring home any trophies other than small items they could hide. I was in Northern Iraq, and there was NO restrictions there. I sent home two mobility bags of bayonets, berets, flags and a few gasmasks with no problems whatsoever. I kept a few pieces for myself and gave the rest away and some to our Group Commander for his office.

 

Mark sends

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In Desert Storm I sent hone 2 duffle bags full of Iraqi uniforms and field gear to include several bayonets and brass shell casings. Only stipulation was everything had to be itemized. I had no problems getting anything home.

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On 4/12/2021 at 4:17 PM, scottiques said:

Maybe it was more unit specific on ease/ difficulty of souvenirs?

 

Scott

 

Bingo!  I think one's ability to send souvenirs home depended on the unit.  At the end of ODS our chief told us that anything we wanted to send home need to be on a USAF pallet bound for our base back in the States.  No paperwork.  No questions asked.  Just be sure it was on the pallet.  

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
kammo-man

This print is copied from the first test colors of British DPM in the late 1970s

The colors are more pronounced and were made by Courtauls in the UK.

Sets were made and sold to Iran~Iraq on a massive order.

Then in the spirit of business copied.

owen 

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  • 1 month later...
On 4/12/2021 at 9:10 AM, scottiques said:

 

 

 

From my experience, Desert Storm was more restrictive than OEF/ OIF.

 

I was in the 101st.  Early OEF/ OIF seemed that you could ship just about anything but a weapon.

 

Scott

 

Agreed.  MPs went through everything that went into our shipping containers, vehicles, as well as our uniforms/baggage before we could board the planes home.  They were waiting for us and went through all of our containers again once they arrived back at Ft Campbell (I was in 5th Group). Same thing for our return home from Somalia in '93.

 

I was in 5th Group for a couple rotations to OIF, and we inspected our own shipping containers.  Lots of potential to ship back 'questionable' items.  As tempting as it was to ship home firearms in our containers, the thought of losing all my military retirement benefits over a $500 Glock wasn't worth the risk.  Read stories of others - senior NCOs among them - who had been busted trying to sneak things back.

 

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On 6/14/2021 at 6:58 AM, bryang said:

 

Agreed.  MPs went through everything that went into our shipping containers, vehicles, as well as our uniforms/baggage before we could board the planes home.  They were waiting for us and went through all of our containers again once they arrived back at Ft Campbell (I was in 5th Group). Same thing for our return home from Somalia in '93.

 

I was in 5th Group for a couple rotations to OIF, and we inspected our own shipping containers.  Lots of potential to ship back 'questionable' items.  As tempting as it was to ship home firearms in our containers, the thought of losing all my military retirement benefits over a $500 Glock wasn't worth the risk.  Read stories of others - senior NCOs among them - who had been busted trying to sneak things back.

 

 

We had a SSG who put several AK-47s into a vehicle fuel tank (tank was dropped during a repair).

 

After the vehicle always seemed to run short on fuel, it was inspected and he was caught.  He spent most of the deployment in confinement in Kuwait.  Picked him up as a PVT for our BN redeployment.

 

Don't know what happened to him after redeployment as I left the unit.

 

Scott

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