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ERDL and how it was issued


Rhscott
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For my first post I have a question.

Ref Green and Brown tone ERDL. Being that both have the same NSN per size how was it issued once both were in the system? Was effort made to keep sets green tone and brown tone or were they just mix matched if that is how it worked out per needed size?

I have both a green and a brown Large Long blouse, green has a 68 date and brown has a 70 date but both share identical NSN and data labels.

Just trying to figure out how they sorted this out.

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Think about it.

The 68 dates were in the system and issued first........

Then came the 70 dates....

And they were issued.

War time is way different than peace time fashion wearing in garrison.

There are clown pieces made from all 3 different prints......

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I have a set from a high school buddy whos brother gave me a set of his cammies when he came back from boot camp (Camp Pendleton) in 1979.

 

The Shirt/jacket is a brown dominant slant pocket dated 1973 or before(will have to check)the trousers are dated 1978.This was his boot camp issue.Older stuff being mixed with newer.His name is marked in both items.

 

Even saw the mix of the straight pocket and slant pockets back then.They got issued what ever came off the shelf.

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Cap Camouflage Pattern I

I have wondered about this too. I know some people refer to them as "highland" and "lowland" as if they were made for different regions, and it sort of makes sense with the different colors, but with the exact same name and NSN, there is no way to ship one color to a certain area. I don't understand why they made different colors though.

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My brother went through USMC boot camp at Parris Island SC from August-Dec 1977. He was issued two green dominant slant pocket uniforms and two what he called "green sateen" OG 107 uniforms. I don't remember seeing any of the Marines in his company wearing the brown dominant ones. Once he was assigned to his unit I saw Marines wearing a mixture of green dominant, brown dominant, RDF pattern, slant pocket, straight pockets, etc. Including wearing jackets of one pattern and trousers of another. Like others, I have also seen quite a few sets with mixed patterns on the same jacket or trousers.

 

I also have a close friend who was in Viet Nam in 1970/1971. He was in the Recon company of the 2nd/502nd 101st Airborne. He has quite a few color photos from that time. All of his ERDL uniforms were the green dominant type. This is true of all of his team members also.

 

I've always wondered just how many of the brown dominant ERDL uniforms made their way to Vietnam. I'm sure some did but most of those I have seen I believe were worn post war. I have quite a few with the USMC with eagle globe and anchor stamp on the left pocket. I think that was only used post war. Maybe someone who knows for certain can clarify that. I also have some sets worn by the 82nd Airborne in the late 70s and early 80s which were also issued post war.

 

One last thought. I have a whole lot of green dominant sets, but only one full set of the brown dominant type. Lots of tops but only one set of trousers. Has anyone else experienced a scarcity of the brown dominant trousers?

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Thank you much for the info. I have a good knowledge of S4 dealings and logistics and did not see any way possible to avoid mixing sets if the same NSN was used. I came in with the BDU and for a period was issued the old OD107 uniform for hot weather use till the updated BDU could be fielded. Just never seen two items that were different spec share the same NSN.

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Doyler's Right. For what it's worth, I was on Okinawa with an Infantry Battalion in 1976. None of us were issued Cammies in boot camp, we were still issued the OD green sateen utility uniforms. Before my Batallion went on deployment on the ships we were all issued one set of camouflage utilities, which we had to pay for. They marched us down to supply and tossed us one jacket and one pair of trousers, what ever you got handed you wore. Slant pocket, straight pocket, green, brown, it didn't matter as long as it fit you wore it.

 

We wore those mismatched camouflage utilities with the normal OD green starched covers and white T shirts. For some odd reason I remember they had a hard time with us wearing green T shirts. We could wear jungle boots but they were not issued, you had to go buy them out in the Okinawan surplus stores.

 

One last bit of trivia, the camo utilities came with no USMC or EGA on them. We had the EGA/USMC iron ons that we used on the pockets of the OD sateen utilities. Those iron ons came in one piece and had printed guides on how to line up the iron on decal on the pocket correctly. To get those iron ons on to the pleated camo pockets they had to be cut in to 3 pieces, the EGA on the pocket flap, the US on left of the pleat and the MC on the right side of the pleat. Needless to say there were a lot of cockeyed and half printed EGAs and USMCs. It was pretty bad looking for a while.

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My brother went through USMC boot camp at Parris Island SC from August-Dec 1977. He was issued two green dominant slant pocket uniforms and two what he called "green sateen" OG 107 uniforms. I don't remember seeing any of the Marines in his company wearing the brown dominant ones. Once he was assigned to his unit I saw Marines wearing a mixture of green dominant, brown dominant, RDF pattern, slant pocket, straight pockets, etc. Including wearing jackets of one pattern and trousers of another. Like others, I have also seen quite a few sets with mixed patterns on the same jacket or trousers.

 

I also have a close friend who was in Viet Nam in 1970/1971. He was in the Recon company of the 2nd/502nd 101st Airborne. He has quite a few color photos from that time. All of his ERDL uniforms were the green dominant type. This is true of all of his team members also.

 

I've always wondered just how many of the brown dominant ERDL uniforms made their way to Vietnam. I'm sure some did but most of those I have seen I believe were worn post war. I have quite a few with the USMC with eagle globe and anchor stamp on the left pocket. I think that was only used post war. Maybe someone who knows for certain can clarify that. I also have some sets worn by the 82nd Airborne in the late 70s and early 80s which were also issued post war.

 

One last thought. I have a whole lot of green dominant sets, but only one full set of the brown dominant type. Lots of tops but only one set of trousers. Has anyone else experienced a scarcity of the brown dominant trousers?

When I was in Boot Camp in san Diego in April 1979 we received 2 sets of cammies - 1 was straight pockets and 1 had slanted pockets plus 2 sets of green sateens with 2 green covers - I thought it made us look like a bunch of clowns with green covers and mismatched cammies - I liked the starched sateens because they looked "Salty" - The cammies were hot and not very comfortable combined with the "Black Cadillac" boots did not make us look very "Squared Away"

 

Bill

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