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81st BCT DCU


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Just got this 81st BCT DCU with forward facing  1st Cav patch and CIB. I know that the 81st BCT 1st Battalion, 161st Infantry was attached to the 1st Cav during its deployment to Iraq I’m 2004-2005. Would being attached to the 1st Cav qualify this sergeant to wear a 1st Cav combat patch? Or could it be a coincidental previous service patch? 

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Yes, in most cases, “attached” authorizes the Soldier to wear the attached unit patch. SOMETIMES, the parent unit doesn’t allow it.

The 81st would have had attachment orders and the authorized wear of 1CD patch should be in there.

That’s a mirror image 1CD patch....not authorized.

Cool uniform.


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1 hour ago, Lsparks said:

Yes, in most cases, “attached” authorizes the Soldier to wear the attached unit patch. SOMETIMES, the parent unit doesn’t allow it.

The 81st would have had attachment orders and the authorized wear of 1CD patch should be in there.

That’s a mirror image 1CD patch....not authorized.

Cool uniform.


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Thanks! Yea now that I’m looking at it more it seems to make sense that the combat patch wouldn’t have been from previous service. The stitching on the underside of the SSI, Rank and both takes is a pale green/grey color so all likely done at the dane time. The CAV combat patch and flag are a light tan color. And the CIB is white. So would seem to make sense that the soldier added the combat patch after being deployed rather than wearing it from a previous deployment. Then earned the CIB and sewed it on last. It came with the trousers as well. Appreciate the reply. 

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You’re welcome.

Were some of those guys Armor provincial Infantry in 2003?

Can’t for the life of me remember the FOB name.


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9 minutes ago, Lsparks said:

You’re welcome.

Were some of those guys Armor provincial Infantry in 2003?

Can’t for the life of me remember the FOB name.


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I was not in the military so I don’t have an experience with this units history other than the little bit of information I can find online. There were armor components of the brigade that deployed but the first deployment to Iraq occurred in April of 2004. 

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Sounds about right. Can’t remember the name of the COB, but I was in their AO with 1AD after we got extended at the end of my 1st tour.

They had it rough.


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2 hours ago, Lsparks said:

Sounds about right. Can’t remember the name of the COB, but I was in their AO with 1AD after we got extended at the end of my 1st tour.

They had it rough.


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That’s awesome. Hats off to you sir. 

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81st BCT (WAARNG) was deployed the same time I was in Kuwait.  We actually had about a dozen 81st BCT guys attached to my unit (HHB 115th FA Bde, WYARNG.)  

 

We were there basically all of 2004, arrived in late January and redeployed to CONUS in mid December of '04.  This included the first big "surge" when the 1st Armored division troops were pulled out of Iraq and then within a few weeks they were ordered back.  Some of them had made it all the way back to Germany when they were notified that they were returning to the sandbox for another 3 months. 

 

Needless to say, they were not happy, doing a 15 month tour! 

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81st BCT (WAARNG) was deployed the same time I was in Kuwait.  We actually had about a dozen 81st BCT guys attached to my unit (HHB 115th FA Bde, WYARNG.)  
 
We were there basically all of 2004, arrived in late January and redeployed to CONUS in mid December of '04.  This included the first big "surge" when the 1st Armored division troops were pulled out of Iraq and then within a few weeks they were ordered back.  Some of them had made it all the way back to Germany when they were notified that they were returning to the sandbox for another 3 months. 
 
Needless to say, they were not happy, doing a 15 month tour! 

Yeah but we took it better than 3ID did.

Were some of them in Kalsu? They had a series of radio antenna that the bad guys would use as distant aiming points of reference for mortaring the place? They built a FARP on the edge of camp.


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16 hours ago, Lsparks said:


Yeah but we took it better than 3ID did.

Were some of them in Kalsu? They had a series of radio antenna that the bad guys would use as distant aiming points of reference for mortaring the place? They built a FARP on the edge of camp.


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Not sure, we were in Kuwait the whole time so the only things we had to fight were the heat, the dust and boredom.  :D 

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I did about 9 months in Kuwait as a firing platoon leader. You’re right, it was BORING!

I had a great Battery commander. He found SO much ammo and kept us in the field. I shot over 600 155 rounds in that period, which is a LOT of firing.


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The combat patch is definitely from being attached or OPCON to the 1st Cav.   The 81st had a theatre security mission and various elements were sent to different locations.  Your Soldier was probably assigned to the 1st Bn 161st Infantry that was attached to the 1st  Cav in Baghdad.  It was not uncommon in OIF II to see reversed combat patches.  When we got ours from the 3rd Stryker Brigade, 2nd infantry Division the Indian head was reversed so it faced forward when worn on the right shoulder.   None of the reversed patches were officially approved by the Army.  Ours didn't last beyond our demobilization at Fort Bragg.  The 101st, 1st ID, and 4th ID were all wearing full color shoulder insignia in Iraq 2003/2004.  The 3rd Id wore the division patch on their helmets, the 101st had brigade level patches on theirs.  I think every unit was trying to come up with something cool to set them apart.  Once everyone got back to the states and back in BDUs all of that stuff went away.  

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On 6/29/2020 at 6:56 PM, 32sbct said:

The combat patch is definitely from being attached or OPCON to the 1st Cav.   The 81st had a theatre security mission and various elements were sent to different locations.  Your Soldier was probably assigned to the 1st Bn 161st Infantry that was attached to the 1st  Cav in Baghdad.  It was not uncommon in OIF II to see reversed combat patches.  When we got ours from the 3rd Stryker Brigade, 2nd infantry Division the Indian head was reversed so it faced forward when worn on the right shoulder.   None of the reversed patches were officially approved by the Army.  Ours didn't last beyond our demobilization at Fort Bragg.  The 101st, 1st ID, and 4th ID were all wearing full color shoulder insignia in Iraq 2003/2004.  The 3rd Id wore the division patch on their helmets, the 101st had brigade level patches on theirs.  I think every unit was trying to come up with something cool to set them apart.  Once everyone got back to the states and back in BDUs all of that stuff went away.  

Awesome info. Thanks 

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Martinjmpr

The local tailor shops "in theater" sold all manner of patches:  Reversed patches, customized patches, even "parody patches." 

 

I'll dig out mine - they took the logo of my brigade (115th Field Artillery) which is the Wyoming "cowboy" image (cowboy riding a bucking horse - also seen on Wyoming's highway signs, university, etc) and replaced the horse with a camel. 

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The local tailor shops "in theater" sold all manner of patches:  Reversed patches, customized patches, even "parody patches." 
 
I'll dig out mine - they took the logo of my brigade (115th Field Artillery) which is the Wyoming "cowboy" image (cowboy riding a bucking horse - also seen on Wyoming's highway signs, university, etc) and replaced the horse with a camel. 

Nice!

My holy grail is an 02-03 era Iraqi made 1AD patch. My dumb hind end didn’t buy any while I was there. Terrible quality, ya know? [emoji849]


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That was my BN in Iraq. Names familiar, I think he was in A Co but not positive.  I’ll ask around.  We were OPCON to 3BCT/1CAV during that deployment.  All 1CAV was given a few of those patches from supply around May/June timeframe. DIV made the call to mirror the combat patch and I know it definately ruffled some feathers CONUS.  Still have a few of my tops from that tour.

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Our reversed 2nd ID patches weren't Iraqi made.  The 3rd Brigade 2nd ID commander had them made in the states.  They were very high quality.  The 1st Cav patch on the uniform posted also looks American made to me.  It's too nice for theatre made.  After we received our reversed 2nd ID patches, the local shops started making them.  Some were really bad but there were some pretty good quality patches for sale at the Mosul Airfield shop.  When I asked where they were made they said "the Baghdad factory".  I picked up quite a few from there.  The early deployments to Iraq were really interesting from a collector's standpoint.  There were plenty of Iraqi uniforms for sale for just a few dollars, you could have your DCUs modified at the local sew shop, custom made patches, etc. There was also just about any weapon you could think of floating around over there.  I even came by a British Boys Anti-tank rifle from WW II.  I really tried to get that back to the states (legally) with zero luck as you can imagine.  I think all of freelancing with the uniforms went away after the ACU started to be issued in 2005.

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3 hours ago, Carbomb78 said:

That was my BN in Iraq. Names familiar, I think he was in A Co but not positive.  I’ll ask around.  We were OPCON to 3BCT/1CAV during that deployment.  All 1CAV was given a few of those patches from supply around May/June timeframe. DIV made the call to mirror the combat patch and I know it definately ruffled some feathers CONUS.  Still have a few of my tops from that tour.

That’s awesome. I am always watching out for DCUs with CIB/CAB/CMB and this one particularly interested me because given the assortment of patches it made it identifiable to a pretty specific deployment which isn’t very common. Crazy that id actually find someone who know the soldier as well. 

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At the time 161 IN and 303rd AR were attached to 1st Cav, some to 1st ID, a few were stuck in Kuwait, and some of us really unlucky ones were in Saudi. 
The name is familiar, but I didn't switch to the 161 until after we got back, just before A and B companies merged into A co.
If you were attached to another unit you could wear their patch or yours. I think I put the 3rd Army on my class As, and my DBDUs, but when the ACUs came out I put on whichever I grabbed first. 
At some point the Army put a stop to wearing other unit's patches even if you were completely under their control.

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Another nice aspect of this uniform is that the 81st Armored Brigade no longer wears that patch.  I'm pretty sure that the 2004 Iraq deployment is the first time that patch was worn in combat.  They transitioned to a Stryker Brigade around 2015 and as part of the Associated Unit program they now wear the 2nd Infantry Division patch.  All of the stateside 2nd Infantry Division brigades are actually subordinate to the 7th Infantry Division because the 2nd ID Hq is in South Korea.  

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1 hour ago, 32sbct said:

Another nice aspect of this uniform is that the 81st Armored Brigade no longer wears that patch.  I'm pretty sure that the 2004 Iraq deployment is the first time that patch was worn in combat.  They transitioned to a Stryker Brigade around 2015 and as part of the Associated Unit program they now wear the 2nd Infantry Division patch.  All of the stateside 2nd Infantry Division brigades are actually subordinate to the 7th Infantry Division because the 2nd ID Hq is in South Korea.  

 

There was also the 2008 deployment and they did get them for that too.

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DocCollector1441

Little known is that before 2016, 81st BCT also had a battalion that was part of the CAARNG. I came to 1/185 Armor (now 1/185 Infantry) in 2010 about they came back from the 08-09 deployment. 1/185 was a Combined Arms Battalion with 2 companies of infantry and 2 companies of tanks, so at least an ACU with an 81st patch and CIB may be from 1/185. 

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On 7/5/2020 at 1:03 AM, DocCollector1441 said:

Little known is that before 2016, 81st BCT also had a battalion that was part of the CAARNG. I came to 1/185 Armor (now 1/185 Infantry) in 2010 about they came back from the 08-09 deployment. 1/185 was a Combined Arms Battalion with 2 companies of infantry and 2 companies of tanks, so at least an ACU with an 81st patch and CIB may be from 1/185. 

One company of the 898th Engineers were also bard of the CAARNG. 

Was the 81st split up in the 08 deployment like in 04-05?

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DocCollector1441

Honestly, I am not sure. I do know that for the line company I was assigned to, they did convoy security the entire deployment and most of the guys had either 1st Cav or 3rd ID combat patches.

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Greeting everyone,

 

  I think I can shed some more information on this topic.  I have a gentleman in my unit that was on the 2004-05 deployment.  I saw this topic last week and decided to ask him about that deployment.  Here's what he related to me, though it has been some time the details are a little unclear, but nonetheless:

  The 81st ICBT got deployed for OIF II, the unit this gentleman was in was the 1/161st INF, and he was MI at the time. The battalion took HHC/A/B and C companies with them to FOB Highlander. FOB Highlander was a former Saddam Hussein palace.  I'm not sure where the location was but he said it was near Baghdad.  His unit also came under control of the 3RD BDE 1st Air Cav during this time.

  He also related to me that the 1/303 CAV Regt was there during this time, but again, he was not sure where that unit was stationed at all the time, as he remembered the CAV was spread out over FOB Liberty, FOB Anaconda and Kuwait.  It could be possible that some people from the 1/161st might have spread out over those locations as well.  Hope this helps.

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