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What Years Were The Different Styles Of Fatigue Shirt Name Tape Used?


AirMechanic
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Can someone tell me which years the different styles of army fatigue shirt Name Tapes/US Army Tapes sewn above the fatigue shirt breast pockets were used? I've seen the style with yellow lettering on black nylon, the style with black lettering on green nylon, and the style with black lettering on heavy green canvas. Which years were each of these used? Can the name tapes determine the age of a fatigue shirt? Are there other styles of name tape?

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the yellow & black name tape was used from the late 50's i believe to the mid 60's, and the other versions i believe were used from vietnam to the end of the mid 2000's.

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the yellow & black name tape was used from the late 50's i believe to the mid 60's, and the other versions i believe were used from vietnam to the end of the mid 2000's the

 

I, believe it was during the latter part (Oct.?) of 1966 that the wear of the yellow/black tapes ceased. I was at Bragg at the time, and we had to change from white to OD name tapes before that (Aug/Sep). Chevrons changed to black in 67, and shortly after that they were replaced by collar pins.

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A couple of months back there was a write up in ASMICs Trading Post on the different US ARMY Nametapes and the time periods they were used. The article was written not too long ago. If you have access to ASMIC or know someone who is a member, you can borrow a copy of their TP.

 

If you had not considered joining ASMIC, I would highly reccommend it.. http://www.asmic.org/

 

I posted the website so you can check it out...

 

Leigh...

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Even if there was specific phaseout period for the black and gold Army tapes, they were definitely worn as late as 1968 and their wear definitely overlapped the wear of the subdued tapes, even in the same unit. I have pictures my father took when he was serving with an AIT unit at Fort Gordon, Georgia from February through April, 1968. On all of his uniforms he was wearing the woven black and olive green tapes, but some of the trainees were wearing the subdued tapes and some were still wearing the gold and black tapes, all in the same company at the same time. The same combination appears in his pictures from NCO school at Fort Benning between October, 1967 and February, 1968.

 

On a different note, none of his pictures from the time he joined the Army in June, 1967 until he got out in March, 1969 show anyone wearing the white and black nametapes. By that time, apparently all of the nametapes were subdued.

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Can someone tell me which years the different styles of army fatigue shirt Name Tapes/US Army Tapes sewn above the fatigue shirt breast pockets were used? I've seen the style with yellow lettering on black nylon, the style with black lettering on green nylon, and the style with black lettering on heavy green canvas. Which years were each of these used? Can the name tapes determine the age of a fatigue shirt? Are there other styles of name tape?

 

The golden yellow on black US Army distinguishing insignia was mandated for Army-wide wear starting in August 1953. This is the thick, block letter style (which is still the official design) in fully woven nylon. Name tapes were a locally authorized thing and varied widely, although at some point in 1950's they seem to have standardized on black letters printed on white tape. I have yet to see a spec on that though. In 1965 MACV authorized name tapes in black on OG for wear in SEA. In 1966 DA mandated all US Army and name tapes be subdued with black letters on olive green Army-wide.

 

Now, those are just the official dates and as several other people have pointed out, their actual wear varied a lot. USARV mandated that all insignia, except SSI, be subdued by the end of 1967 in SEA, but even that wasn't follow and didn't apply to the Army as a whole. I don't know the official wear-out date for color US Army tapes Army-wide, but I'm going to guess 1970 based on uniforms I've seen.

 

As for the styles of manufacture, the fully woven type in the official block letter style, were manufactured as late as the 1990's in both black/OG and spice brown/tan. The printed tapes tend to be common in the 1960's and early 1970's. The embroidered type became more common by the late 1970's and are the most common through today. That's a VERY general description and there is lots of variation.

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From my understanding this was the first style of subdued US Army followed by the woven if I'm understanding the terms being applied here. Pictures always help.

post-2582-1283438534.jpg

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From my understanding this was the first style of subdued US Army followed by the woven if I'm understanding the terms being applied here. Pictures always help.

 

I would say the first subdued US Army tapes were locally procured in SEA, just like the first name tapes, since that's where the practice began. The first US manufactured tapes were likely either black letters printed on OG tape, again like the first US manufactured name tapes, followed pretty closely by the fully woven nylon US Army tape. The embroidered type you show, in the official design, seem to have come after the printed and woven type. The color version seems to be concurrent with the subdued version, at least from my observations of uniforms and photos.

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B229, I think I've got the progression right on these. I didn't include the many SEA or current theater produced examples in my collection from hand embroidered to machine embroidered types.

 

Includes current going back to first types.

post-2582-1283440682.jpg

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B229, I think I've got the progression right on these. I didn't include the many SEA or current theater produced examples in my collection from hand embroidered to machine embroidered types.

 

Includes current going back to first types.

There was another style that was manufactured the same way as the gold on black woven tape but with black letters on olive green. These were definitely in use by early 1968 because I have period photos of them.

 

Also keep in mind that the fourth variant you show, black ink printed on cotton tape, were also found with smaller letters. In fact, I think the initial transition to subdued involved the replacement of the white cotton nametape with black letters with an olive green nametape with black letters while retaining the gold on black woven Army tape.

 

Once all of the tapes went fully to subdued versions, you would still find a variety of styles being worn simultaneously. Some soldiers had both their name and U.S. Army printed on olive green cotton tape with either large letters or smaller letters, either at the PX or at a clothing sales store. Some had both tapes embroidered in black thread on olive green webbing. Some had their nametapes either printed or embroidered as mentioned but wore either the factory embroidered black on olive tape at the top of your picture or else the black on olive factory woven tapes manufactured the same way as the black and gold tape.

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Also keep in mind that the fourth variant you show, black ink printed on cotton tape, were also found with smaller letters. In fact, I think the initial transition to subdued involved the replacement of the white cotton nametape with black letters with an olive green nametape with black letters while retaining the gold on black woven Army tape.

 

Like you said, this stuff varried so much but Ive seen the OD cotton stamped name and stamped US army tapes as the first step to subdued in groupings and uniforms. Looks to of been a easy fix to the subdued insignia problem since they most likely just used the equipment priviously used to stamp the white cotton tapes.

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Here is a picture of some guys in my father's AIT company at Ft. Polk in September, 1967. Note that they all have subdued printed nametapes but some have the black and gold woven U.S. Army tapes while others have subdued printed tapes. My theory is that the transition from full color to subdued varied from post to post and when these guys got to AIT they wore whatever uniforms and style of insignia was issued to them in basic.

post-1761-1283444590.jpg

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Here's another picture from September, 1967 when my father was in AIT at Fort Polk. Notice the Captain has both of his tapes subdued while the First Sergeant is wearing a subdued nametape and gold on black U. S. Army tape. So even the cadre of the same company were not consistent at this point. Also, it is hard to tell from this picture, but I have a larger print of it and it looks like the captain's tapes are embroidered on cotton tape or webbing as opposed to the printed style on cotton tape.

post-1761-1283444867.jpg

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There was another style that was manufactured the same way as the gold on black woven tape but with black letters on olive green. These were definitely in use by early 1968 because I have period photos of them.

 

Also keep in mind that the fourth variant you show, black ink printed on cotton tape, were also found with smaller letters. In fact, I think the initial transition to subdued involved the replacement of the white cotton nametape with black letters with an olive green nametape with black letters while retaining the gold on black woven Army tape.

 

As I posted previously, the first change to subdued insignia was MACV authorizing black on green name tapes in 1965. Subdued name and US Army were then mandated Army-wide in 1966. From my research these early tapes, of both types, were black letters printed on green cotton tape. The fully woven nylon US Army, like the yellow-gold/black version that everyone is familiar with, came next. The embroidered version came after that, althought this is all within a year or two of each other and there is overlap. There are also OG nylon tapes with black printed letters, for both name and US Army, that appear in the late 1960's.

 

As with any change of this sort, there will be every combination available worn over a period of several years. None of these changes is ever immediate.

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Thanks on the dates. Not related but was 1966 also the mandate for subdued SSI? Or was it 1969?

 

full color on M-51.

 

The conversion to subdued SSI began in 1966, but it took several years to get it produced in quantity to allow widespread use. The 101st Airborne, however, was an exception. They continued to wear color SSI through the end of the Vietnam War and into the mid-1970's. I don't think changed to subdued SSI until the adoption of BDU's in 1981/82.

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Followed by the one I missed black olive on Nylon. My initial issue at Ft. Benning was this nylon style in '92.

 

That's the official standard design, as adopted in 1953, with only the colors changed to black/OG. It had been used continuously until the adoption of ACU's. Some uniform items actually came from the manufacturer with US Army distinguishing insignia already applied, and it was always this type. The most recent I have seen were 3-color desert coats from 1991 with the spice brown/tan US Army.

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  • 3 years later...

I thought I would revive this thread with some examples of machine manufactures U.S. Army tapes. First up is two versions of the gold on black, the first being the nylon woven type and the second being machine embroidered on cotton.

post-1761-0-65093100-1389837337.jpg

post-1761-0-92786600-1389837346.jpg

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Next up are some black on olive green embroidered on cotton versions. Notice that even though they are all basically the same style, there are many subtle differences in such things as the size of the letters, borders and even lengths and widths, all of which are probably manufacturer variations.

post-1761-0-25138400-1389837517.jpg

post-1761-0-51898000-1389837524.jpg

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Quick correction there Sean if I may. The Gold on Black Woven type of the 50s and 60s was Rayon, it was this one the 1968 adopted subuded Woven type that was now Nylon.

 

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In my small exposure, I went from the gold and black US ARMY and nametag silk screened black on white.

in basic to silk screened black on od US ARMY. Nametage were RVN locally made black on od. This was 65-68.

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