I deployed to Iraq wearing the DCU desert pattern and remember when other units showed up wearing the UCP. I could see them a click away. "Oh, there's the new guys."

UCP was the result of some high ranking Officer wanting to leave his mark on the army forever in some way

Huh no mention of the moon base. UCP works well on the moon. Have you seen the troops on the moon. Exactly. WORKS

Army: “Mom can we get CADPAT?” Mom: “we got CADPAT at home” *CADPAT at home:*

My grandmother has several couches from the 70s in that pattern.

The good old Useless Combat Pattern

I was in one of the early Reserve units to get UCP before deploying to Afghanistan in sprin 2005. The pattern couldn't conceal anybody in the piney woods of Fort Bragg, and people got caught on each others' velcro in formation. By the time we came home, most of the uniforms had been replaced in-country because of various defects, including turning as white as an ice cream vendor's uniform. One Sergeant told me, "Sir, whoever sold this shit to the Army hasn't quit laughing yet." But the real laugh was on me during my first month deployed, when I met an Afghan government minister who had once been a muj against the Soviets. He looked at my UCP uniform, smiled, and said, "Ah, Spetznaz." Thanks for nothing, Army..

I wore the new ACUs while an instructor at SWC. My students prefered to wear woodlands. My purpose was so students could see me at night during change of mission briefs. I felt like I was glowing at night in comparision to the students.

I was in one of the units that got to test the Multicam back in '09. First patrol we did with them, we went up the mountain side. After 15min we had to stop, and pull out a VS17 panel, because the Kiowas the were with us couldn't find us. They radioed down saying, "yup, new uniform works". 😂

ARMY: let’s find a pattern that works everywhere! Contractors: that doesn’t exist, but we have something that doesn’t work anywhere? Army: can we get kick backs on the over priced BS your selling? Contractors: yes Army: sold, we will order too much, so make sure it’s low quality. And that’s how the Army does business, prove me wrong.

whoever made the decision to switch to UCP should be thrown in jail for it. how many of our brothers and sisters died because their camouflage didn't do its job?

A few years back while attending a international recon exercise in the UK. I (Dutch recce) was grouped together with Brits and US recce guys for setting up a observation post in a wooded area. Our commander of the mixed unit was assigning roles to the squads and said to the Americans: “I want you guys in the rear positions (200m back) manning the radios, cause with that “camo” they’re gonna see us right away” - the Americans, who normally are the loudmouths and run the show, where very quiet that exercise. They knew....

The ACU camo pattern was the worst, blended in with nothing....only useful if the Army decided to occupy the moon.

the Army Casualty Uniform. poor guys used to stick out like sore thumbs..worse when it started to fade

It was Universal in that it didn't work anywhere

Thank god the US Army adopted the OCP camo. I felt like I stuck out like a sore thumb when I was always training against OpFor that had DCUs and BDUs.

We used to say that the UCP only blends in with other people wearing it.

I remember using this camo when I was in, and during our training, people honestly stuck out really badly. To me they looked like a mirage or blotch moving around in the woods of NC.

I think UCP is awesome it's the reason why you can find high quality military gear for relatively cheap because the army had to get rid of it.

When I was at Fort Stewart GA, we started getting issued ACUs. I looked up the uniform regs was and found that woodland was still authorized for where so when ever we where in the field I was wearing my old woodland BDUs. On several occasions I could walk right up to Soldiers without them noticing me while others in ACU where spotted hundreds of yards out. Seriously a massive waste of tax dollars.

UCP is pretty much for Land Nav training only, and the reason is basically the opposite of what it supposed to be

I am certain some retiring General got paid off to choose UCP.

I was part of the 48th who went to Iraq and got issued ACUs in May 2005 . We hated it immediately. It was like zebra camo. It only worked if we stood in a group. The uniforms ripped constantly. We wanted our BDUs back. The brass didn’t listen to one word of feedback we gave.

The UCP pattern is exactly the same as CADPAT and MARPAT, just with three ineffective colors. Track and Shadow/Line patterns are identical, just with different black shapes and pattern orientation. I think the reason they didn't pick All Over Brush was because it was too reminiscent of DPM.

Army Higher Ups: Develop a pattern that blends into desserts and jungle/woodlands. Testing & Development Team: That’s impossible, wouldn’t it be easier just to have 2 separate uniform patterns? like the marines for example? Army Higher Ups: *autistic screeching* No we’re not the goddamn Marine Corps Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Testing & Development Team: ok ok yes sirs, we will try our best. Testing & Development Team: After years of rigorous research, training, testing, and hours of hard work, we finally found the closest pattern to do the job. Gentlemen I’m proud to unveil the pattern that scored the highest on all points “Dessert Brush”!!! Army Higher Ups: yeah... it looks ugly and unprofessional... Testing & Development Team:... Army Higher Ups: it’s not even digital!!! Canada has digital the fffffucking Marines have digital, I wanna digital camooo reeeeeee. oooooh lookie here what’s this? Testing & Development Team: That’s just Urban track, it scored the lowest on all points. Frankly we wonder why it was even in the test pool? It has unnatural colors and it doesn’t really blend well with anything. The army would look like fancy janitors going into combat. Army Higher Ups: We’ll take it!!! Testing & Development Team:... Army Higher Ups: Can you nerds make it digital?

So you're telling me that this UCP wasn't tested in comparison to the other competitors? Lol.

Issued BDUs in Basic, Deployed with DCU's on my first deployment, got issued ACU's in time for my second deployment, and finally received Multicam for my third and last deployment. Go Army.

Marines: *wearing new MARPAT. Army: Oh look, Marines have new uniforms (that work), we wanna look cool too. Navy/Air Force: Us too.

I hated the ACU big time when I was issued back in 2006. The uniform material sucked. I liked the arm and leg pockets and Mandiran collar when wearing body armor. The pattern sucked. It offered no camouflage in the woods or operating in the villages, towns, and cities in Iraq. Of course camouflage uniforms don't work in urban combat environments. Like I said the material tore easily during heavy use and the pattern wore out from washing and exposure even though Woolite was the Army approved detergent to wash them in.

UCP was such a clearly stupid choice. Works only when sitting on Grandma's couch. Multicam should have initially been selected IMO.

UCP actually works great in generally gray areas like urban and gravel environments. Otherwise, you stick out badly in any other environment.

We blended in pretty well against the brush and trees on mountainsides since we had a combination of UCP gear and OCP uniforms.

5:55 I think that guy just gave up shooting, he was like "Eh whatever, I don't care anymore about shooting properly."

5:04 “and foliage green” that’s a gray...another reason why the ucp sucks

Clearly *UCP* could work, if your in an "urban environment" such as _Cities and Towns_

So they went through a multi year testing process to get an actually good pattern, then just simply thew it all in the trash and selected, adopted and fully replaced everything with a shit pattern without any testing? A bureaucrat had to be involved.

There was a big confusion on my army base because everyone thought UCP was out at the start of fiscal year 2019. So the like 5 stragglers left on my base switched over to OCP. So now absolutely no one wears it. I threw 6 sets away because I had 8 and I have 8 sets of OCP.

The only thing those UCP pattern uniforms were good for was hiding in the prone on the gravel roads when the NCOIC called for a brass collection detail at the machine gun range

UCPD looks pretty cool.

I love UCP, it's so iconic. That being said I never had to deploy in it! Interesting how AOR1 was a successful camo being that it is effectively UCP in an appropriate palette.

My dad’s generation of uniform which was after Vietnam in the 80s to 90s was definitely the best in my opinion, awesome woodland camouflage and boot color, cant believe the army decided to give it up smh

I Am Prior Service USMC and US Army, and,I didn't know that. Thanks again for your Information and Intelligence (I2) on this Uniform History of the United States Army.🇺🇸🗽🦅🔫

(UCP) A gravel road, then maybe...I wore it for half of my career, and it was trash.

2:27 When you fight the antagonist on the first level.

I am curious how the army arrived at the decision of using UCP in the first place.

underrated camo fr people always complain about it, but it's really not that bad

I’m not the only one who hates the ucp right? It’s colors look too Greyish and unnatural especially since its digital. I do much prefer the newer OCP

Congress: “Take immediate action to supply soldiers in Afghanistan with uniforms that blend the fuck in with Afghanistan.” Army: Takes literally 10 years to replace UCP.

Could you do a video on the US 1890-1918 uniforms? its an interesting transitional period from blue to camo green.

The multicam pattern seems to be the best, I have plenty of it, works great in lush green, fall and arid area's, I have plenty of this gear, just looking for another urban pattern, that would work for day and night ops.

It would have been nice if all the branches had adopted the MARPAT. Multicam/OCP works very well, It'll be interesting to see how both the USMC and entire department of the Navy respond to the idea of finally getting the entire DoD under one uniform.

Great video, way to break down the issues with ACUs. Glad I got out before these were mandatory.

ACU means " Army Combat Uniform", as a replacement for the Battle Dress Uniform, aka, BDU. ACU came in UCP, meaning " Universal Camouflage Pattern, and , OCP, Organizational Camouflage Pattern, " 🦂 W2, the Army's Answer to MultiCam by Crye Precision ®️.

Here's OCP's history as I know it... U.S. Army tried "Digital" camouflage on vehicles at the R&D stage, didn't like the hassle it took to paint them. Canada liked the U.S. Army's digital idea and it was the Canucks that invented and fielded the first uniforms (CADPAT - Canadian Disruptive Pattern first fielded in 2002). U.S. Marine Corps liked the CADPAT and did their own copy (using the SAME pattern) but with classic BDU colors of (black, green, brown and tan ) which they incorporated little Eagle Globe and Anchors onto (to keep them STRICTLY a Marine Uniform!) known as (MARPAT - Marine Pattern first fielded in mass in 2003). The U.S. Army now behind the loop tried to talk the USMC into "sharing" but the Marines in true Marine fashion, told the Army to GO TO HELL. So the Army in their "Infinite Wisdom" (aka. Complete IDIOCY) (using the SAME Canadian then USMC pattern) came up with a "Universal" (good no where) pattern they called known as (UCP - Universal Camouflage Pattern fielded in late 2004 or so) that was complete crap. From day one the UCP was an abortion, flimsy, Velcro that blew sound discipline in the woods to hell, and wore out quickly, and all around a JOKE. Still the Army bought tons (literally tons) of these crappy things and worse all the "matching" field gear to go with it. No one in the Pentagon had the balls to tell those who mattered it was crap... but crap it was. Finally sometime around 2007 or 2008, an new CENTCOM Commander did a PR tour in Afghanistan and asked the Troops what changes they'd like to have, and it was the first time the "U" in UCP was truly UNIVERSAL, they ALL rejected this junk uniform and requested something along the lines of the new and EFFECTIVE Multicam. So the U.S. Army being the bureaucratic nightmare they are, wouldn't just buy off the shelve Multicam and field it, no they did a few million dollars of testing and study groups, came up with a LESS EFFECTIVE THAN MULTICAM BUT STILL WAY BETTER THAN UCP color pattern and WHALAAA!!! OCP was born. (OCP - Operational Camouflage Pattern, fielded in around 2011 with serious reliability flaws and re-fielded in 2014 in a somewhat better version). SSG. U.S. Army (Medically Retired), Infantry / Sniper, multiple tours ... and don't get me started on the USAF wanting to get into the "digital race" with Tiger Stripes!

Behold the coming of the Cement Monsters!

The first time I saw ACU, I just assumed it was a new pattern of urban camouflage, which I think it would be quite suited to. How many billions did that cost? I shudder to think.....

Angry Cops' video on the pattern's retirement was great.

Definitely a fail and a costly mistake, someone got some kickbacks on that crap .thanks for sharing !

5:56 great "suppressing fire"

UCP is a perfect example of how to take the awesomeness of Cadpat and Marpat and completely fuck it all up.

UCP would actually be perfect for the Space Force when they deploy to the moon.

When I was in basic 2005 we still had the old greens an polished jump boots. Around early 2006 was when they issued us the ACU..I hated them, I missed ironing my coat and pants, and polishing my jump boots. Then there was the Molly vs. the Alice pack, sure you had more room in the Molly.. but that also ment they increased the things you were to carry thus more weight. The many of us broke the plastic racks on the Molly during jumps.

"Completely retired by Oct. of 2019" he says, as I look behind me to all of my ACU gear issued to me Nov. of 2019

I remember ucp being issued at a time when rumsfeld was talking about streamlining the army so that it can be quickly deployed anytime, anywhere in the world at a moment's notice without having to re-issue kit. The Stryker vehicles (argued to fit better in transports and could be both tanks and troop carriers although that turned to not work out), UCP, F35, and the failed modular/customizable rifle trials were all part of that (now abandoned) doctrine. Was that not true or just left out of the video for time purposes?

See what a lot of people don’t know is that it was supposed to be issued with a pack of multicolored earth tone sharpie markers and you would fill in the pattern depending on the environment you were operating in. Thus, it was universal.

I joined the Army and wore the woodland camp which wasn’t bad or great, the. I got issued UCP digital crap on my first deployment; as soon as we saw the uniform we all thought it was just a test uniform to wear on deployment because it didn’t blend in with anything. On my last deployment we where issued multi cam which is the best uniform I have seen while deployed and many nato countries are adopting versions of it.

Dye it rit green and it becomes phenomenal

I'd like to share some very interesting information. When my unit 2-2 infantry 1ID returned from Afghanistan in July 2009 we were a sent to achurch, the entire battalion had to to fill out a 20page or so packet that was full of patterns and colors of camoflouage. What is very interesting is that we were told that we were the unit that would be choosing two different trial uniforms for the next deploying unit and our insight was very much needed. If I remember correctly the majority of the people chose the multicam version as well as a bdu/dcu hybrid uniform. I assume that because while we were deployed we had Sec Def Gates award 9 purple hearts, a bronze start with v and a silver star for action of our unit. We had ok only been there about 2 months. We also pleaded for mraps. After he left we were told Humvees were not allowed to conduct combat patrols or convoys and Sec Gates said they were immediately pulling assets from Iraq to provide us with MRAPs. I guess our complaints really were heard when he asked what the problems were and what we needed.

UCP works after you jump in a pile of dirt

I wore the ACU/UCP when I first join the State Defense Force and I hated the crap out of it. The pattern turns slightly pink when it's not was properly and fades to easily. I'm just glad that some of us either switching to OCPs.

This is exactly what I did my senior project on in Highschool back in 2014.

I like universal because it was the camp I grew up with so I will wear it. There will be plenty of surplus on that after October yaaa

Great ! Great job man ! Keep up these good vids !

Excellent, excellent work! Very well done.

Ucp Delta is awesome. Expensive and rare

I'm a Marine and I deployed to Iraq in 2009. I had seen the UCP before, and we thought the entire uniform looked ridiculous. It appeared to just sort of hand off each soldier. The pattern was so bad that the developers of Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter had to adjust the color of the entire game environment to make it look like the ACU's actually blended into the environment.

There's an easy fix for UCP: dye it green. I'm not joking. There are many videos on KZfaq where people use common $3 "Rit" brand fabric dye to dye UCP uniforms green, and they come out as excellent woodland camouflage. Instead of shaking your head at what a waste of money UCP was, pick up an outfit for yourself at a garage sale or thrift shop and dye it.

Germans in WWII with "Platanenmuster", "Erbsenmuster" and later 70's "Flecktarn" made no mistake!

Good research. I was at Fort Stewart, GA assisting the training of the 48th IBCT when they were issued the UCP. I monitored them during their deployment in Iraq to see what we can do to improve deployment training. Unsolicited, they complained about the UCP uniform tearing at the seat and knees. The effectiveness of the camo was not mentioned. It wasn't necessary. We knew it was bad. How can we spend million $$$ and ignore the research to adopt a dark horse camo pattern? Whomever was the decision maker should have been made accountable.

UCP, chosen by someone who read too much of the MOUT manual from the 1990's that stated 'the best urban camoflauge is the BDU turned inside out'.

So why have they adopted multicam instead of the desert brush?

This is interesting keep up the good work

Damn. This was well made.

I Am Prior Service USMC and US Army ( USMC, 870702-910701, Corporal (E-4), MOS 2531; US Army, 930108-981217, Sergeant ( E-5), MOS 92G2P), and I and My Wife both wore M-81 Woodland Camouflage Pattern BDU. My Son was a 11B10( Infantry Soldier) in The Army from 2012, until He died in 2017, and He had worn both Army Combat Uniform,in both UCP and OCP MultiCam. In His Honor, I own 3 complete UCP Uniforms but also OCP MultiCam Combat Shirts, Condor Ball Covers, and yes, a set of M-81 Woodland Camouflage Pattern BDUs.

the officer responsible for choosing the acu pattern retired soon after and was hired by...guess what company?

I live in Hawaii with a military base down the road, military personal be walking around with Multicam lookin so cool

Real question...why are civilian camo patterns used by hunters seemingly so much better at being camouflage than military camo? look at things like realtree etc, seems to work far better than any military pattern?

I remember being issued UCP in 04 or so they were comfy and the zipper crotch proved to be useful for emergency bathroom runs. We were rocking Woodland armor, od green Alice packs, od green chest racks the Acu flc with whatever color you could find pouches. Let be real we looked like we robbed an army surplus store and we were effectively just dress like grandma's old couch in the den

I find it interesting that the new uniform is similar in colors to the old BDU. I also remember when all the branches wore the BDUs. I can understand the Navy going with a separate color design. With the Marines and Army operating on the ground why did the Marines need a different pattern???? Hell if they wanted to be recognized, all you have to do is look at their tag over the left pocket. Heck even the Navy has their tag over their left pocket. Bottom line is that if you want to save tax payer money, then use one standard across the branches, or just back to the old BDUs.

Try a video on late original ‘pixilated’ camo, late 70s Dual Texture. It was good. On can vehicle paint trials w cav unit I Germany appears like enlarged Marpat, only 3 decades b4 marpat. Great videos. Thanks

Effective 191001, The United States Army Uniform Camouflage Pattern Army Combat Uniform will be replaced with a different Camouflage Pattern, called the Organizational Camouflage Pattern MultiCam Uniform. I Am Prior Service USMC and US Army, and, here in Tucson, Arizona, I Am already beginning to see Veterans and Civilians wear parts of The UCP, including a digital camouflage baseball cover/cap/ headgear.

I confess that I like this ACU/UCP uniform

I’m just gonna put this out there, once you get your ACUs good and sweaty and dirty after wearing them for at least a week, it blends in really well in the desert and mountains.

I wore Woodland BDU's in the USAF '88-90 at Clark Air Base, PI. Great uniform and over there was pretty good in the jungles over there. My kid was at Ft Jackson graduating Basic and we went out there for it. Everybody was in ACU's and in the right twilight were very hard to see. Which is why everybody had yellow reflective belts, but you've explained the phenomena when a soldier has all their gear on, they almost glow. He didn't like it but now 9 years later post OCS, Ranger School, and two deployments to Iraq with a Stryker platoon and one to Afghanistan with a company of the 82nd, they wear the OEF, I think.

In Iraq we could see people wearing ACU's from over a mile away, the DCU's were better because they actually blended in with the desert that is actually tan. Who would have thought a tan combat uniform blends in magnitudes better than one based on grey.

Us army went "my oc plz don't steal!".

Velcro pockets on a field uniform? o.O

subbed. entertaining and informative. thanks.

At Iraq, we call them "the smurfs" Lol!!! It's was just too blue...

To be fair, UCP does work pretty well in Kuwait/Southern Iraq and urban areas. Given that this was the war the Army was primarily concerned about, it makes sense why they wanted to adopt it. IME, the uniform had a tendency to fade quickly and absorb dirt from the environment, making it blend even further. OCP is still far better, but to say that UCP was a terrible choice is not completely true.