The doggies have concluded that the Marine Corps has developed the best camouflage pattern and they now are considering going ahead and simply adopting MARPAT (MARine PATtern) camouflage for use by the US Army, but the Marines have proprietary rights to the pattern and object to sharing uniforms with the Army.
Army officials have said they want soldiers to wear the best possible camouflage — even if that is the MARPAT. But Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Carlton Kent says don’t count on it.
The Corps owns the rights to MARPAT and wants to retain it for its own use, Kent said late last year. Marine officials said they have no beef with anyone researching and testing MARPAT, but they want Marines distinguished from other service members on the battlefield.
“The main concern for the Marine Corps when it comes to other services testing our patterns is that they don’t exactly mimic them,†said Kent, who is scheduled to retire June 9. “The MARPAT design is proprietary, and it’s important those designs are reserved for Marines. We just need to make sure each of our designs is unique to each service.â€
Brig. Gen. (p) Peter Fuller, the former Program Executive Office Soldier, dismissed the territorial stance. If the pattern proves to be the best, the Army would simply remove the Corps’ signature anchor and move forward, Fuller told Army Times in his last interview as PEO Soldier.
The Corps has always tried to look different. When everyone wore the Battle Dress Uniform, the Marines rolled their sleeves differently. There are no unit patches on their sleeves. They wear different covers and boots.
But the Corps’ efforts to stay unique hit new levels late last year when the Navy — the department to which the Corps belongs — looked to MARPAT to develop its own new uniform. The new working uniform looked similar to MARPAT, but the Navy fielded the desert variant only to about 7,000 personnel assigned either to Naval Special Warfare Command or to units supporting it after Marine officials raised objections that the uniform was too similar to the Corps’.
Mike
This nothing more than Marine Corps hypocrisy!
See http://www.history.com/videos/new-pixelated-camouflage-uniform#new-pixelated-camouflage-uniform. This is a clip on how MARPAT was developed. MARPAT was developed in a laboratory in Natick Massachusetts. That Lab is an ARMY activity.
The Marine Corps likes to claim Army accomplishments as their own:
Being key to the Victories at Trenton and Princeton(http://www.mca-marines.org/gazette/american-marines-battles-trenton-and-princeton)
Being first to fight(the Continental Army was established 5 months before the Continental Marines)
Claiming 230+ years of service to the country(the Continental Marines were disbanded in 1783: the US Marines were not organized until 1798: in the interval there were NO Marines. The Army never went out of existence.)
Claiming to have anchored the American line at New Orleans(of 4000 men in line, only 58 were Marines)
Claiming to have captured Chapultepec Castle in the Mexican War(Soldiers were the troops who captured the Castle)
Claiming the main role in the relief of the Diplomatic compound in the Boxer rebellion(2000 of the 2500 US troops in the relief expedition were sSoldiers)
Claiming to singlehandedly stopping the Germans in the Second Battle of the Marne(Soldiers of the 3RD Infantry Division went into action 3 dayd before the Marines: 3RD ID played a bigger role in stoppng the German advance)
Claiming t have played a significant role in the Defense of the Philippines in 1941-1942: see http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036328/(Fewer than 100 Marines fought on Bataan, compared to thousands of Soldiers: the 4th Marine Regiment remained on Corregidor during the Battle of Bataan)
The US Army developed much of the weaponry the Marines have used and continued to use, M1 Grand, Abrams Tank.
Thousands of Soldiers fought and died in the Pacific in the cause of compiling the Marines’ outstanding combat record. Very very very few Marines fought in Africa, in Sicily, Italy, France.
Finally, in Desert Storm, the Army’s Tiger Brigade, from the Second Armored Division, took out the Iraqi Armor facing the Marines.
Wow
How did you get from a to b by reading that article?
Even the section you cherry picked doesn’t say the Army is going to adopt MARPAT.
bob sykes
What nonsense. The Marines and Army used the same basic uniforms for years. Just look at film from WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam. The Marines do not “own” Marpat, and the Army can use it at will.
Please Leave a Comment!