Monday, September 26, 2011

Army Terms to Know part II

OD: Olive Drab
OEF: Operation Enduring Freedom.  The Afghanistan campaign.
OIF: Operation Iraqi Freedom.  Numbered for different movements/phases from the invasion (OIF 1 in 2003) until September, 2010.
OND: Operation New Dawn. September 2010 to present.
BDU: Battle Dress Uniform
DCU: Desert Combat Uniform. Chocolate chip or tri-color desert versions of the BDU.  Used until 2005.
ACH: Army Combat Helmet also known as a Kevlar.
ACU: Army Combat Uniform.  The current daily uniform; lots of velcro.  A fire-resistant version is issued for deployments
ACS: Army Combat Shirt.  Moisture-wicking and worn without an undershirt.  Generally limited to missions and guard duty.  Rank and name moved to right shoulder to not interfere with body armor.
UCP: Universal Camouflage Pattern.  Same digital fractal as the Marines, but with different colors (tan, foliage green, gray) adopted by the Army for all-terrain use in 2005.  Not perfect, but cheaper to produce and works ok in many situations.  In Afghanistan (and rumored for the whole Army after we leave Iraq), it has been replaced by
OCP: OEF Camouflage Pattern also known as Multicam for non-military sales.  It's a non-digital, 7-color blended pattern with greens and browns that looks a bit like bird droppings.  It always performed better than UCP, but was cost-prohibitive to produce when first designed.
MRE: Meal Ready-to-Eat
IBA: Individual Ballistic Armor
IOTV: Improved Outer Tactical Vest.  Better protection than the IBA on the neck and sides with a quick-release for emergencies.  Also, more comfortable in my opinion.
Smoking: A noun for Corrective PT.  Exercise as punctuation or memory enhancer to discourage under-performance, negligence, or disobedience.
Moondust: The fine, powdery dust that's made from tracked vehicles and trucks on gravel/dirt roads.  It collects in drifts (sometimes ankle-high) in intersections and turns.  Kicks up in clouds when walking or driving through.  Worst place to be smoked.
Toy wearing tri-color DCU, me wearing UCP ACU.

1 comment:

  1. does the action figure come with a motorcycle accessory or is that sold separate

    ReplyDelete