Army to retire woodland BDUs on April 30

[unhappycamper]

Army to retire woodland BDUs on April 30
By Lisa Burgess, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Saturday, January 26, 2008

ARLINGTON, Va. — The last day the Army’s iconic woodland and desert-patterned battle dress uniforms can officially be worn by a soldier is April 30, according to a recent decision by the Army’s top personnel official.

Hundreds of millions of Americans associate the dark-green pattern with the Army that fought the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and the pale sand version with the force that defeated Saddam Hussein during Operation Desert Storm.

But earlier this week, 27 years after its introduction, Lt. Gen. Michael Rochelle, the Army’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel, set the final “wear-out” date for the BDU for April 30 for both active-duty and reserve-component soldiers.

Also set to expire April 30 are the items that go with the BDUs: brown T-shirts; black combat boots; green-and-black jungle boots; woodland and desert-camouflage caps; olive-drab-green name and U.S. Army tapes; subdued olive-green shoulder-sleeve insignias; black rigger belts; and web belts with open-faced black buckle.

The Army Reserve Officer Training Corps wear-out date for these items is April 9.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=51927