Creation Date

2007
2007

Description

This jacket is part of the "Digital Camouflage" uniform United States Army. This style uniform was introduced in 2004. It is meant to be more comfortable and practical than past uniforms. The shoulder and collar insignia as well as the name patch are all attached with Velcro. According to Todd Guggisberg: This is one of the uniforms I wore during my last tour in Afghanistan in 2007. The insignia attached would normally only be worn while at Fort Bragg and in the United States. As I was assigned to the 7th special Forces Group (Airborne), we normally took all insignia off our uniforms except the US Flag and our rank before arriving in Afghanistan. While many of our missions were not classified we didn't want to draw attention to which unit we belonged to. - IR (Infrared) Flag on the right shoulder. This patch reflects infrared light and will show up brightly on aircraft optical systems. It helps Air Force and Army pilots to identify who is friendly and who is not on the ground. I have had many people ask why the flag appears "backwards". The stars face forward as a flag would appear if we were actually carrying a flag in our hands moving forward. Strange explanation, but tradition is pretty powerful in the Army. - There are two small IR patches (one on each shoulder). These serve the same purpose as the IR flag. There are flaps that cover these patches when we are not in combat because they tend to wear out pretty quickly. - The three medals/insignia on the front left chest are as follows from top to bottom: 1) Airborne Wings: Identifies a qualified Amy Parachutist. All personnel in an "Airborne" unit have completed at least the basic course. 2) Air Assault Wings: Identifies a solder that graduated from the Air Assault Course. Expertise in helicopter operations, preparing cargo, trucks, artillery, etc. to be carried underneath helicopters and setting up helicopter landing zones. 3) Parachute Rigger wings: Identifies a soldier who is qualified to pack and inspect parachutes (personnel and cargo). Also identifies expertise in planning resupply operations by parachute. - The shoulder patch on the left side indicates the unit that a soldier is currently assigned to. Every time a soldier changes units, he/she changes this patch. In my case, it indicated an assignment to the Special Forces Unit. - The shoulder patch on the right side indicates the unit that a soldier has been in combat with. Once qualified for this "Combat Patch", the solider can wear it the remainder of his/her career, regardless of the unit he/she is currently assigned to. Many of our soldiers today can wear their choice of multiple different combat patches because they have been deployed 2-5 times.