I was there the same time frame Cco/HHC 1/187th, then the Bum Fuck Egypt tour (MFO88).

We are going into collecting field here, i'll try to explain.

RDF refers to the Rapid Deployment Joint Task Force, later Rapid Deployment Force, the short lived 1979/1983 3 division joint task force.  
"RDF uniform" is a nickname that collectors have given to the post vietnam era camouflage uniforms, straight pleated pockets, zipper fly trousers, produced around 1975/1981 prior to woodland. These are found in 3 camouflage  patterns: both the vietnam era brown or lime dominant ERDL and the post vietnam camouflage known informally as RDF camo (official name "coat, hot weather, camouflage pattern"). In reality producers used whatever leftover they had at hand, sometimes mixing more than one camouflage in a single garment


There are OD "rdf uniforms" too, that are seen sometime worn by Rangers in the 80's. It seems they were made for them.
Difficult to see but you can pick the straight pockets in this picture, also a good look at the camouflage effect of a sweaty uniforms

There are atleast 4 straigh pockets jackets in this picture. "This is the first official photo of 1st Platoon, B Company, 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, taken in 1984. "

Hahahaha! Nice pic! I recognize some of those dudes! (I was C Co.) Yea, it looks like the 1st and 2nd guys had them - never knew. Some were pulled to staff/man/fill 3rd at the start - Oct '84. By '86, CIF was issuing 9 sets of slant pockets. Very cool, thanks.

It has Always been an interesting read, however Remember that the author Is the person behind the us4ces family of camouflage, he May or not have been biased in his writing.
There Is an official document criticizng the government choice of adopting his forest  camouflage to outfit ANA paying substantial royalties to him instead of using.one of the government owned camouflage for free.

Regarding camouflage under night vision, czechoslovakia with their 1960 pattern already thought about that. In daylight It was the almost monochrome (which Many here seem to like) Rain pattern, which changed to a proper camo pattern under nvg.

Jesus.

They have literally tons of them on both sides.  Not even counting drones, which have a LOT more than the ground tactical formations.

From a ten second google search.

Even the Taliban and ISIS had thermals.
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I was part of an exercise once with a bunch of SEALs where they were doing CQB in structures and subterranean structures.  The OPFOR wore a different uniform but had plate carriers, high cut helmets, and peltors.  Under PVS-31's it was pure chaos, nobody could conduct PID, OPFOR were slipping right into their movements unnoticed, etc.

The giant US flag patch often worn as SOP on the chest of the armor didn't just come about by patriotic fervor.  We sometimes switched them out for day/night ops, but mostly the color flag was more than good enough to ID under nods.




About 10 years ago I had regular issues trying to find my specific Afghan team at night in a pile of ANASOC commandos getting off a helicopter I had to start making velcro IR reflective shapes to put on the back of their helmets, because they all looked the same.  Multicam or BDU didn't matter past 2 feet.

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Now that you say that i remember a familiarization training with NVG. Platoon size element split into two teams, one moving, the other hunkered down a few hundred meters away. Just routine training, nothing more than a moonlit stroll. Different squad camouflages (vegetato vs. a mix of older woodland and chinese made Atacs), mostly PVS 21s and a few PVS18s, one each man for the "attacking" team, a few scattered around the defensive team. The NCO sends one of my colleagues (defending) walking a circle and placing himself at the end if the attacking team. No one noticed and as he recounts he went as far as patting a corporal in the shoulder saying "i think i am seeing them down there".




You basically went back full circle to the Mike Force scarves of the vietnam era, to recognize indigenous forces....i guess we are again to the colored tape armbands of Ukraine that started the whole post.

Good photo that lets you see where the Woodland pattern came from. It's the ERDL/RDF pattern magnified at like x1.5 scale or something, in the RDF colors.

We are going deeper in history here, but regarding woodland being enlarged erdl (which definitely Is), in 1975 an army camouflage evaluation program tested 3 enlarged erdl variations: 75%, 250%, 400%. Also another model with vertical Tiger stripes over the erdl camo.

This Is the picture from the test of the 3 enlarged patterns, on the left original erdl as a control item.
I'd Say they are indistinguishable even in these Ideal photo conditions, close distances on clear terrain under sunlight.

Not sure if that is when they also came up with a "autumn" ERDL or whatever they would have called it. I have original ERDL from boot camp and later versions (straight pocket) that were more brown than green - probably fits in better in Europe than SE Asia

I wouldn't worry about it too much. I have some summer camo, some winter camo, and a ghillie adaptable to both. If SHTF here, i'm probably wearing what I have on at that moment in time.

What you guys refer to as "RDF" is what was coming in at my time.  We were issued no-shit WWII era green sateens at OCS, but a year later, the "new" cammies were out.  It was still a transition time, so you could still wear the sateens, and we all still wore the green sateen "fatigue" cap, as the camo ones had not come out yet.  These cammies were all straight-pocket, with mostly tan/brown/green camo, but you could still find some light green/brown/green ones, and the mixed ones were not uncommon either.  This is 1976-80.  Lots of guys wore the older slant-pocket ones, if you could find them.  I preferred the older ERDL ones because the pants were baggier, like the old airborne (and Ranger) trou.  And I thought the older light green color was saltier.  More in keeping with my Pacific island tour.

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This is Mountain Warfare School, Pohang, Korea, April, 1979.  Well actually the airfield where we camped out.  Note sateen cover and straight pocket cammies.

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This is the LZ at Onna Pt, Okinawa, August 1979.  Playing on the strings. Note guy on far right with green sateens.  Also Corpsman with Zumwalt go-tee.

Hyperstealth were in the fray as a contender to replace UCP, ultimately OCP was adopted (Scorpion 2 off the top of my head).

In regard to the general discussions around thermal - its not a magic tool, it does work well if its not wet and back ground temps are well below 37 degrees C, however in hot dry arid terranes with little vegetation and lots of rocks it can be little more than an imager.  

Understanding how, what, why and where thermal works is important to avoiding detection - if you lay down in cool open grassland you will be detected, however if you sit next to the base of a tree you wont (trunks hold on to heat collected during the day).  

In hot rocky rugged mountainous regions, if you wear multicam arid you're the invisible man if you're careful with movement.

If you want to see weird and wonderful, have a look at german leibermuster - designed for use in urban combat in largely destroyed cities.  ERDL, DPCU and Woodland are derivatives of it.  That design more or less recognised the key elements of successful camouflage including reduced IR signature (using two different black dyes), the importance of horizontal patterns and the blurring of edges.

IFF is a problem but not a major one given that even in Ukraine the best equipped units on both sides have blue on blue tracking, add in low power scrambled radios (0.1w or less), plus basic planning and execution e.g. everything from specific whistles, code words through to clickers.  All of this can build very good situational awareness thus reducing the incidence of blue on blue.

FEBA - FLOT and sectors are real things.

For sure a different kettle of fish, one each, when your opposition lines up toe-to-toe with you.  

In line with your analysis, we use to wear chocolate chip or DPCU trou, with a woodland top at Pendleton.  And this was borrowed from the Norgies on Northern NATOs with over-white trou, and splinter green jackets.  In southern Kali, you have this arid thing going on, with lots of scrub brush in the transitional areas.  So there are many waist high plants laying about.  Blending your legs with the deck, and your torso with the manzanita brush, especially if you took a knee.  Same principle up north.  Just with snow and evergreens.

Thanks, Biden

Tying in with some other threads, I think it's interesting to see how various materials, and dyes are effective under different "wave lengths" or whatever.  So it's not just the visual spectrum, but how stuff looks under analog/digital NV, not to mention thermal.  And how mixing and matching different colors, dyes, and so forth gives you a disruptive pattern in different wave lengths.  The Brits have always been big on this, with their earlier DPM, and now MTP.  And I wonder if they accidentally discover some of this, by their hand brush-stroked camo from WWII days.

What is it about Tiger stripe?  

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