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Fort Carson colonel makes uniform adjustment during training | gazette.com

PIÑON CANYON – An Army uniform is normally a cloth resume, showing where soldiers have fought and how they’ve been trained. Experience is obvious at first glance, with jump wings, combat patches and other job-related insignia. But that’s not the case for Fort Carson’s 1st Brigade Combat Team, where commanders have banned everything but the…

PIÑON CANYON – An Army uniform is normally a cloth resume, showing where soldiers have fought and how they’ve been trained.

Experience is obvious at first glance, with jump wings, combat patches and other job-related insignia.

But that’s not the case for Fort Carson’s 1st Brigade Combat Team, where commanders have banned everything but the flag, last name, rank, “U.S. ARMY” and the 4th Infantry Division insignia during training this month for the unit’s more than 4,000 soldiers.

“It’s a culture thing,” said brigade commander Col. David Hodne, who mandated the austere fashion statement.

via Fort Carson colonel makes uniform adjustment during training | gazette.com.

I get what he’s trying t0 do. I’m just undecided if it is a good idea. As a young PFC, seeing EIBs, CIBs, jump wings, combat patches, they gave me something to  aspire to.

What say you?

 

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  1. Pave Low John

    If it is only a temporary training tool, just for a month or so, I don’t see any real harm in using something like this as a team-building exercise. Giving everyone a more “uniform” appearance is a very military impulse, after all. If this was a more permanent change, though, I could see some issues with it. But for just a month of training? Shouldn’t be that big of a deal….

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  2. mjk1960

    …Two possibilities: the one Pave Low John mentioned, or the good Colonel doesn’t have a bunch of those decs/badges.

    Or a deployment where they might have been earned.

    I’m cynical that way. Just sayin’.

    Mike

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  3. SFC Dunlap 173d RVN

    Been through that very same thing….I take your point!

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  4. jjak

    I think this is the Colonel’s official bio: http://www.carson.army.mil/4id/leaders/1sbct/cdr.html

    Googling his name looks like he’s spoken about sleep deprivation and suicide in army units, and he’s somehow connected to the Tillman affair as well.

    Of all the gifts from the good idea fairy this isn’t the worst one I’ve heard, so long as its temporary. It would be interesting to see if there is a measurable effect to doing this, though I’m not sure what it would be or how to measure it.

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  5. Paul L. Quandt

    You can take my jump wings off of my cold dead body.

    Paul

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  6. Esli

    Who is paying for guys to get their stuff sewn back on?

    I am ambivalent about this. When I earned airborne, air assault and EIB by 1987, you couldn’t pay me enough to not wear them. Now, I never bothered to pin anything on ACUs and haven’t dropped the money to pay to buy and sew them on. A friend of mine (highly high-speed) commented back in 1993 “I know what I’ve got” when I asked him why he didn’t have all of his stuff sewn on. Now, on the other hand, I have seen commanders that served in SOF units in particular that choose to wear nothing for combat patches. At first I thought it was a humble thing but now I see it as the trendy thing to do and it is irritating in a way. Most guys senior enough to be Bn CDRs or above have multiple deployments. If you want to be humble and not wear your JSOC patch, then wear a different one.

    I do agree with the comment in the article that what a guy did downrange is largely irrelevant to training for a DATE mission, and the combat patch from it should bring zero credibility to current training.

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  7. Terry

    Sounds like he studied Mao.

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  8. ultimaratioregis

    I may be old fashioned and USMC-centric, but I think a combat uniform should be sanitized. I am not even crazy about the name tapes. Rank and branch of service. As one 1stSgt would say, “don’t wear your damned SRB on your utilities!” OPSEC.

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  9. Jerry

    If only he applied that thought to the reflective belts.

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  10. Esli

    With 820 in my Bn, I am a fan of name tapes. On a good day, I couldn’t match more than 200 names and faces and I had at least five percent changeover every month.

    Of course, I also think we should go back to old school full-size, full-color stripes on the sleeves of NCOs. (And enable those NCOs with old school power and authority.)

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  11. timactual

    “Who is paying for guys to get their stuff sewn back on?”

    I like the way you think.

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  12. Jason

    Everything’s velco on an ACU, so no expense, no fuss.

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  13. xbradtc

    They changed 670-1 to allow patches to be sewn on, which undoubtedly some have.

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  14. KragCulloden

    Agree completely, URR.

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  15. xbradtc

    Eh. For the most part, any US troops captured aren’t being exploited for tactical intel, merely propaganda. And since that mostly seems to mean beheading these days, I don’t see what harm comes from wearing skills/awards.

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  16. Esli

    Change “most” to “all” and you have it. Nobody pins on badges anymore. Either sew it on or wear none of it.

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  17. ultimaratioregis

    That may be true today, but not tomorrow. Identifying units and capabilities brought to the field by the enemy remains an intelligence goal.

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  18. ladyslipper6

    A former Marine pal of mine once called ribbon’s badges and medals “extra anus bullshit” all in his strong West By God Virginia accent.
    Most folks are unaware a certain medal or ribbon can be earned simply by showing up for 48 hours in a certain location designated as a place of danger by land, sea or air, in some cases several miles high, thousand feet deep and several miles away.
    As a Former Marine I’m for saving that glitter for the dress uniform, it doesn’t belong on a combat dress.

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