Brazilian Marines (Marinha) Camo hat

Hi,
I bought this down at Fayetteville also, the guy said a soldier picked it up out of South America. Arch thinks it's Brazillian, what do you guys think? Thanks.
Andrew

By the way, the name is Sesergio

It appears to be Brazilian Army pattern, but the colors are off. Not sure if that's the flash, age, or what.

Steve

Why does no one seem to have Brazillian uniforms...I look at everyone's sites & the most people have are 2 patterns....the lizard & air force lizard....does anyone have any comprehensive documentation on Brazillian stuff...Now I have a spot camo set from there...that no one seems to have either....just seems odd to me....about the void in Brazillian stuff.....

Steven

For most of modern times much of the Americas, outside of the US that is, used some form of OG/OD colored uniforms. Special units, not necessarily "special forces" per se, wore whatever happened to come into their hands. For the most part those were short production runs or small overseas purchases, which weren't maintained long term. Jungles and deserts are horrible places for uniforms, so couple that together with other factors (like dictators not liking civilians with military stuff) it's not surprising there isn't much camo stuff out there for us to collect.

The Brazilians have only two mass produced camouflage patterns which have remained consistent throughout the years. Not surprisingly, those are the two you mentioned Steven I'm told the Airforce pattern is actually quite difficult to get within Brazil since it's a small force which is not generally near urban populations. I actually just got a set of trousers in this pattern last week for the first time (to be fair to myself, I've not really tried all that hard before ).

There are many different cuts of the Army Lizard pattern on different materials. I'm aware of heavy cotton twill, thin cotton/polly, and some type of ripstop. So there might not be a lot of variety in the patterns themselves, the uniforms themselves are found in probably a large number of different cuts.

Steve

CollectinSteve wrote:For most of modern times much of the Americas, outside of the US that is, used some form of OG/OD colored uniforms. Special units, not necessarily "special forces" per se, wore whatever happened to come into their hands. For the most part those were short production runs or small overseas purchases, which weren't maintained long term. Jungles and deserts are horrible places for uniforms, so couple that together with other factors (like dictators not liking civilians with military stuff) it's not surprising there isn't much camo stuff out there for us to collect.
Steve

You are absolutely correct about the government not liking civilians with military items. In one of the South American countires, I read that if a civilian was caught with military camouflage that it was punishable by a jail term. Now....this was back in the mid/late 80'or early 90's time period and maybe things have changed somewhat down there. I know that in the 70's and 80's there were dozens of Marxist liberation organizations trying to start revolutions throughout Central or South America. Being caught with camouflage by government troops could be "harzardous" to yor health. You might be accused of being a communist subversivo and then end up "disappeared".

OK, so the concesnsus is that this is Brazillian Army Lizard Pattern? The colors are true to the hat in the picture, and the hat is dirty. Thanks.
Andrew

me personally...from the several lizard pattern jackets that I have seen....don't think it looks like it at all...

Steven,

There are pretty huge variations in colorations, even when new. Most common are really dark with the brown being quite reddish. However, there are also much lighter variations where the brown is more mud like. Check these two out:





Now, having looked at the pictures some more... the pattern of the hat MIGHT be Airforce but with more-or-less Army colors. With so little pattern to see on a US style ballcap, it's tough to say for sure without having it in hand.

Steve

Andrew,

Your hat is Brazilian Marines issue (Marinha). There are many color variations, like all Brazilian patterns, but the Marines stuff (also worn by Navy personnel) always has a lighter colored tan or brown.

Contrary to what was stated earlier, there are three camouflage patterns worn by the Brazilian Armed Forces, one for each primary service: Army (Exército), Navy or Marines, and Air Force (Forças Aérea).

Eric

oda196 wrote:Andrew,

Your hat is Brazilian Marines issue (Marinha). There are many color variations, like all Brazilian patterns, but the Marines stuff (also worn by Navy personnel) always has a lighter colored tan or brown.

Contrary to what was stated earlier, there are three camouflage patterns worn by the Brazilian Armed Forces, one for each primary service: Army (Exército), Navy or Marines, and Air Force (Forças Aérea).

Eric

Thanks so much. I was beggining to wonder if it was real or not.
Andrew

Cool... that explains it. The colors didn't look right to be either Army or Airforce, so I figured it was the dirty nature of the hat that was at play. I've never seen a Marines uniform so identified. Coincidentally I received my first complete Brazilian Airforce uniform today

Steve

Guys, check with Danilo Matz for Brazilian camouflage uniforms. He is sending me a used set of the Brazilian Air Force pattern like shown above. Sgt P.

There Are 3 official patterns for brazilian forces,
Army - dark green strokes
Marines - light green strokes
Air Force - blue strokes

There was also the brazilian spotted uniform issued to special forces and airborne units in the 70's and late 80's, they are quite rare this days.

Also there's a bunch of trials and older colorations of uniforms. The current pattern colors were adopted in the mid 80's.
Also there were some special units trials in late 70's including the mountain, caatinga.
The swatch under my name is the 1st brazilian camouflage ever adopted and was issued in mid to late 60's is probably one the rarest of all brazilian patterns.
I have pics of all, or most of brazilian camouflage patterns and it's variations

In brazil, any military item is against the law to were or have, police items are even more strictly controlled, you can spend a few night in jail if caught wearing one.

http://picasaweb.google.com/danilomatz/Brasil1stCamouflagePattern1967

http://picasaweb.google.com/danilomatz/BrasilDuckHunt#

forgot to mention, i have a pair of brazilian marines pants available for trade if any one is interested please drop me an email
(they are the lighter green uniform seeing on steve's photo)