choc chip/night desert parka

I like it! I'm always fan of night desert gear.

Nice peice. Too bad it isn't real.
Andrew

Sorry to burst anyones bubble, but it is real. I still have my ISSUED parka and pants.

My unit had and wore these in ODS/S. I dont know if it was experimental, limited issue, or privately contracted,but they were worn. I have pictures of my unit,in the op,and a few guys are wearing these.They may be on the web somewhere.

I was hoping this was going to be different than USMF with people downing stuff,self professed 'Experts" and in-fighting.

guess not

jsocfs, thanks for your answer. i'm looking forward to see your pics!

I'm wondering where would I be able to find one like this? Hope anyone here could direct me to place where I can buy it.

Personally, I like it and wouldn't mind having one for my collection. I have seen many tags like that associated with SF items over the years. No worries in my opinion.

As far as this forum being like USMF.....welll, I think it is much better. This is a forum and some people will make comments without thinking.
Arch

jsocsfc wrote:
I was hoping this was going to be different than USMF with people downing stuff,self professed 'Experts" and in-fighting.

guess not

We APOLOGIZE...We are already addressing this issue...As Arch so eloquently put it...UNFORTUNATELY alot of comments are made on a whim without thinking of how others may feel when they read the comment. Luckily here on IACMC that sort of thing is in the minority when compared to "other" places...

Admin

PS...I will admit...I would LOVE to have one of those jackets..It looks mighty dandy to me...

jsocsfc,

I was hoping this was going to be different than USMF with people downing stuff,self professed 'Experts" and in-fighting.

I think this comment is uncalled for. Sure, sometimes people post things which they think are accurate which turn out not to be. That's to be expected in any forum I know of. What's important is how the discussion flows from a point of contention. In this case Andrew posted something which you disagreed with. I for one am happy that both of you took the time to post. I don't see any "self professed 'Experts" or "in-fighting", just people carrying on a discussion.

Now, as it happens so often it could be that both Andrew and jsocsfc can be correct. If Andrew meant that this item was not standard issue, he could very well be correct since the tags do not appear to support a conclusion that it was standard issue. On the other hand, jsocsfc had one given to him for use during a military deployment. Which means that at the very least this item was issued within the military, though as jsocsfc states he doesn't know exactly what the status of the item is. Could have been a unit level purchase, which is of course quite different than Uncle Sam handing them out or the item was a trials piece. Or it could be a trials piece. I for one would love to know the answer, so I hope the discussion continues

Steve

Jeremy,

I'm wondering where would I be able to find one like this? Hope anyone here could direct me to place where I can buy it.

At one point in time I saw them in various mail order catalogues. My guess is those were commercial production, but of course it's possible they could have been a contract overrun or unissued items going from military hands to surplus.

I've always thought of this uniform as commercial production, but I'm happy to have jsocsfc's evidence that these things were issued in some form or another. Now I want one to compliment my genuine issue night camo set (not reversible to 6 Color Desert, obviously ).

Steve

JSOCSFC is way too modest to lay his resume out here, but having had the privelege
of speaking to him in person on a number of occasions, let me say this:

He's been there, done that...went back, did it some more, and got out of there
before the bad guys figured it out. He's a combat veteran several times over in units
some of us would give a kidney to even hang out with. As honorable men here lets try
to remember that other posters might have been around the block a time or three.

Very Respectfully,

RTS

RTS,

As honorable men here lets try to remember that other posters might have been around the block a time or three.

Fortunately, there's nothing going on here to call that into question. Obviously Andrew couldn't know ahead of time what JSOCSFC was going to say and nobody has cast doubt on JSOCSFC's word that he was issued one of these things which many people, myself included, previously thought of as a pure commercial item. I'm happy to know that it has at least some actual military use and I thank JSOCSFC for providing that information.

To exchange knowledge people have to communicate and to communicate people have to write things and post them. Sometimes, in fact very often, people will post things which are inaccurate or vague enough for misinterpretation. This is is unavoidable and it should not get the fur up on the back of anybody's neck unless someone clearly is trying to get a rise out of someone. That is where communications break down and things become unproductive. Bad attitudes always get in the way of both knowledge and enjoyment of it.

Back on topic... having a reversible parka like this makes a LOT of sense. It seems that the original non-reversible model was made under the incorrect assumption that the desert only gets cold at night. Therefore, the only time a soldier would need a parka is in non-daylight hours. This is not true, since the mornings can be quite cold at times of the year or during the morning hours (some deserts are cold nearly year round). There are plently of pictures of Desert Shield/Storm of soldiers wearing their parkas in the daytime. Having a reversible parka would allow the soldier to switch over for the colder daylight hours without needing a separate daylight camouflaged parka. Or put another way... if a military is going to issue only a single parka (which is the practical thing to do) it should be either a daylight camo or a reversible one, not a non-reversible night camo. Which I think the US military figured out since the night camo was very quickly dropped

Steve

CollectinSteve wrote:
Back on topic...

Steve

Couldn't agree with you more. Let's get back to what matters most....collecting and discussion of our items!!!!
Arch

I hope this helps, Natick designed a few reversible uniforms, Urban - Woodland and Desert - Woodland.

Like this


Now Tags in a garment like this would be stupid placed where they usually are, So Natick made them simple. All that's tagged is the hidden button flap on the chest and all that says is size, No NATO info etc... just size.

awesome stuff b20! do they have a name tape too?

here's the urban version:

Of all the reversible BDU/DCUs you guys are posting, I have only ever seen one piece...a cap. I
had later heard that they dropped the idea because of the heat/weight of the uniforms and the
difficulty of manufacturing them rapidly.

Do you know how much it sucks to have grown up within spitting distance of Natic Labs and I didn't get so much as a lousy T-Shirt from the gift shop? And now I know why... all the stuff they made is in the hands of European collectors

A long time collector, who recently sold off 99% of his gear, had a fantastic source within Natic Labs. He got a lot of really crazy stuff from them, but I only managed to get a very, very early CCU prototype in a purplish ripstop fabric. As Bravo mentioned, the tags they used were minimal at best.

I have a personal hankering for reversible stuff, but there is so little of it out there. And what little is out there generally comes with a hefty price tag due to rarity.

Steve

BTW, are these reversible items single fabric with printing on each side, or two bits of on sided fabric sewn together? I'm assuming it's double sided, single fabric... but I don't want to make assumptions about that.

Steve

Steve, if you still have proximity to Natick, or have friends that do, we might have to do some business.

CollectinSteve wrote:all the stuff they made is in the hands of European collectors

i think in asia are the "craziest" collectors. i've been outbid very often...

CollectinSteve wrote:
very early CCU prototype in a purplish ripstop fabric.

pics please!!!

...and the parka one sided fabric sewn together. the bdu fabric is a double side print.

The Purple/Gray CCU are for in house sewing examples, they are gray/purple because camo gets in the way. A few of these hit eBay and were D-Mill B so couldn't be so to any non-US citizens.

ah... i saw them on ebay e few years back and not that expensive.

derxsammler wrote:ah... i saw them on ebay e few years back and not that expensive.

yeh about $60 from what i remember, i asked if he would ship and was told no

you're not alone...

RTS,

I'm no longer next to Natic, but it's easy for me to get there. Send me a PM if you have something specific to propose.

As for my purple/gray jacket... I'll try and post some pics this week. It's complete and has no demil cuts at all. I got it in trade with the guy who had the Natic connection.

Cheers,

Steve