Squid friend's uniform from Baghdad

A friend of mine just sent me his uniform he was using over the last year while in Baghdad. He was in the Army, got out for a while, then went back into the Navy. He served as Naval Intelligence while in Baghdad.

The shirt is commercial, but his trousers were Army issue. Hat... dunno as the tag is missing. This is a great example of how Navy personnel attached to an Army command wear their ACU.

Steve

Would he have his navy rank attached to his hat also?

Yes, his rank is on his hat too. The regulations authorize that. The purpose is to make Navy, Marines, and Air Force personnel blend in with the average Army soldier. No need to give snipers something interesting to look at in their crosshairs.

Thanks Arch! My friend came back and apologized for not being able to get me anything, then he mentioned about just having his beat up uniform. He was surprised to find I wanted it. Mostly because he's a friend, but also because it's an unusual mix of badging. This is exactly as he wore it, though I did remove his name tape.

Steve

Corpsman in the Navy can be attached to any platform as a IA "Individual Augmentee" it is very very common to see Navy Corpsman "Mostly Fleet Marine Force" augmented. Most volunteer simply for a change of scenery and something new, but they all get issued similar uniforms for usage when attached to another unit and are eligible for any decorations received or awarded by that unit to be worn on their navy uniform "or the equivalent.. ex: Combat Infantry badge = Combat Action ribbon"

CollectinSteve wrote:The purpose is to make Navy, Marines, and Air Force personnel blend in with the average Army soldier. No need to give snipers something interesting to look at in their crosshairs.

Which is what they had when EVERYONE was wearing BDUs and DCUs ... somebody, somewhere is getting paid big money to make stupid decisions, and then later on, somebody else will also get paid big money to reverse those same decisions ...

[quote="filupe"]

CollectinSteve wrote:The purpose is to make Navy, Marines, and Air Force personnel blend in with the average Army soldier. No need to give snipers something interesting to look at in their crosshairs.

It's always been customary whenever you are embedded with another branch of service that you wear their uniform with your branch specific designators "branch of service tape, rank etc" Most of the time the average embedded corpsman is with a "Behind the wire" unit such as on an airfield, intelligence or 3rd echelon hospitals. However joint task forces and training units also utilize corpsman IA's in training and direct action. The funny thing is... you don't hear of many army medic's being embedded with any other branches do you "excluding 18 Deltas".

Great find Steve , I feel really lucky to get the Naval Intell stuff I got , I hope the guy I got my sets from stays in touch !!