Night Desert Camo uniforms

--I never really knew anything about this stuff. I picked up my parka back during the war, and the Marine at the surplus store said something about IR reflection. At the time, I thought he was messing with me (I was like... 19), but as all of the pixel patterns came out, I saw that he was not. I had no clue about the two different patterns, nor the alignment with "stones."
I'd always assumed that this one was from a bad batch, and therefore ended up in surplus. That may still be true-- but my has a sleeve that's *significantly* lighter than the body, and a pocket that's less-dramatically different:




Hood looks somewhat lighter, too-- but the sleeve... pix don't really tell the tale due to shadows. It's *very* off.

Thanks to this thread I've got another 3 pieces in my hands and I dug out my customized set. Aside from the two variations of the pattern itself, there appears to be a lot of variations in the colors.

Steve

--Yep. Guessing that the DoD put a rush on them. Funny how we all have them. I could give you a huge list of things I no longer have in my possession over the course of the last twenty years (Kevlar, knives, overcoats, uniforms, kit, wristwatches, handguns- all of which I can say with certainty I'd prefer to have kept), but weirdly, through everything, this bit of equipment has managed to stay. It is almost insidious.