a few questions......

OK...here are a few photos I found on YAHOO...someone please explain a few things to me....

1st...why does this guy have a 3rd ID & 25th ID patch on his arm & a 4th ID on his helmet?????? and the other guy has a 10th mountain on his helmet????



2nd...on this blackhawk crewmember...what is the Darth vader thing over his face...mouth/nose area??



Steven

oh...and here are US guys in DCU's......how odd is that..the photo was taken the last day or 2...



and here is the top US commander Michael Mullen in Pakistan wearing DCU's.....

nevermind on #4...I realized he is with the NAVY...hence the DCU's.....

Steven

bond007a1 wrote:OK...here are a few photos I found on YAHOO...someone please explain a few things to me....

1st...why does this guy have a 3rd ID & 25th ID patch on his arm & a 4th ID on his helmet?????? and the other guy has a 10th mountain on his helmet????



2nd...on this blackhawk crewmember...what is the Darth vader thing over his face...mouth/nose area??



Steven

Steven,
The first picture.......air-softers?????

Arch..that is actually troops in Iraq I believe....not airsofters...

Airsofters playing in Iraq with a weapons cache like that?

The badging is quite odd. There's a bunch of other oddities. The guy in the middle is apparently wearing a modified DCU with ACU patches and ACU side plates on his Interceptor Body Armor.

What it looks like is the middle guy is a soldier from 4th ID (shame we can't see his left shoulder!) with his previous unit being 25 ID, and probably the unit before that 3rd ID. It's against regs to wear two unit badges on the right arm, even if the soldier belonged to two units (in action for 30 days or longer) which qualify as "Shoulder sleeve insignia-former wartime service (SSI–FWTS)". The regs say the soldier is allowed to choose which to wear.

Steve

Maybe they are just patch whores. Found some in-country made patches in PX and just patch them up to look cool?

That "Darth Vader mask" is helicopter crew mask. It provide facial protection. I forgot what name of this helmet but I remember people talked about it on MP.net.

Michael Mullen in DCU may be old picture. Press is well-known for using old pictures or videos. I've seen recent news using early OIF footages because soldiers were wearing DCUs and woodland interceptor body armors.

Guys....my comment about the guys being air-softers was a JOKE!!!! Jeez.....lighten up fellers!

In all seriousness, that picture is odd for several reasons. Besides the obvious multiple patches on the DCU's...the 3rd ID shoulder sleeve insignia is at an odd angle. It is not set right. I am wondering if this might have been an operation that had several different divisions working together and all the patches were shown for a photo oppurtunity. Who knows.
Arch

Now THERE is an expensive bit of gear to have on your kitchen table

Steve

Cool paint job on face mask!

ARGHH! Picture is not working.