by Doc_KeystoneDiv Fri Jan 12, 2024 11:07 pm
Wow super old post, but why not give a quick reply...
Looks 100% fine to me, DCUs were not really worn stateside, other than during mobilization training or de-mob. They were typically issued at a mob site, sometimes RFI'ed at various locations (like JTC/NTC), so if they were patched stateside at a civilian sew shop, quick would have been the name of the game as units would have only been at a location for a short period before moving along to the next training site or to theater. It also very well could have been done at a Haji sew shop, although the patches don't look theater made, it was no problem to take something in there and have your own patches sewn on. The quality of work done at these varied, although generally speaking Iraqis were pretty good behind a sewing machine.
I got a chuckle from your comment about an officer not being likely to go to an off base tailor shop and the existence of such a thing as an officer specific shop on base. Neither of these is true.
On base there is "clothing and sales" which is the Aafes run store that all ranks can buy uniforms, awards, etc from, and they offer sewing services but a)they are massively overpriced, and b)their turn around time is ridiculous. Everybody goes to off base tailor shops including officers of all ranks. They're cheap and quick and usually do good work, I don't know ow why you're under the impression that they're "sloppy ass"
My guess, like I said earlier, is that because DCUs were something issued for deployment and units were not at one place long, quick turn around was paramount and sew shop ladies probably worked long hours into the night to get everything done and ready for pick up, so not every job was too notch, or more likely, he took it to a haji shop and haji hadn't quite learned the ins and outs of how neat and specific AR670-1 is.
In either case, looks like an absolute legit DCU, I wouldn't think twice about it.
