Color of Load-Bearing Equipment

When I was in the National Guard my first drill I was handed a way over copied piece of paper defining what my LBE had to "look" like. Every time I went to the field I wore my own Active Duty rig that wasn't close to what they issued/wanted. None of the NCOs ever directly ordered me to remove it, but many comments were directed my way about the example I was setting for my squad. I told my platoon sergeant that if any of my guys or gals wore something like this I would compliment him or her for taking initiative. The only time I was required to wear their set up was a field change of command. I always carried their set-up with their issue in the bottom of my duffel bag for just this kind of thing. It looked terrible since it rode underneath everything but no one could say anything about it.