If you had a choice, which uniform pattern/style would you want to wear?

As a civilian, I can say congress does not understand the military and because of that, they make boneheaded decisions that impact morale, tradition, and order in the military they constantly want to under fund.  It is interesting they are trying to save money on uniforms that they don't buy.  That is how ignorant they are, having never served.

There was never any call to give up the old patterns or uniform cut & material but alas, no point in beating that horse some more. I say either everyone goes to multicam or marpat. Stop wasting tax payer dollars teetering the same stuff that's been tested and proven a dozen times over. One thing for sure though, get rid of the damn velcro and zippers and return to button closures for everything and sewn on patches. I'd you're actually SOF you have a demonstrated need for the velcro. Otherwise, it's pointless and a waste of money. Next, Dutch the whole cut and material I'd the Army uniforms. Either go back to the BDU/DCU design or use the Marine design. The Army killed any durability when it tried to make people more comfortable and now our uniforms rip and fall apart five feet off of the road. As one other NCO said, just use an earth tone brown (coyote, dark earth, whatever you want to call it) for all of our OCIE. Brown is a universal color worldwide and so the best base color. Paint over it and our weapons to better match locale. Problem solved, money saved.

I'm an old timer.  Went in with the permanent press fatigues & got out during the start of the ACU's.  The BDU's were supposed to be the all service uniform.  Right off the bat, the SMA back then didn't want slanted pockets even though they were quite practical so that was scrubbed.  Several changes had to made over the years to the BDU's.  I still have a set of the old Elvis collar ones.  Then in 1983 they were looking at going to a brown suede boot.  When I went to PLDC in Germany, the SF guys were wearing them & they liked them.  Again, politics interceded & the brown boot was scrubbed because they didn't look pretty.  So it seems we have come full circle over the past 30 years.  I agree, the Multicam seems like the right choice.  It should be solely designed by the requirements of field soldiers not some POG's behind a desk someplace & certainly not by Congress or DoD HQ.  It is much more cost effective to design things properly & practically.  Whenever politics gets involved, it tends to drive up costs & doesn't satisfy the needs of the troops.

We (Armed Services) need to go back to the one or two camo format that worked. One uniform for wooded, forest, vegitation, etc. and one for desert environments. The same camo needs to be assigned to ALL services. The camo explosion that has seen every service with their own camo patterns is stupid and a HUGE waste a money. Heck the Multicam pattern is better at everything than the ACU, go to that for everyone. This would lower spending, and improve logistics.

Lets go one step further and stop with this ridiculous camouflage uniform program. The old O.D. uniforms where more than adequate for over 40 years. Some military tech nerd and his associated congressman sent us down this road back in the 80s. There is no empirical data that equates wearing a camouflage field/combat uniform reduces casualties in any way on the battle field. Maybe save a few million and get us better body armor or a primary weapon that wasn't designed in the 50s. The DOD is all about making cuts, well one duty/field/combat uniform is a great start.

I really like the multicam pattern the Army uses on deployments. 
It looks good, is functional camouflage, and provides a presentable and professional appearance. 

I know the Marine that posed for the uniform configuration in the middle.

I think Multicam provides the best camouflage over a broad array of environments.

Would like to see some true leadership from our Top Brass on this issue for a "Common Uniform" collection of patterns.  I see three main issues in making this decision, effectiveness, industrial longevity, and force cohesiveness.

To save money and be effective, multicams!  After that, woodland and desert MARPAT as long as all the gear is coyote brown to work with both woodland and desert environments.  Even better would be a single MARPAT uniform that is reversable for use in both woodland and desert. 

I think the MARPAT is a good example of getting it right the first time.

Historically we in the military have worn the same combat uniform or something very close. We let our dress uniforms be our difference. I say we go with what has worked for generations, OD Green is the answer. 

I would say OCP as well. The FRAC versions look dingy but the Garrison version looks great and has all the positive benefits of the current ACU (minus the poor pattern). What is so funny about the Commandants statement is that for more than 20 years we ALL wore the same uniform (BDUs), so why now are we all up in arms about being so different from our fellow services? Our Unit patches, ranks, and Name Tapes are enough to make that distinction. We have our Service Dress Uniforms to make us all feel special. I'd go with the OCP, bottom-line, it works.

I would like to raise this question. There are two environments in which we as Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Airmen work. That is combat and garrison (peacetime). I for one am honestly tired of everyone wearing a series of combat uniforms in garrison that honestly have us all looking like soup sandwiches. Weather it's the multicam, MARPAT or ACU they are unprofessional looking in a shop or garrison environment. Don't misunderstand me, they work in combat very well, but that is where they need to stay. I propose returning to the solid color fatigues for all services during normal garrison or peacetime operations (a blue collar suit if you will) to maintain a professional appearance, or if you are staff (NGB, pentagon, Division HQ, etc) then wear the service dress appropriate to that office. Combat orientated uniforms, whatever they end up choosing, should be issued for training and deployment only.By doing this it will maintain service individuality and save millions of dollars on silly uniform disputes. But most importantly it will return a certain level of pride in appearance amongst all services while at home or garrison and stop all this nonsense of people walking around in a uniform that looks like they slept in it the night before. No More Soup Sandwiches!

I got no problem with the Generals idea. I think its a good pattern for all services.

Isn't that what I said?

Digital tiger stripe..

Ripstop woodlands. Only problem with them is you had to iron 'em! That aside, they were comfortable, utilitarian and looked good.

I miss my Deserts, former Marine, current Army NG.

blue dress pants. tan long sleeved button down shirt with tiy. and a sweatshirt.