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Letters

CAMO FROM A SATELLITE

No one camouflage pattern will work for the entire planet. This global Army must be prepared to fight and win in a multi-theatre environment.

Currently, National Guard brigade combat teams get months of advanced notice before deployment, and know the area of operation. Why not just fly a satellite over the region, take a digitized color photograph and print the pattern on a pre-designed combat uniform?

Certainly the industrial might of America could produce 20,000-plus geographically dedicated uniforms a month.

— Staff Sgt. Robert W. Betterton Jr., Cordova, Tenn.

THE COLOR DOESN’T MATTER

Everyone loves to brag in the service, and I love the retired people who love to brag about the uniform when they sit at home smoking and joking and talking about their war stories.

Here’s the thing. I have lost many friends, and I am just sick that we are worried about what color I need to wear when the enemy nowadays does not wear a uniform.

Seriously, this is not Germany or Cambodia. We are in the streets of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan. I can wear pink and I can wear black. It does not matter when they have the advantage of a surprise attack. What matters is how well I’m trained to react to an attack.

The Army is green for the ground, the Marines are brown for the beach attack on the sand, and the Navy is blue for the waters they protect. Let’s keep it simple.

But the bottom line is that as long as the National Training Center looks like Walt Disney World, it is not going to make me a better soldier. What matters is that I get downrange time with my soldiers, so I’m able to teach them how to act with people and how to react to bad people. Let’s stop this uniform bragging. Save the money, and buy me time to teach my soldiers downrange.

— Sgt. Carlos Eulloque, Fort Benning, Ga.

GIVE ACUs TO JROTC

If the Army goes to the MultiCam camouflage pattern [“Camo consensus,” Aug. 17], the old Army Combat Uniforms should go to the Army Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps. These ACUs would be put to better use by JROTC cadets than by giving them to other countries.

The JROTC cadets use these uniforms about six times a year for various activities during the academic school year. These JROTC units don’t need the MultiCam uniform — they are not active-duty soldiers. They are high school students taking academic courses.

Giving the ACUs to the JROTC program would cut down on the number of uniforms JROTC programs have to buy from the Defense Department.

— Sgt. 1st Class Robert A. Kujawa (ret.), Danvers, Mass.

‘FUNCTION OVER FORM’

I am a junior noncommissioned officer. I’ve been so for two out of my four years in. At no time in my career thus far have I truly seen a command allow sergeants or staff sergeants to dictate the uniform.

Soldiers complain because it’s an issue. [It should be] function over form, my friends.

Berets and road guard vests serve the eye and not functionality.

Regarding the beret: If you are in a ceremony or military function, then rock the beret. In garrison, performing daily tasks, rock the patrol cap.

Regarding road guard vests: Why spend the extra money on making our physical training shirts reflective when we just layer it with more reflective stuff that gets in the way during a real PT session?

— Sgt. Ian M. Golden, Fort Myer, Va.

ONE UNIFORM FOR ALL

The whole military should change over to the Marine Pattern design— both the desert and woodland MARPAT. The design camouflages well in sand, mountains and muddy environments, which is needed in Afghanistan.

I see Special Operations teams have MARPAT uniforms on because they know it works well in this environment.

Also, changing over to one uniform for the military will cut costs for the Defense Department. Changing uniforms to one design will benefit the military and [reduce] costs.

Having different uniforms for different service members should not be the concern. The concern should be whether it works.

And if it does, use it, cutting costs and allowing easy access to uniforms because any service member of any branch may go to any Military Clothing Sales store to buy a uniform. The only way to distinguish each branch would be the branch tape sewn onto the uniform.

— Sgt. Brian Kim, Forward Operating Base Sharana, Afghanistan

IVs WASTE PRECIOUS TIME

I was a well-trained combat medic in Vietnam. I had been through Special Forces medical training for almost a year when I failed a test during the last month of training and was basically dropped from the course. I had been through the combat medical training every medic received and then almost a year of intense Special Forces training. So I should have had the skills to start an IV.

I ended up as a medic with the 101st Airborne in Vietnam in 1967. I can tell you I tried to start many IVs but failed in about 80 percent of the cases. It was usually too much pressure and not enough skill. Starting an IV in actual combat is a lot different from doing it in an emergency room.

So I can see why they are changing the policy [“Stopping bleeding takes priority in lifesaver course,” Sept. 14]. If someone needs an IV it means they most likely are suffering from a severe wound and are losing a lot of blood. Spending time with starting an IV could be better used to stop the bleeding.

— Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jack Treese (ret.), Calabasas, Calif.

CAN’T TAKE A JOKE

Are the Armed Services really getting that sensitive?

Gen. David Petraeus [who recently told a joke at the Marine Corps Association Foundation’s annual dinner at the expense of the Air Force], only did what we all do [“Funny or insulting?” Sept. 7].

Services do that to one another. In fact, since he was in Marine Corps territory, his joke was giving them a pat on the back. Toughen up. Because that’s what we do — rib each other. And when the time comes, like the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, we protect each other.

— Chief Warrant Officer 4 L.D. Mitchell (ret.), Lawton, Okla.