Please understand up front that I have no military experience and could be very mistaken in this topic. If so please correct me.

In the current GI Joe movie line we see a lot of light blue camos a hand full of green camos and some tan camos. I am confused on how this all plays out in the GI Joe world verse Real world. I know each military branch has their own camo scheme to represent their branch, then they also have situational camos for environment specific operations.

Now how does this apply to GI Joe?

Is the light blue camo their 'Pit" dress Uniform while the tan and green are environmental?
Is it a Nationality thing or an alpha team thing or what?
I would just like to know why they wear X color rather then Y color and why is this other guy in Y color when everyone else is in X color and so on..

Anyone have a clue? If so fill me in.

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I happened to be talking on the phone to my brother the Navy Seabee while reading your post, so he provides this information:

Marines have a unique pattern using the "Eagle, Globe, and Anchor" logo. This is worn by the Marines, as well as Navy Corpsman (medics). He couldn't remember if the words "Marines" or "USMC" is microprinted on the uniform or not.

The Navy is slated to phase in its own digital camo using a blue and white pattern.

The Air Force uses a new non-digital pattern similar to Vietnam-ear tiger stripe.

The Army was the first to use a digital pattern. (I'm sure Chief could give more details about the Army's uniform).

As far as the Joe uniforms (of the actual Joe team, not pre-Joe team uniforms), they appeared to be a Hollywood design- though somewhat interesting. The fact that you can see the patterning distinctly on camera without being up close to the uniforms would indicate that they're probably not good at actually breaking patterns, which camouflage is intended to do.

Mail Call did a great piece on the invention of the digital camo pattern a few years back. If you can find it on you tube, it's worth the time.

[quote="past nastification"]
The Army was the first to use a digital pattern. [/i] (I'm sure Chief could give more details about the Army's uniform). [quote]

Actually the Marines had the digital camo first. They call it MARPAT or MARine PATtern. It has a small Eagle Globe and Anchor in the pattern every 24 inches vertically and 18 inches horizontally. When the Marines designed the camo pattern, the also did a basic redesign of the uniform its self. The breast pockets are angled for easier access, there are shoulder pockets and much to the delight of the troops and to the dismay of the pocket book of Kiwi Shoe polish, the boots are now made from brown suede with a Marine logo on the heel. One part I'm not too clear on is that rather than having Marines roll their sleeves up in April and roll them down in October (as was the case with the old woodland camo uniform) they just wear the desert camo during the summer months.

The Air Force is indeed moving to something that looks like the old Viet Nam tiger strip, but it has an digitized effect to it. Personally I've always felt the Air Force's camo uniform shold be grey with a couple of lines on it, that way if they're on the filight line they can just lay down and blend in with the the tarmac. Maybe have every seventh airman wear a bright high visibility yellow, then they can look like one of the fire extinguitures. Just a thought.

The uniform that Duke and Ripcord wear durring the desert ambush is called Multi-Cam. It's not officially adopted by any of the services, but I think I've heard that some special operation guys use it as they have a little more leeway as to uniform choice in the field. I've seen pictures of it in enviroments compared to the regular uniforms and it is pretty effective in woodland, jungle and desert enviroments.

As far as the grey uniforms the Joes wear in The Pit, well, it looks like an updated version of urban camo and probably something they wear only in garrison and wear a uniform more appropriate to the envioroment they be fighting in when they get deployed.

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In some of the PIT scenes you see most folks in the Blue camo, but once in a while you see a person in green. So if the Blue is the 'PIT' uniform, what is the green? Are these people that were about to be deployed or something?

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Could be that the blue guys are Naval forces and the green guys are the ground pounders. There are plenty of SEALs on the team.

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And a funny thought at that Actually the Air Force almost adopted a non-digitized tiger strip uniform that was very close in color (albeit a bit brighter) as the blue ones used as "Pit" uniforms in the movie. After the test phase they decided to go with the current color ABU we're wearing...more gray/green/blue (similar in color to the Army's current ACU). It is indeed a "digital tiger-stripe"....and uncomfortable as hell in the heat & humidity of South Mississippi. It also replaced the DCUs for deployments to the desert...which has A LOT of Airmen upset (see comment about the heat).

- Doc

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Here is a pretty cool website on real world camo.
http://www.kamouflage.net/country/00181.php?page=2

The Navy and Air Force are both using their new camo patterns. Both are digital. You can see them on the links. They are too Official websites.The Navy one looks a little like the Spetnaz uniform.

Suburb is right, the Marines did have the digital camo first.

Also, the Army is thinking of changing our uniforms again ti something that looks very simular to the camo Duke and RIpcord waer at the beginning of the movie.

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If you don't count the Canadian (CADPAT) digital that the MARPAT design was derived from.

Damn Canadians, stealing our ideas before we get them!


But yes, in the U.S., the USMC were the first to adopt a digital camoflauge.

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I would like to correct this statement the Marines started wearing theirs first. The Army is actually the ones who came up with idea, and designed the first sets but couldn't come up with a good pattern. At least one they liked. They still haven't and are currently looking into using either Multi-Cam or a improved version of UCP, also referred to as ARPAT. They are currently fielding them in Afghanistan.