Marines in Afghanistan

[Loy Hamilton]

more 4th ID Marines

[usmc69]

Darn they are getting Armyfied.......Pretty soon they'll be have all that other junk hanging off their uniforms.

[pmclaine]

I wonder if they are friendly force identifiers. I bet they reflect with high tech gunsites to prevent fratricide. Good for our guys until the bad guys get a hold of a uniform or the sight technology.

[Chaz]

Well if you guys can't figure out who they are, then the Hindustanis can't either and I think that's a good thing. Wait a minute, Wikileaks would have the answer! B

[Art]

There isn't any doubt about the first of the two pictures that started this thread, the two soldiers are definately 2nd Infantry. The one with the girls I am 90% sure are 4th infantry becasuse I can make out little black dots where the Ivy leaves should be on the patches.

The Marines seem to be wearing patches now too. I was not a Marine but I am sad to see them becoming, as was mentioned before "armyfied."

I will say if the caption is so obviously wrong on the sniper picture it could be wrong on any of them.

[pmclaine]

They are not unit patches. The new uniforms are designed to not reflect IR light (hence no starch). I bet those diamonds glow under IR light so that friendly forces can make an ID. Its a double edge sword assuming the enemy captures a uniform or set of NVG's, but with the capabilitues and speed of todays battle some security sacrifices are needed..

That is my guess. Has to be someone with recent service to answer this.

The Marines are not armyfied. Interesting, but not unexpected, that they have been the only service that maintained the conservative line regards dont ask dont tell based on its unknown detremental affects on mission. The agenda types will complain the Corps is homophobic and fail to recognize it is most certainly not, only totally mission focused. Who needs this distraction when involved in two wars with a third on the horizon? Hopefully they maintain there focus - to paraphrase Gen Vandegrift "The bended knee is not a tradition of the Corps" - nor is losing for that matter.

[Shooter5]

That group of females is most likely Marines since they appear to wearing (desert) MarPat. Various types of IFF patches are worn and in different locations. The Army ACU has them built in with flap covers IOT to cover them up if needed.
It is highly unlikely they can be utilized agains our troops since the IR light needed to illuminate the patch would given away the enemy position (but that would be an advantage to us!).

[fkienast]

I see those patches all the time over at Camp Lejeune. The patches are solid black and attached with Velcro. I have no idea as to the purpose. they are new since I retired in '99. Definitely not a divisional patch.

[Marine A5 Sniper Rifle]

They are all soldiers. One of the troops in the top picture is wearing the patch of the 2nd Infantry Division. The four women in the bottom picture (and they are all girls look closely) are indeed 4th ID.

The Marines blouse their boots now but when I was in the Army from 1966-1969 I never saw a Marine blouse his boots in the "utility" uniform. In that period at least all soldiers bloused their boots unless they had a "profile" or an MOS that required other footgear. Most pictures I've seen of both Marines and Army troops in Afganistan seem to show them in bloused boots so it must be SOP for everyone now.

Art, I was a Marine during that time period, and we all bloused our utilities and our camos (regulations-even in RVN) and wore starched covers. I still have my blouse bands. Now to a Marine, a bloused utility is a pants leg rolled under and held with an elastic band (some were springs). A blouse is a shirt. A cover is, for lack of a better description, a hat.

Semper Fi, Mr. Wang.

Jim

[Loy Hamilton]

All

I deleted the photos I had posted because the more i thought about it,
the less I thought about having posted them. Especially since one was a very
high resolution pic showing a closeup of a Marine sniper. Too much detail maybe,
maybe, maybe not, but just in case there was something in the pic some bad guy
might pickup on and see something that might put our soldiers to a disadvantage.
Can't never tell.

I've been overthere/Afghanistan and you would be very suprised just who and where
those people have internet connections...

[Shooter5]

http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/12/09/5616457-all-female-us-marine-team-in-afghanistan