So, I recently played the new Medal of Honor game on the PC. Really great game, but really short campaign. Anyhow, for a couple of missions, you play as a member of an Army Ranger squad, which includes an Air Force ETAC (basically an airman trained for ground combat who calls in air strikes for the Army guys). I recall being impressed that they remembered to give him an authentic period uniform (the tan DCUs with the sleeve ranks) as opposed to the Army uniforms (green/grey ACUs with the digital camo).
Then I thought about that for a second. The game takes place in 2002, and as far as I know, the Army didn’t introduce the ACUs until 2005. Should the Rangers have been wearing DCUs like the Airman was, or did they have some early issue of ACUs when they first went to Afghanistan, perhaps as part of the testing process for the new uniforms?
No version of the current ACU existed before Jan 2003. Regiment was not involved in the testing or early use of the uniforms. The uniforms were tested and first seen at NTC and then, later that year, the 3rd or 4th redesigned version was issued to a Stryker Brigade headed to Iraq.
2002 is too early for even Ranger R&D units to be wearing or testing ACUs.
Even the MARPAT patterned Marine Corps Utilities were just being introduced, and they were the first of the digital camouflage to be issued to US Troops. They were phased in to recruits entering MCRD Parris Island and San Diego at the beginning of 2002, and made available to purchase at the same time.
