An original US Army Coat, Desert Camouflage Pattern, Combat, from the Global War on Terror years, named and fully insignia’d to a captain of engineers. Large X-Long, built by UNICOR at Greenville, Illinois on a 1997 dated contract. Nametape FUERST.

Read the shoulders first, because they carry the man’s war. On the left is the shoulder sleeve insignia of the 7th Infantry Division, the brown hourglass on a tan disc, worn to show current assignment. The Hourglass Division, also called the Bayonet Division, fought on Attu, Kwajalein, Leyte and Okinawa, held the line in Korea, and went into Panama in 1989. Through the years this coat was in service it existed at Fort Carson, Colorado as a training support division, the headquarters responsible for readying and validating Army National Guard brigades for mobilization and deployment. It inactivated in 2006 and did not return to the rolls until 2012.

On the right shoulder is the combat patch, the shoulder sleeve insignia for former wartime service, and it is the four conjoined ivy leaves of the 4th Infantry Division. The Ivy Division deployed to Iraq in 2003, took responsibility for the Sunni Triangle and the country north of Baghdad, and on 13 December 2003 its soldiers pulled Saddam Hussein out of a spider hole outside ad-Dawr near Tikrit. A man who wears that patch on his right sleeve earned it in theater. Together the two patches place him downrange with the 4th ID and then back at Fort Carson with the 7th, doing the unglamorous work of getting Guard brigades ready to take their own turn.

The rest of the insignia fills him in. Black captain’s bars on the right collar, the Corps of Engineers castle on the left, so he was an O-3 combat engineer, the branch that clears the route, breaches the obstacle and builds what the fight needs while under fire. Above the right pocket sits the Combat Infantryman Badge, the musket and wreath awarded only for personally engaging the enemy in ground combat in an infantry capacity, and beneath it the Parachutist Badge. A CIB above an engineer castle is worth noticing. It says he was in the fight, not near it. A U.S. ARMY tape sits over the same pocket, and on the right shoulder is a full color reversed field flag with a gold border, the union to the front so the colors read as streaming behind a man moving toward the enemy.

The label is its own piece of American manufacturing history. UNICOR is the trade name of Federal Prison Industries, a government corporation created by executive order in December 1934, running a Clothing and Textiles segment ever since and holding mandatory source status that puts it first in line for federal purchases. A great deal of the American soldier’s uniform in this war was cut and sewn inside federal correctional institutions. This one came from Greenville, Illinois.

The pattern itself was drawn at Natick Laboratories in the mid 1980s and approved by the Infantry School in October 1990, replacing the six color chocolate chip print that had proved wrong for open desert. The Army had it in service by 1992 and it became the uniform of the opening years of the Global War on Terror, worn across Afghanistan and Iraq until the Army began phasing it out in mid 2005 and had it fully gone by early 2008. Named and combat patched examples like this one, with the badges still on them, are the ones that hold their value.

CONDITION AND DETAILS

Size Large X-Long per the contract label
Fits height 75 to 79 inches (6 ft 3 in to 6 ft 7 in)
Fits chest 41 to 45 inches
NSN 8415-01-327-5315, NATO size 9000/0414
1997 dated contract, UNICOR, Greenville, Illinois
50 percent nylon, 50 percent cotton ripstop
Fabric sound throughout, evenly faded from wear and laundering
7th Infantry Division insignia present and firmly sewn on the left shoulder
4th Infantry Division combat patch present and firmly sewn on the right shoulder
Reversed field flag present and firmly sewn on the right shoulder
Captain’s bars on the right collar, Corps of Engineers castle on the left, both secure
Combat Infantryman Badge and Parachutist Badge both present and secure
FUERST nametape and U.S. ARMY tape both present and secure
All four pockets and flaps intact, all buttons present
Contract label and size label both present and fully legible
No holes, tears or repairs noted

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