The Black Fleece Jacket

It's that time of the year again.

Every winter, people start asking when the wear out date for the Army's black fleece jacket was. Folks have been doing this since at least 2007. [Source]

Yet as you can see in DA PAM 670-1 §4-7d (1 July 2015), the black and green fleece jackets are still authorized. The only question is whether they can be worn as an outer garment -- some commanders say you have to cover it up with some camouflage pattern.

In the past few years, the question about the black fleece jacket has been somewhat of a moot point. The Universal Camouflage Pattern and its green fleece went fairly well together, and by last winter *everyone* had a green fleece jacket. As an added feature, the green fleece had a velcro spots for name and rank, so you could still be recognizable if you wore the PT cap. The question about the black fleece seemed to fade out.

This winter, however, we've got the new Operational Camouflage Pattern (OCP). And while I've still got my older style green fleece jacket, I don't like mixing uniform patterns if I don't have to. Neither do I want to dish out about $90 to buy the OCP fleece if I'm only going to spend one more winter before moving to Hawaii for three years.

So I checked the regulation and then started wearing my black fleece with the uniform I got in Afghanistan (which is only a little different from the OCP, but not really ... anyway nevermind). Given that it has black in the pattern and it matches the new, black PT fleece cap, I figured this is a more appropriate match than the green fleece.

Not only was it in line with regulations, but it was also more fashionable and it didn't cost me anything. Great!

Until somebody sent a text message of me to my boss saying that it's past the wear out date. Although he acknowledged that it is in the regulation and it does look better, he advised me that it's not wise to be the *only* person who takes advantage of an obscure regulation paragraph.

So I guess I'll have to use the UCP cold weather gear, at least for the rest of the season. Too bad -- I wish the Army relied less on rumor and more on good sense.