CARSON CITY, Nev. - Soldiers in the Nevada Army Guard marked the end of the Battle Dress Uniform era throughout the state this week by reaching deep into their closets to wear the iconic woodland-camouflage pattern fatigue one last time before the Pentagon's BDU wear out date of April 30.
Dozens of Soldiers across the state pressed their BDUs and polished their leather, black boots for the final days of wear April 29-30 for two informal "BDU retro-days" across the state. Soldiers clad in BDUs at each of Nevada's 19 armories marked the end of the road for BDUs with a photo at the end of the duty day.
"It was hard to let go of the BDU uniform," said Staff Sgt. Elias Perez of the Counterdrug task force at the Plumb Lane Armory in Reno. "One could always see the pride of a Soldier reflected in their BDU uniform. If you saw a pressed uniform and highly-polished boots, you knew the Soldier was a professional and took pride in his job."
Counterdrug Sgt. Eric Hintermeyer said the final day for the BDU created opinionated discussion about past and present Army uniforms.
"The BDU was a landmark uniform that we will never see again," Hintermeyer said. "Some people prefer the ACUs while others felt the BDU was a more professional uniform. The BDU was the standard uniform everyone associated with Army for decades."
The idea to pull the BDUs out one last time came from Lt. Col. Jeff Hansen, the commander of the 422nd Signal Battalion in Reno. The public affairs office marketed the idea and the informal BDU retro-day was created.
BDUs served as the standard military uniform for the Army for about 30 years. They were first issued to recruits in 1978 and later distributed to all Soldiers in late 1981. The Army announced it would replace BDUs with the Army Combat Uniform on the Army's 229th birthday, June 14, 2004, and subsequently began distributing ACUs in April 2005. In the transition period, Soldiers have been authorized to wear either ACUs or BDUs.
April 30 also marked the wear-out date for the Desert Battle Dress uniform, brown t-shirts, black leather combat boots, black rigger belts, and green and black jungle boots.
"Saying goodbye to BDUs is like saying goodbye to the old Army," Perez said. "Nowadays, we have new uniforms, new tactics and new deployments. We have to keep up with the new Army."
Although now nearly just a memory alongside the olive-drab "OD" uniforms and Ike's jackets, there are still a few opportunities for authorized wear of the woodland camouflage pattern. Reserve Officer Training Corps students may wear BDUs through April 2009 and the cold weather woodland field jacket is authorized through Sept. 30, 2010.
Next up on the Army endangered uniform list is the Army Green service uniform. The new blue Army Service Uniform is set to replace both the Class A green uniform as well as the Army white uniform and will be adopted Army-wide in 2011.