Soldiers should expect units to look a little less uniform during the transition phase, Mortlock said. Commanders will not be allowed to force soldiers to buy replacement uniforms just to match the unit; he noted that this isn’t the first time the Army has had multiple authorized uniforms when transitioning camo patterns.
Along with the new camo, the Army is introducing new coyote brown boots and a darker shade of belt and T-shirt for use with OCP and MultiCam. During the transition, soldiers can wear the old sand-colored boots, belts and shirts with their new camo pattern — and they can mix in the new darker elements, such as wearing sand-colored boots with the new darker-tan T-shirt, or vice versa. That’s helpful in part because the new coyote brown boots won’t be available until August.
However, the reverse doesn’t work. Soldiers can’t wear new boots, belts or T-shirts with the old gray-green ACUs — UCP unis have to be worn with the sand-colored accessories.
