I just finished up a story for Military.com News about the last Taliban stronghold in Sangin, Afghanistan, when I ran across this photo.
I think I'd heard something about this a while ago, but it seems as if grunts from 3/5, which has been doing a lot of the fighting there, have opted to wear their woodland helmet covers while retaining the desert Marpat for everything else.
We reported that Marines would be given the option to mix and match back in December.
If you search through the archives of combat photos from Sangin, you'll see that there are a lot of irrigation ditches and such that go from white/tan canals to lush green fields in one body length. So it makes sense to kit out with this mix and match.
We'd love to hear from anyone who's in the AO -- or has just gotten back -- about the history and logic of this intriguing setup. Reminds me of the Brits who mixed and died their uniforms when they were in charge in Sangin.
