At Fort Hood in Texas, an order recently came down for a “rush” job on 49 military vehicles — specifically, that they be repainted from their current desert camouflage to a green color that’s more suited to woodlands or temperate climates.
According to The San Antonio Express-News, “Gary Pasley, his partner, David Stidham, and a small team of soldiers had just 19 days to repaint 49 pieces of military equipment ranging from Humvees to medium tactical vehicles” earlier in June.
The GIs washed the vehicles and equipment so Pasley and Stidham could paint them a dull green, covering the familiar desert tan. That prompted Pasley, 44, an Iraq War veteran, to speculate that the Army’s priorities were shifting away from the Middle East and Afghanistan.
“I’m pretty sure that we’re downsizing from that region of the world and kind of focused on our efforts elsewhere, so I would say the vehicle (color) might be terrain appropriate,” Pasley said.
Just where the new focus might be, neither he nor the Army could say.
After 20 years of fighting wars in vehicles painted to match the desert, Fort Hood now has a relative handful of vehicles made over with a basic olive drab — the Army calls it “woodland green” — that can serve as the primer for a common camouflage pattern standardized for each vehicle type.
www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/Fort-Hood-Humvees-paint-scheme-17233592.php