UCP camo is now part of history

Hope Hodge Seck began a eulogy for the Army’s pixelated Universal Camouflage Pattern (UCP) uniform in Military.com: “It blended in well with grandma's couch, but had its drawbacks in the combat zone.”

As of October 1, 2019, UCP is officially a thing of the past. Going forward, all US Army soldiers are required to possess and wear the green-and-brown Operational Camouflage Pattern uniform, or OCP.

Introduced in 2004, the UCP uniform met resistance from the troops. The most common complaint was that it failed in the purpose of camouflage — it didn’t blend in with the surroundings. In fact, by 2010, the Army was sending troops to Afghanistan in a different camouflage patter: MultiCam.

It took five years of testing and evaluations to determine that OCP would become the successor to UCP in 2015. During a transition period that began in July 2015, soldiers were permitted to wear UCPs with sand-colored T-shirt, belt and boots. As of October 1, 2019, all soldiers are required to possess and wear the OCP with T-shirt and belt in "Tan 499" and boots in coyote brown.

And with that, UCP is relegated to closets, thrift stores, surplus outlets, and dealer’s tables.