173rd Airborne Brigade 2005 Deployment - When did you receive modified uniforms?

Very interesting and thank you for the information as every piece helps put the puzzle together. If you look at the lineage of this actual modification, Paratroopers were putting sleeves on uniforms during WWII. Its surprising that such forward thought, wasn't kept or looked at to be the standard until 60 years later.

SPC Brent Melton - Yes! That was the first thing I noticed when I watched Band of Brothers for the first time.

I had one other quick question for you if you don't mind. I was wondering if you guys had access to sew shops prior to re-deploying home from Northern Delay? I ask because I have a uniform to a PFC that has both a CIB and 173rd combat patch, all in OD green as was worn for that time period. Obviously before deploying, he wouldn't have had those on his uniform. As a follow on, was it encouraged to have a "coming home" uniform made up to look 'good' before coming home?

SPC Brent Melton - Right near the end, a lot of us were near Kirkuk Air Base, the Air Force knew how to build facilities, so when they took over the place, things got built up pretty well, including a sew show or two. I think they were run by local nationals, and I sort of remember some guys having nice new uniforms mailed to them around that time too. There was a general encouragement to have our stuff sewn up, and absolutely there was an imperative to have nice "coming home" uniforms; for months, several months, I had holes in my boots, they were falling to pieces, but I couldn't get a new pair for anything (many requests). A week before we left, a brand new pair shows up-I was actually really angry about it at the time. My PSG, honestly a phenomenal leader and NCO, said we didn't want to the people back home thinking we couldn't supply the troops right, and I argued that we couldn't and whined about how many times I'd asked for new boots, lol . We spent most of OIF I and II sewing our stuff back together with dental floss, walking in boots in pieces, then all of a sudden all the things we wanted came right when it didn't matter anymore. He said shut up and get the new boots! hahah, I chuckle at it now.
The 173rd I went to war with in OIF 1/II was a great unit, with some of the best NCOs and Officers I've served with in my entire career. It set the tone for my entire time in service, so don't get me wrong. I do think there was an imperative to look good coming home, and I was a bit salty about it at the time, but I think it was just a reality of LOG focusing on warfighting stuff early on. I don't blame the unit at all (I've heard similar from other units too). or really even the Army. I was never once low on ammo, we got CAS and Javelin replacements when we asked for them, and none of us thirsted or hungered to death.
I'd do it all again with those men, if somehow I ever had the chance to pick my past.

There, found one from those days, 2006 here.

Great info and it really has been enlightening to fill in the gaps. Assumptions and presumptions have turned to fact which only goes to better understand what truly happened. Beyond that the details you've provided about the day to day life has been a bonus. Thank you again so much for helping

We were kind of an "outlying" group; about fourteen strong living with a couple hundred Soldiers in the middle of an Afghan brigade. We definitely got to do things very, very few Sailors ever do...and hopefully, didn't make a total mare's nest of it in the process.

I only got to deal with the Navy a few times while I was in. One of those, luckily, was when they built our barracks on a tiny COP in the middle of nowhere Diyala Province Iraq. I've seen a few IA uniforms during the course of this, where I scratch my head going "Hes a submariner, why is he in the sand?"

Ha! Yes-strange place to find dolphins for sure! I can only speak for my team; we were coming from lots of different backgrounds. Aviators, Surface Warfare, EOD; we even had (as I understood the story anyway-so I don't claim 100% accuracy) a Reservist who had been an active duty SEAL. We all grouped up at Ft. Dix for what I think was a couple weeks of indoc...then headed out to Ft. Riley for what was two or three months of training. The best way I can describe that was "combat survival training" as opposed to "combat training". Still, it was high quality, focused on the "Big Concepts", from CQB and combatives, to convoy operations, foreign language, and a not insignificant amount of time on the range qualifying. From there, they broke us up into smaller teams; usually around eight, and we headed downrange. Some people stayed at the JTF, others went to hospitals or larger FOBs...a few went to the smaller camps on ANA installations; which is where I ended up as the S3. Each of us "mentored" one to three ANA Garrison officers or NCOs while also serving as Garrison support for the Army ETTs. Once we got there however, manning was always short, and the Army was more than happy to let us fill in where necessary. We ended up standing up security, QRF, and augmenting the Army ETTs outside the wire. Our twelve month rotations were not the same for all classes, so there were people there at the six month point, and people who joined us halfway through our tour. Our replacements showed up in DCUs too BTW...but they had some pretty restrictive orders on what they could/could not do. Guess the Navy got nervous once they found out how many of us were routinely doing stuff other than facilities maintenance.

That's some great info, I love hearing stories like this. There is so much of the story being lost right now, that all of these details help keep it alive. A lot of times I find myself wondering about stories just like yours, with just the 'end' details or maybe a picture I've scrounged online. Thank god for the internet, and places like this, where we can really talk and discuss stuff like this. Thank you for being part of this and so willing to fill in details.