Calling All Miltary Veterans

[kilted redleg]

Yes there are tartans for all the branches of service but what of this problem - the veteran does not like the tartan created for his or hers' branch. Case in point I served in the U.S. Army and would not be caught dead in the tartan made for the Army. 1) It names two units I have nothing to do with; gold for Calvary I was in the artillery and light green for snipers, which I was not, dark blue for the original dress uniform not. George Washington is in black the dark blue uniform came into use when it was adopted by the union army. Olive green for the combat uniform? Somebody tell the kids in middle east to turn in their desert tan uniforms for olive drab. 2) When we are buried [and I cannot speak about how it is done in our other brother veteran's countries] we have the distinct honor of having the nation's flag covering our caskets not our branch of service flag, before they lower the casket the honor guard respectfully and with great dignity folds the flag and gives it to the remaining relative saying something to the effect of "On behalf of the President of the United States and a grateful nation we present to you this flag as a token of appreciation for the honorable service [insert name] has given this Nation." The surviving relative is then saluted and as the volley of gun fire is heard and sometimes taps is played the casket is lowered into the grave. My point is if we did not die on the field of battle we die as veterans of... It was just an idea, as all of you on this forum know somewhere out there is a kilt kop waiting to tell someone unless you served you can't wear that tartan. A veteran tartan could avoid that with the simple retort " I'm honoring those who keep me and this nation free." I'll end this tirade with a big KUDOS TO CELTICSIRE that's a great tartan you created one I'd be proud to wear.

[Luke MacGillie]

Point of order, this is an actual piece of a sleeve from a Continental Army uniform coat.

Its blue.....

can be found here, part of Don Troiani's collection.

http://www.historicalimagebank.com/g...+copy.jpg.html

[Benning Boy]

I see no need for a generic US military veterans tartan. I have been working on a better Army tartan. It is quite obvious what we know as US Army tartan represents only one man's service and some of its meaning is spurious.

The Army black and gold is based in West Point's sports team colors. It's incorporation into regular Army insignia is fairly recent. Even though I wore those colors on my uniform, they were always to me ring knockers' colors and a bit put offish. The only color that meant any thing to me was Infantry Blue.

The Army colors (flag) is white, blue and red. Throughout its entire history, starting in 1779, blue has been the predominate primary uniform color, more so than recently. I wouldn't want to see Green used to represent the Army. Actual green only had a brief service.

Trying to incorporate colors for all the many service uniform color variations would be folly. Tartan in camo colors might be appropriate for a "hunting" tartan. But, between the services there have been so many camo colors where would you begin to select those for a representative tartan. Back in the '80s LL Bean sold plaid, in the American sense, jackets woven in woodland camouflage colors.

[Steve Ashton]

US Army Infantry branch.




Pleated to display the stripe.

[kilted redleg]

I stand corrected Luke in basic training at Fort Knox when taught the history of the Army I was told it was black.

Thanks Solider

[kilted redleg]

Steve where to do find all these tartans? I didn't see any of these in the Scottish Registry

[Katia]

Yes there are tartans for all the branches of service but what of this problem - the veteran does not like the tartan created for his or hers' branch.

I imagine the answer is the same as "what if I don't like my family tartan*." What if someone makes a generic veterans' tartan and you don't like that? Ugly tartans happen.

*I always thought, at least that's one advantage of not being Scottish and hence not having claim to a tartan... no disappointment if I hate "my" tartan, or guilt if I choose to wear something else... I was just always grateful that I liked my pipe band's tartan (and the fact that they don't wear spats...)! I'm not fond of any other regional or organizational tartan I would be entitled to, so I'm always glad the XMarks tartan is nice and I can fall back on that!

[Benning Boy]

Yes, ugly tartans happen, and many of them have been designed by the same person, and one of them is very populat here. Put the right name on it and an ugly tartan will sell. Although I'm not for a GP vet tartan, one would sell no matter the look.

[figheadair]

Steve where to do find all these tartans? I didn't see any of these in the Scottish Registry

You need to understand the SRT is not a register of all tartans, in fact it's doubtful whether there could ever be such a thing. Apart from some legacy designs from other databases that formed the basis of the SRT one, they only add designs when an applicant pays to register them. As a consequence, most of the recent commercial designs are not included because the manufacturers don't see the need to record their design.

The Scottish Tartans Authority undoubtedly has the largest number of tartans on record, nearly 10,000 now but the majority are in their Master Database which is an offline (non-public) reference.

[Luke MacGillie]

I stand corrected Luke in basic training at Fort Knox when taught the history of the Army I was told it was black.

Thanks Solider

No worries, I am way deep in the weeds on 18th Century uniforms. More so on Brits than the Americans, but I have files on all of them.

Many people do not realize this, but from 1778 till the end of the war, most US units were actually wearing uniforms produced in France. Here is a quote from one of the contracts between the Representatives of the Continental Congress in France and a French military supplier:

"Ten thousand uniforms, one half of Royal blue cloth and the other half of brown cloth fully lined, with facings and lapels of red, white Buttons, waistcoats and breeches of white, twilled Tricot , conforming to a model [pattern] mutually agreed upon and
furnished, in return for 38 livres per suit complete"