Army Tartan

[davedove]

Hopefully someone here can help me out. I have seen several threads where a Marine Corps Leatherneck tartan is discussed. Does anyone know if there is an Army tartan available? My service was with the Army and I still work there as a civilian, so I would like to get a kilt made in that tartan.

[beerbecue]

There certainly is...

Check out http://www.alexismalcolmkilts.bigste...generic14.html

[davedove]

Thanks, there's not enough time this year, but maybe I can have a kilt in the Army Tartan for Armed Forces Day next year.

That is the only place I have seen that Tartan. Is there any background on it?

[Miah]

I think that the "Army" tartan is kinda new, and the west point tartan is a little newer. I know I talked to Alexis's husband awhile back and for some reason i think i recall him mentioning that Alexis was working with some folks to get the offical Army tartan done. Maybe that pic on her sight is it. Thet are very nice folks and very easy to talk to. If you had any questions I would definitly give them a call.

[macwilkin]

The West Point Tartan is actually fairly old; I believe it dates back to the 70's or 80's. I'll have to check my Company of Military Historians plate of the West Point Pipes & Drums and see when it was adopted.

The US Naval Academy Pipes & Drums wear the Polaris tartan, and they have been around since the 1960's. I also have another CMH plate of the US Air Force Reserve P & D when they were wearing the Mitchell tartan (in honour of Gen. Billy Mitchell), and before they adopted their present tartan.

Cheers,

Todd

[Riverkilt]

This is stretching the thread (sorry) but I've been looking for a British Army camo pattern kilt.

One of the British contemporary kilt makers had them but discontinued them...not a good sign.

Ron
Camo Kilt Junkie

[davedove]

I asked Alexis about the Army tartan and here is her response:

The U. S. Army tartan was commissioned a year ago by a former U. S. Army "Dark Horse Unit" Vietnam veteran
named Raymond Jones.
Ray was tired of the fact that his brother, Eugene a
career U.S. Navy chief, had a military tartan to wear
and he did not.
Ray commissioned us to come up with a design and get
the tartan registered with the Tartan Registry in
Scotland.
We put all the U.S. Army colors in the tartan and Ray
is working with the Powers That Be to make it the
official U. S. Army tartan.

[Alan H]

I've seen refernces to the Polaris tartan and the "edzell tartan for the US navy. What's the difference?

[macwilkin]

The Polaris tartan was designed for the officers and men of the American Submarine base at the Holy Loch - making the Polaris submarine the first ship in history to have its own tartan. The idea came from Captain Walter F Schlech, Commander of the submarine base. It proved very popular with the men who served there, as it provided a very powerful symbol of there newly found link with Scotland.

There is some doubt as to the exact nature of the pattern. The arrangement of stripes between the yellows is, or should be, blue-sky-blue, but many pictures show green-blue-green. The Scottish Tartans Authority have it as black-blue-black.

MIDN Van Vorst wrote to House of Tartan, "I was on the original committee establishing the USNA Pipes and Drums. When we were researching which tartan to use we discovered that although both Edzell and Polaris had attachments to the Navy, there is NO official tartan of the U.S. Navy as a whole. We chose Polaris over Edzell for a number of reasons, thus making Polaris the only tartan officially in use by an ACTIVE duty Navy unit. Although there is a pipe band made up of former and Reserve Naval personnel that uses the Edzell tartan, they are not sanctioned by the U.S. Navy. Your site is not the only one to list Edzell as belonging to the U.S. Navy. Hopefully, this has cleared up some confusion."

-- http://www.electricscotland.com/tartans/story3.htm

My priest was stationed at Holy Loch when he was a "ranker" in the US Navy, btw.

Cheers,

Todd