The US Aggressor Force Uniform | Field Guide — Transcript

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1. 0:00Welcome to another episode of Field
2. 0:03Guide.
3. 0:04I'm Charles McFarland, the resident East
4. 0:07Coast military historian, not to be
5. 0:09confused with our West [music] Coast
6. 0:11brethren. And today we're going to be
7. 0:12talking about a rather strange military
8. 0:15uniform dating from the 1950s. Maybe
9. 0:18some of you are already familiar with
10. 0:19this. This is Aggressor, the friendly
11. 0:22enemy, as he was called in the 1950s and
12. 0:251960s. Kind of this emerald green
13. 0:28almost. Kind of known in the army as
14. 0:32army green shade 255. And what this
15. 0:35uniform was designed and made for was
16. 0:39for what they call the Aggressor Force.
17. 0:42The Aggressor Force is very similar to
18. 0:45what would now be called the OpFor or
19. 0:48Opposition Force. So the idea being that
20. 0:50for more realistic training exercises,
21. 0:54kind of you know, field maneuvers and
22. 0:55war games, that there needed to be a
23. 0:57realistic enemy for the US Army to kind
24. 1:00of square off against. So starting in
25. 1:02the late 1940s out of
26. 1:04Camp Riley in Kansas, the US Army
27. 1:07designed and then kind of built out this
28. 1:09whole world and lore of a fictionalized
29. 1:13country and army for the US Army to then
30. 1:16kind of meet in fake battle for training
31. 1:19purposes. The uniform is essentially
32. 1:23the same as the US Army uniform of the
33. 1:26period. This is a essentially a M-51
34. 1:29field jacket. These are pretty basic
35. 1:31fatigue trousers, kind of cut in the
36. 1:32same style as a lot of
37. 1:34late 1940s army trousers. And like you
38. 1:38know, kind of just a a matching shirt as
39. 1:41well. We'll get into like kind of the
40. 1:42whole uniform a little bit later, but
41. 1:45the true kind of thing that that really
42. 1:47sets it apart is the the very
43. 1:49distinctive kind of emerald green, you
44. 1:51know, of it. Part of the idea of the
45. 1:54Aggressor Forces is that as I said,
46. 1:56there was a whole fictionalized kind of
47. 1:57country, structure, organization. This
48. 2:00was to kind of provide a more dynamic
49. 2:02and realistic training. By having its
50. 2:05own rank structure and organizational
51. 2:06structure, this would provide the
52. 2:08ability for US soldiers training to, you
53. 2:12know, kind of to study a foreign army,
54. 2:15um,
55. 2:15foreign organization, understand that
56. 2:17organization.
57. 2:18As simple as like, "Oh, well, you know,
58. 2:21we're squaring off against a unit of
59. 2:23aggressors with, you know, red
60. 2:25insignia." Well, we actually have a
61. 2:27manual here that tells us what that
62. 2:29means. Like, you know, what kind of unit
63. 2:31is this? Are they, you know, fusiliers
64. 2:33or are they airborne? What does that say
65. 2:35about kind of the organizational
66. 2:37structure, etc., etc. It provides a more
67. 2:39well-rounded, you know, way of training.
68. 2:42You know, the counter example to that,
69. 2:44right, would be, you know, how they did
70. 2:46it during World War II, right? And why
71. 2:48they deemed it necessary to to build out
72. 2:50something different, which is
73. 2:52essentially, you know, you had these
74. 2:53large maneuvers in uh, Tennessee,
75. 2:55[music] for example, right? Where
76. 2:57different corps of the US Army were
77. 3:00essentially just wearing different color
78. 3:02armbands, blue and [music] red. And the
79. 3:04blue and red sides were just meeting
80. 3:06each other and kind of maneuvering
81. 3:08around each other and kind of squaring
82. 3:09off.
83. 3:10But they were facing an enemy that had
84. 3:12the exact [music] same mirror structure,
85. 3:15same tactics, organization, everything
86. 3:17was the same. Not only was it just
87. 3:19uniform and [music] insignia, they
88. 3:21actually, you know, even adopted a kind
89. 3:23of an official language, which was uh,
90. 3:25Esperanto, which was [music] a kind of
91. 3:27a, um, a made-up language, one of the
92. 3:29more popular made-up languages. All the
93. 3:31soldiers who were kind of dressed up as
94. 3:33aggressors, they all had identification
95. 3:36paperwork, all of that all in this other
96. 3:38language, right? [music]
97. 3:40So, that again it allowed, um, for a
98. 3:42more a more dynamic and realistic, um,
99. 3:46training scenario. [music]
100. 3:47>> Al la kaŭzo.
101. 3:49Por kio tiel multaj da vi kamaradoj
102. 3:54devi
103. 3:55for readers until V.
104. 4:00>> If you are familiar with the M-51 field
105. 4:02jacket, that's what we got going on
106. 4:04here. This is one of the later model
107. 4:06aggressor
108. 4:08field jackets. This is kind of again
109. 4:10like a straight M-51, the earlier model
110. 4:13that's kind of reproduced by The Real
111. 4:15McCoy's for example is is the earlier
112. 4:17one
113. 4:18which has exposed buttons you know here
114. 4:20and here. It's slightly different. You
115. 4:22know actually right after World War II
116. 4:24kind of the first generation of
117. 4:25aggressor forces, they were just over
118. 4:27dying M-43 field jackets mostly in black
119. 4:31before they kind of designed this this
120. 4:33whole new look. You know kind of
121. 4:35everything matches, right? So like
122. 4:36they're kind of just you know they're
123. 4:37making this completely new jacket. This
124. 4:38isn't over dyed.
125. 4:40Um
126. 4:41So we'll open this guy up. I do love the
127. 4:43kind of the contrast lining because they
128. 4:45they do just kind of use the standard
129. 4:47army US Army lining.
130. 4:49And you can see here which is kind of
131. 4:51cool. I just noticed this the other day
132. 4:52that this model that I have here was
133. 4:54actually made by Alpha Industries kind
134. 4:56of the the famous
135. 4:59MA-1 kind of jacket brand. And then
136. 5:02below
137. 5:03which is kind of maybe the more
138. 5:06the most unique piece of uniform that
139. 5:08really does not
140. 5:10have any kind of analogous in the US
141. 5:13Army is this pullover smock type shirt,
142. 5:16right? So you can see here you know the
143. 5:17kind of the placket ends. You have these
144. 5:19kind of very distinctive you know kind
145. 5:21of
146. 5:23angled pockets. And then up here too you
147. 5:26probably noticed already these grommets.
148. 5:27These are you know to allow for more
149. 5:29European style or you know frankly
150. 5:32Russian style
151. 5:34rank insignia to be fitted in. You know
152. 5:36the way the uniform was set up
153. 5:38was in cold weather the the shirt was
154. 5:41worn inside,
155. 5:42but during you know warm weather
156. 5:44operations this was worn out. Again very
157. 5:46much mimicking, you know, a a Russian
158. 5:49style uniform and was belted across the
159. 5:52front. They wore a folded poncho across
160. 5:56the chest. Everything was kind of
161. 5:58designed to give [music] these soldiers
162. 6:00a more distinctive foreign foreign look
163. 6:04to the US soldier, right? They had they
164. 6:05had they wore these helmets that added
165. 6:07like a a kind of a weird like crest to
166. 6:11it. We'll we'll we'll put some photos
167. 6:12in, too, cuz it's just so it's so weird
168. 6:14and unique. What makes these jackets and
169. 6:17this whole uniform rather unique is
170. 6:18that, you know, as one could imagine,
171. 6:20there really wasn't a need for a whole
172. 6:22lot of these and they were used, you
173. 6:25know, throughout the 19 late 1940s,
174. 6:271950s [music]
175. 6:28into the 1960s when the US Army is kind
176. 6:31of started to change again
177. 6:33what they what they viewed as their, you
178. 6:35know, their aggressor force or their
179. 6:36opposition force
180. 6:37>> [music]
181. 6:37>> to really taking on more of a Warsaw
182. 6:39Pact Soviet style, right? So, they kind
183. 6:42of scrapped all of these uniforms.
184. 6:44Supposedly, according to some people,
185. 6:46you know, a lot of these uniforms were
186. 6:48burned or destroyed [music] when they
187. 6:50were no longer kind of being used and a
188. 6:53more kind of Soviet style uniform
189. 6:55replaced it,
190. 6:56which is kind of what you then see
191. 6:58through [music] the 1970s until really,
192. 7:01you know, the '90s when things change
193. 7:03again. And like today, for example,
194. 7:05like, you know, there's kind of also,
195. 7:07you know, an OPFOR uniform design that's
196. 7:10not as like thought out and thorough as
197. 7:12this and is much more kind of um you
198. 7:15know, what's commercially available in
199. 7:16the kind of, you know, uniform space. To
200. 7:19go into a little bit more of the lore of
201. 7:21the not just not the uniform, but the
202. 7:23actual um the history that was made up
203. 7:26for this fictionalized enemy. Again,
204. 7:29we'll we'll put in some photos here of
205. 7:31their kind of their national the
206. 7:32national symbol of the the aggressor
207. 7:35force, which was the
208. 7:37the Circle Trigon Party.
209. 7:39Again, this is kind of all made up in
210. 7:41[music] the late 1940s and really is
211. 7:43like based on not so much I mean at the
212. 7:47beginning, you know, it's not so much
213. 7:49based on Cold War anxiety as much as
214. 7:52it's based on anxiety from the end of
215. 7:54[music] World War II. So, the
216. 7:56fictionalized history of this fake place
217. 7:59is that Nazis escaping at the end of
218. 8:01World War II kind of held up in the
219. 8:03Bavarian Alps and kind of start their
220. 8:05their new fascist project, the Circle
221. 8:07Trigon Party, which then spreads to
222. 8:10first to Tyrol and then to northern
223. 8:13Italy and then France and kind of you
224. 8:15builds out a um
225. 8:17>> [music]
226. 8:17>> a professional fighting force from there
227. 8:19that can challenge Western European
228. 8:22forces. You can find this map that has
229. 8:24the different campaigns of the the
230. 8:27aggressor that the
231. 8:28>> [music]
232. 8:28>> the Circle Trigon Army. They build this
233. 8:30whole fictionalized universe where they,
234. 8:33you know, invade parts of New England,
235. 8:36parts of Florida, Kansas, you know, and
236. 8:39a lot of that now is starting to be
237. 8:40based on fears around the Cold War. So,
238. 8:43not only do they kind of have this this
239. 8:45[music] uniform, right, that's
240. 8:47distinctive and different, it's also the
241. 8:49whole unit and rank structure, the
242. 8:52[music] the rank patches,
243. 8:54the insignia. And for that, they do
244. 8:56something rather creative, which is
245. 8:58they're using just [music] American
246. 9:00patches but just in a different way,
247. 9:03right? So, they're wearing chevrons
248. 9:05upside down instead of right side up.
249. 9:07They're using overseas,
250. 9:10you know, hash marks to as ranks instead
251. 9:13of, you know, um
252. 9:14what they're what they mean in the US
253. 9:16Army, which is kind of time spent
254. 9:17overseas, for example. So, they're using
255. 9:20like the the giant stockpile
256. 9:22and already made patches but just kind
257. 9:26of using them in in new [music] and
258. 9:27unique ways. And the idea being this
259. 9:29provides a realistic kind of
260. 9:31intelligence scenario where you can have
261. 9:33intelligence gathering and you know,
262. 9:35field interrogation, things like that
263. 9:37that are based on real things and not
264. 9:38just based on the US Army's own rank
265. 9:41structure.
266. 9:44Yeah, so the way that So, because this
267. 9:46was based out of, you know, Fort Riley,
268. 9:48Kansas, right?
269. 9:50Different units came through, but there
270. 9:52would be like a designated like these
271. 9:54this is the aggressor force. This is the
272. 9:56unit that always does that. And we have
273. 9:58that kind of now as well, where there
274. 10:00are
275. 10:01there are two units in the US Army that
276. 10:03they're basically their job is to be the
277. 10:05op four. I mean, again, like the color I
278. 10:07keep on coming back to the color. The
279. 10:08color is so
280. 10:10it's so unique and cool and like I think
281. 10:12if you didn't know better,
282. 10:13you would assume that this was some kind
283. 10:15of, you know, fashion brands kind of
284. 10:17riff on a field jacket, right? Just made
285. 10:20it in a in a different color. That's the
286. 10:22kind of why I find it kind of such an
287. 10:23interesting interesting piece. It's just
288. 10:25it feels so
289. 10:26unmilitary, but it's all, you know, when
290. 10:29you feel it, it's it's distinctively
291. 10:31this is a piece of
292. 10:32of military uniform. So, that that's it
293. 10:35for this field guide.
294. 10:37We're going to be working on a few other
295. 10:39ones coming up. Again, based not so much
296. 10:41on individual uniform pieces, but full
297. 10:43uniform design from the Cold War. As
298. 10:46always, please let me know if you want
299. 10:49to hear history of something that we
300. 10:50haven't covered. Always like to hear
301. 10:53what you guys want. And until next time,
302. 10:56thanks.