YES!!!

Money well-spent.

Gimme!

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CPL Conley, D. A06/TQ2.0.72147E1



"To err is human; to forgive, divine... Neither of which is Marine Corps policy."
"In Onoraigh Ar Marbh" ~ We Honor Our Fallen

Awesome Derek!! Just awesome!!

And, you're right Kevin, I had totally forgotten about the epaulets, breast pockets, etc.

Dangit! Well heck, I wuz just lookin' out for us, tryin' to save a little cash...

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USCM- The Colonial Marines- A Brotherhood of Bad Asses!

In the bank!

Dom,

Hey... no one's really heard much about your stance on this project lately... spill your opinion!

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CPL Conley, D. A06/TQ2.0.72147E1



"To err is human; to forgive, divine... Neither of which is Marine Corps policy."
"In Onoraigh Ar Marbh" ~ We Honor Our Fallen

I'm taking a back-burner approach... don't want to step on any toes or crush anyone's expectations. Last time I opened my big mouth I almost started a fight...

Yeah, but thats anywhere you go...lol


Derek

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Cpl D. Smith CMD
A04/TQ1.0.62147E1


RIP Pvt. Chris Chulamanis A14/TQ4.0.66993E7 You are missed.

I know you were Bro- and it is appreciated!

If saving is still a big factor (personally I would like to save $200 some odd dollars on this project)- I vote we go with the USMC jacket.

Last check of the jacket poll- the Marine Corps jacket was slightly in the lead. I'm actually surprised at the total number of votes that have been cast (21 so far). I never believed that there were that many of us actively interested in this project. I always thought there were about of dozen of us at most.

I'm still going ahead with the experiment I mentioned earlier. I won a USMC jacket last night- probably take a couple of weeks to arrive as it is coming from Hawaii. I'm going to have the cuffs professionally removed.

Once that is done, you guys can share your views on how it looks. If most everyone still wants to go with a custom Honor Guard jacket- I will get one no questions asked.

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I told you I'd shoot, but you didn't believe me! WHY DIDN'T YOU BELIEVE ME!?!

Personally, I see no reason whatsoever to remove the cuffs.

These jackets are very well-made. The cuff looks good on the jacket.

I understand the whole "we don't want to piss anyone off" mentality, but I really think the paranoia level is a bit too high on it.

Here's another alternative as well: Instead of brass or gold buttons, we go with silver. Currently, the only Marine authorized to use silver buttons on a dress uniform is the Silent Drill Team Inspector.

So, this, IMHO, would be a good way to move away from the current uniform even further. Perhaps silver buttons represent stars or something. Who knows.

Thoughts?

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CPL Conley, D. A06/TQ2.0.72147E1



"To err is human; to forgive, divine... Neither of which is Marine Corps policy."
"In Onoraigh Ar Marbh" ~ We Honor Our Fallen

Since the collar pins are chromed, chrome buttons could work rather well.

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"The other Gareth"

I was just thinking that as I was running errands (yes, I'm obsessed and think about this stuff when I'm out) and just logged in to post that.

You beat me to it.

The other thing I was thinking was this: Dom, you wore a USCM Drill Instructor uniform, complete with Smokey Bear cover and NCO sabre. Did anyone give you crap about it?

I'm willing to bet they didn't...

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CPL Conley, D. A06/TQ2.0.72147E1



"To err is human; to forgive, divine... Neither of which is Marine Corps policy."
"In Onoraigh Ar Marbh" ~ We Honor Our Fallen

I'm not at all worried about "pissing someone off".

I just don't like the USMC jacket. Especially those bell bottom cuffs.

I guess I'll stop there cuz it really isn't helping.

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Jay Pennington

I don't mind the USMC jacket - my only concern was slapping those big patches on it which made it look nothing like a dress uniform but it was thought necessary to stop it looking like regular dress blues

The main reason I liked the custom jacket was because it was custom - we could make it our own but as the price difference is so great the USMC option may be the more popular.

Silver buttons would look very smart indeed and would make it look less USMC as well - if we also went with the black belt idea that would move it even further away from the standard marines dress blues - if that's enough and we don't put the patches on it I'm happy.

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Paul "Dust" Massey
A05/TQ1.0.22148E1


Phoenix Rising | My Blog | Facebook | MySpace

XBox Live: "the DustRoom" | Wii: 7062 7508 0398 7441

Yeah... you're right of course. No problem then, the cuffs can stay on.



I'm totally up for that! While in WalMart the other week- I was checking out various buttons. I was looking at the silver ones as well as the gold. They both looked just as good.

Perhaps we should allow ourselves some latitude with how the uniform should ultimately look? As there are some eclectic tastes here, so long as the basic overall shape/colour/cover/belt are the same, then maybe we could allow some variances in patches (placement as well as number- if any)?

I know I was a staunch proponent for "every uniform must be equal", however that mindset cause this project to come to a screeching halt last time.

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I told you I'd shoot, but you didn't believe me! WHY DIDN'T YOU BELIEVE ME!?!

With this idea , some latitude could be good could be bad.How about an idea that eack country of origin could tweak their uniform?

This could allow for some latitude by folks , we would just have to get say all the persons from the respective countries to agree then. LOL.

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SFC
Michael Larson
Minnesota-USA

A03/TQ1.0.92141E1

Well, if I'm not mistaken... hold on, lemme get my trusty Tech Manual...

Okay, here we go... pg. 9 -

"The Colonial Marines do not encourage individualized unit badges as the Army does, largely because the Marines prize their unique identity as a service. Individual unit markings are usually limited to providing unit data and ship deployment. However, on distant worlds far from direct command, unofficial unit markings have been known to appear."

So, it may not be too far-fetched to state that the uniform may have slightly differing variations depending on where the Marine is stationed.

But to be totally differing and whacked-out may make people go... "Um, hey, why do you all look different?"

Also, I submit this great photo for informational purposes. I believe this is from a Marine Technical Sergeant (rank no longer exists), possibly from around 1937 to 1946. I show it because... look at that sleeve... above the hash marks... I'm not sure exactly what that patch or insignia means (I'm trying to research that for my own curiousity) but... it shows the Corps had a patch at one point on the sleeve itself, though I'm willing to bet it was specific to the Technical Sergeant rank. (Also notice the lack of pockets!)

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CPL Conley, D. A06/TQ2.0.72147E1



"To err is human; to forgive, divine... Neither of which is Marine Corps policy."
"In Onoraigh Ar Marbh" ~ We Honor Our Fallen

looks like it's some kind of occupation badge.
late 1800's to the mid 20th century some combat forces had badges for the different MOSs like radio, signal, artillery, things like that. German armry both ww1 and 2 had tons of different ones.

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SFC
Michael Larson
Minnesota-USA

A03/TQ1.0.92141E1

Or this guy either---



Found this from a D-Con 2007 picture site (the links are now up on the Dragon Con site by the way).

My guess is this is a set of pre-WWI Dress Blues. And is that a (gasp) replica Medal of Honor he's wearing?

Of course this is a uniform no longer in use, and he would be considred a re-enactor.

Pretty intriguing picture you posted there Derek- I've also seen pics of Dress Blues (WWII era) with a 1st Division "Guadalcanal" patch on the shoulder- so patches are not completely unprecedented.

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I told you I'd shoot, but you didn't believe me! WHY DIDN'T YOU BELIEVE ME!?!

Nope... I guess they were too scared to. but seriously, no.... it went pretty well.

So I took a trip out to Toronto to one of my favourite military surplus stores to have a looksee. I wanted to pick up some blue army SSgt rank, and see about finding the right size for a cover (by trying on some various sizes).

While there- I came across some Royal Military College Canada dress tunics. They are high collar coats, navy blue in colour (not exactly midnight black/blue), with silver buttons.



Pretty cool eh?

The ones I saw had gold piping on them (just around the collar like the mannequin pictured above). Unfortunately, all of them had some serious damage such as both epaulettes torn off (guess that guy got kicked out ), or the front half of the collar missing (again looking like it was torn apart). I tried one on for the hell of it- needless to say it was cool none the less!

So moving onto the rank patches- they had one and only one blue SSgt army rank. I talked to Nick, the owner (who has known me for nearly 20 years) and asked if he had at least one more. He asks his son, who goes on to say he has no idea, but will start looking through the boxes behind the counter.

What does Nick say to his son? "Oh don't worry- forget about it." And then tells me to come back in a few of days after they have gone through the stock.

Talk about a lousy way to treat a loyal customer!

Anyway- I still grabbed the one blue rank patch they did have:



This is kinda hard to show with a picture. The background is nice and dark- nearly black (although you can still tell that it is not black when placed against a black surface). The border however is a little lighter and can easily be seen as being blue and not black. It will kinda stand out against the blackness of the USMC tunic.

Of course this still beats green rank insignia hands down.

_________________
I told you I'd shoot, but you didn't believe me! WHY DIDN'T YOU BELIEVE ME!?!

Man, I wish we could get custom rank patches with the delta in the center... like where the crossed rifles ar now on current USMC rank...




Anyways, Kev, those tunics look great! Are they available anywhere... or.... ?

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CPL Conley, D. A06/TQ2.0.72147E1



"To err is human; to forgive, divine... Neither of which is Marine Corps policy."
"In Onoraigh Ar Marbh" ~ We Honor Our Fallen

The ones I saw in the surplus store were not in good shape, and they wanted $89.99 for them.

The one I tried on juuuuuust fit me. I even tried a female one on by accident.

A search on ebay has turned up one store who sells them in auction format only (so technically I can't directly link to the auction). Here is the ebay store:

armysur

Scroll down to (CANADIAN MILITARY DRESS UNIFORM VARIOUS SIZES). Unfortunately he states he only has sizes 40 or smaller.

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I told you I'd shoot, but you didn't believe me! WHY DIDN'T YOU BELIEVE ME!?!

Our rank is dark blue against RAF blue/gray. It is a very obvious difference but doesn't look out of place.

I don't think that the blue of the rank against a black tunic will really be a problem. We might just need to balance it a bit.
For example. If we ended up going with a mudguard or USCM breast patch with the same dark blue background, or whatever other patch may be used, that might be enough to balance the colours.

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"The other Gareth"

I'm tired of fussin' about w/ this tunic. I think Kevin found a potentially excellent alternative tunic. Perhaps other countries might have them as well?

The sizing is looking to be more and more of a potential issue. My supplier of the USMC tunics says that above a size 42 is RARE.

Swell, 'eh?

_________________


USCM- The Colonial Marines- A Brotherhood of Bad Asses!

Great find, Kev. If we found an affordable source for those....

I also like the rank patch you found. I think the colors would work fine...as you said, better than green!

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Jay Pennington

(Double post- sorry)

_________________
I told you I'd shoot, but you didn't believe me! WHY DIDN'T YOU BELIEVE ME!?!