Two members of Congress, both war veterans, convinced the House Armed Services Committee yesterday that the services should all have the same camouflage patterns for uniforms rather than each having its own. Rep. Bill Enyart, a retired major general, and Rep. Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq war veteran, combined efforts on an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act requiring — with a few exceptions — the services to have a joint combat uniform. The measure passed by a 32-30 vote. Ten camouflage uniforms are in use today and more are being developed; lawmakers think that is more than enough. The Government Accountability Office has questioned the inability of the services to share camouflage designs to save money. The only disparaging word on the amendment came from Rep. Mike Coffman, who has served in the Army and Marine Corps. He said the potential savings would be small and perhaps not worth the complaints and potential harm to morale. The amendment, approved as part of the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act, would prohibit the services from adopting any new combat uniform unless it will be a joint uniform item shared by all of the services or unless the design is already in use by another service.
