What is that Color?

Mad Hatter said:

I recently acquired a mint US military trench coat, it is hard to date as I know nothing about contract numbers and such but I'd suspect this one though in as new would perhaps date from the early 80's. I can't see a lot of change over the years so I'm confident I can wear it with my WW2 Pinks and Greens as the WW2 ones frankly look identical. The thing is I can't find a reference to the color. It looks almost light sage green in some light and more of a tan in others. Does anyone know the correct color name for this?

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Mad Hatter said:

Yeah, not so much... From my experience Khaki is tan not green? In some light it does look on the tan side, but in others it looks very minty green.

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Mad Hatter said:

Thanks for the info. Being from Canada I don't no any one who served in the US forces. I'm guessing it is Army, and is most certainly 80's vintage as it has a DLA# (DLA100-86-C) which would make it 1978-1993 issue. The 86 unless I'm misreading it, would indicate a 1986 manufacture date. It's a frustrating color as it goes anywhere from a tan, through sage green. All in all it was more out of curiosity as I like it and you don't see them up here. I think it's also fine for ww2 re-enacting as it is very similar to those worn and it looks like the style didn't change a whole lot if at all from those issued. Of course lot's of photos show private purchase items, and anyone dabbling into ww2 knows that there were wide variances in uniform colors and styles even among military contractors never mind all of the private purchase suppliers. I think realistically it's really hard to be too picky with ww2 as even in photos there are wide variations even in the same group.

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BlueTrain said:

That trenchcoat looks like a US Marine Corps item to me. There never was an official US Army trenchcoat like that, although they were unofficially worn during WWII by officers. Never put that much faith in what army regulations (any army) have to say about what soldiers wear. Certain items may be difficult to obtain and the commanding officer may have his own ideas about the way things should be. Then, too, individual soldiers just might have an opinion on the subject, too. There can also be a lot of flexibility in uniforms if you read the fine print, which would be rare.

The British started the fashion for trenchcoats in WWI and I don't even think they were ever mentioned in regulations even for them. But they were certainly widely worn and in a variety of styles. From what I have read, the good ones with a lining were fairly expensive, too, but considered essential for the front-line officer. The British also started the fashion for Sam Browne belts, too.

When I was in the army, up until 1968, a "taupe" color raincoat was issued. It was trench-coat styling but you would only have thought raincoat when you saw it. It was thin. I have no idea if it was a good raincoat or not because I never wore mine. At some point after I got out of the service, a green trenchcoat for all ranks was on issue. Aside from the color, it looked like a proper military trenchcoat. As I recall, the color was sort of a pale green but I can't describe it any better. There wasn't a hint of khaki to it. I don't know when the black all-weather coat come along.

Khaki doesn't mean the same thing to everyone. To some, it means olive-drab. To others, it means a tan color. In the US Army, khaki generally never meant olive-drab, which was always wool. Khaki was always cotton. A khaki-color wool uniform was nearly always called "tropical worsted," or "TWs." They were usually a browner or darker tan than cotton khaki. Very early khaki uniforms in both the US and Canadian armies seem to have had a greenish tinge.

To further confuse the matter, army publications tended to use the term "drab" for a lot of things we might call khaki, although that wasn't the case for the khaki shirt and trousers that were the basic summer dress uniforms from the late 1930s on up until around 1970 when the permanent press uniforms were introduced.

I still think it's a Marine Corps coat. All the surplus coats like that as well as the army green coats are sized for someone in their twenties, apparently.

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