U.S. Post Vietnam War RDF Woodland Transitional Jungle Camouflage

The name RDF is short for "Rapid Deployment Force" uniform. At the time TCU (Tropical Combat Uniform) AKA the well known slant pocket jungle fatigues were being phased out and the military was in the process of creating yet another uniform style. RDF would be the "first pattern" iteration of what is now known as the BDU (Battle Dress Uniform), manufactured in post era Vietnam War mostly around 1978 to 1980. The uniform cut on the RDF would differ from the BDU in a few ways, the obvious being the difference in camouflage. RDF was produced with high land ERDL fabric, most likely surplus from the war a few years prior. The pattern consists of four colors printed in an interlocking sequence. High land consisted of a brown-dominant base, large organic shapes in olive green and brown, black ‘branches’, and light brown "leaf highlights”. The brown dominate pattern closely resembles what is todays M81 Woodland camo. The second difference in the uniform cut being, the pockets on the RDF have a sewn fold in the middle of the pocket, similar to the TCU pattern. One of the last differences is the shoulder stitching, the RDF has reinforced shoulders similar to the TCU while the BDU was commonly produced with basic shoulder stitching. All in all it is safe to say, RDF is the father to one of the greatest uniforms to ever be created, the BDU! In the pictures bellow you will see the comparison of RDF to BDU, oddly enough, we recently acquired a 1980 dated BDU top printed in RDF camo! Note the differences in cut!