Speaking for the army: The rhetoric of the US Army Combat Uniform and digital camouflage in popular culture

Clothing operates as a medium of communication, and military clothing has particular and powerful meanings. In 2004, the US Army adopted a new uniform, based on the digitized ‘Universal Camouflage Pattern’ (UCP). Since then, the digital Army Combat Uniform (ACU) has operated rhetorically to reinforce messages promulgated by the Army around the time the uniform was introduced, particularly those messages related to the Future Force and the Warrior Ethos. Drawing upon research and theory of fashion, sociology and visual rhetoric, this article examines how the US Army has presented itself through the ACU as powerful, agile and technologically driven, while reinforcing traditional martial and American ethics. Its success at employing the digital camouflage as visual rhetoric is validated by cultural appropriations of the camouflage pattern.