I thought I'd break my posting duck by pointing out some UK views of combat fashion. The aim for the soldier concerned is to be seen as "ally", that difficult to define blend of professionalism and style. It's trying hard to appear as though you've made no effort. It varies from conflict to conflict - Falklands "ally" was very different to Herrick (Afghanistan) "ally".

http://www.arrse.co.uk/cpgn2/Forums/...c/t=46346.html

http://www.arrse.co.uk/cpgn2/Forums/...c/t=53077.html

Failure results in being labelled as a "walt", as in Walter Mitty. But that's a whole new topic all by itself.