US "Choc Chip" BDU Trousers

This is a pair of US "choc chip" camouflage BDU trousers, used by the US military.

The US Army began researching camouflage patterns suitable for deployment to desert regions in the mid-1960s, in anticipation of the need to deploy personnel to the Middle East in response to a full scale war between Israel and the surrounding Arab countries.

One of the test patterns during the trial phase utilised the rocky deserts of California as the basis for its design. This pattern was chosen for limited production in 1977. The design consists of two shades of mid-brown over larger areas of sand & tan, dotted with smaller "rock" shapes in black & off white. This desert scheme was produced primarily between 1981 and 1991 and saw considerable service with US military personnel serving on desert exercises in the Sinai and during military operations in the Persian Gulf (Desert Storm) and in Somalia (Restore Hope).

Features :-

• Button waist and fly, with side waist adjusters fitted.
• Drawstring ties at the bottom of the legs.
• Two large concealed button flapped rear pockets.
• Two side slant pockets at the waist and two large concealed button cargo pockets to each leg.