Tactical Marking on modern US Army vehicles

I believe you are talking about the chevron, ^,>,v, and <, seen on the side sof US vehicles. These are used to denote platoons. The direction it points tells which PLT the vehicle belongs to. Up (^) is 1st PLT, Right (>) is 2nd PLT, Down (v) is 3rd PLT, Left (<) is 4th PLT.

In addition to the platoon markings, during Desert Storm, all coalition (friendly) forces were supposed to have a chevron ^ painted on the side for friendly identification.

QUOTE: Originally posted by HeavyArty I believe you are talking about the chevron, ^,>,v, and <, seen on the side sof US vehicles. These are used to denote platoons. The direction it points tells which PLT the vehicle belongs to. Up (^) is 1st PLT, Right (>) is 2nd PLT, Down (v) is 3rd PLT, Left (<) is 4th PLT.

I didn't have to worry about it since I was 1st platoon, but is it 'right' or 'forward' for second?

i.e. If the chevron faces front on one side, will it face forward on the other?

For some reason, I never thought to check.

NTM

As a side note to makerings, 3rd ID had units paint over any markings except for bumper numbers. This was supose to keep Insurgents from targeting a unit by ID marks. MY M1114s had a Roman numerial painted on the turrets for easy ID in the field, but 3rd ID told us to paint them over. With or without the markings we still we're engaged by road side bombs (IEDs) and car bombs.

QUOTE: Originally posted by Manic Moran QUOTE: Originally posted by HeavyArty I believe you are talking about the chevron, ^,>,v, and <, seen on the side sof US vehicles. These are used to denote platoons. The direction it points tells which PLT the vehicle belongs to. Up (^) is 1st PLT, Right (>) is 2nd PLT, Down (v) is 3rd PLT, Left (<) is 4th PLT. I didn't have to worry about it since I was 1st platoon, but is it 'right' or 'forward' for second? i.e. If the chevron faces front on one side, will it face forward on the other? For some reason, I never thought to check. NTM

No, if the chevron faced forward on one side, it faced rearward on the other side (former 2nd plt leader).

Yup, MAJ Rob is all over it. If it faced opposite on the other side, one side of the vehicle would be from 2nd PLT, the other from 4th PLT. It faces the direction ,right or left, as you are looking at it.

QUOTE: As a side note to makerings, 3rd ID had units paint over any markings except for bumper numbers. This was supose to keep Insurgents from targeting a unit by ID marks. MY M1114s had a Roman numerial painted on the turrets for easy ID in the field, but 3rd ID told us to paint them over. With or without the markings we still we're engaged by road side bombs (IEDs) and car bombs.

Interesting, when I was over in 3ID for the invasion, we had all sorts of markings on our vehicles. BN ID #s, combat chevrons, unit symbols, etc. We were all marked up. Don't know if it drew more fire or not, but I still got plenty of it.

Hey HeavyArty; I remember that from 2003 also, but when 3rd ID returned this past summer they had a different view on markings. Though up till I left in September, may units still had large numbers on the doors.

Heh.. Most of our tanks had no markings other than a bumper number. Quite literally, my 3 tank had 'B13' on the front, and on the back and nothing else but half the time it was covered with mud.

We didn't even have enough time to put our names on the things. I got the tank name on my tube by month 2, by about 2/3 into the tour the 3 tank had a name on its one, but that was it. 2 and four tanks had no names at all, though the platoon insignia eventually found its way onto the 3 and 4 tanks.
We maintained the markings that we inherited when we picked up our tanks, changing only bumper or unit numbers, fortunately the two tanks that had platoon markings happened to both have an upwards-facing arrow.

NTM