Custom DNC Parka and a Brief History of Raid Mods
The US Night Desert craze started seemingly out of nowhere in 2018. Growing nostalgia (for lack of a better term) and interest in Operation Desert Storm led to the re-discovery of the Desert Night Camouflage (DNC) parka and pants issued to ground troops during the conflict. The pattern was funky, short lived, and had an interesting history, so naturally it started to become popular. Outer shells and pants that were once $10 or less were suddenly selling for $50 or more. Today, it’s difficult to find a parka in any size above medium, and the majority of examples in stock are extra small. So how did a comically oversized jacket with no liner or pockets skyrocket in price? Because the pattern is neat.
Soldiers from the 1st Cavalry Division in Kuwait, 1991. Night Desert parkas were often used as an outer layer to keep warm when temperatures dropped.
Image from the 1st Cavalry Division Association
Desert Night was developed in the late 70s as a way to counter early Soviet night vision devices. It was thought that the squares on the pattern would blend in with the fuzzy, pixilated image and subsequently be passed over as digital noise rather than a target. The dark splotches are an exact match to the “chocolate chips” on the 6 Color Desert pattern BDU and are meant to further break up a silhouette in arid environments where the parka was meant to be worn. The DNC set came as a single layer shell that was meant to be worn over the desert BDU, which is why almost all of the pockets are just empty cuts in the fabric with flaps over them. The wearer was meant to use their existing pockets like on a set of coveralls. The parka did have an insulated liner, but most often the jackets are seen being worn without them. As a note to anyone looking: while the DNC parka is based on the 1951 “fishtail” parka from the Korean War, the liners are not interchangeable as the DNC parka has different attachment points. A DNC-specific liner is required, but rarely seen for sale these days.
A very nicely modded DNC parka from MOS Tactical. Several low volume gear makers were making similar products when the original parkas were still easily available.
As collectors watched the value of their parkas rise, the various enthusiasts buying them started to lament the near uselessness of the garments. Soon enough an entire cottage industry was built around modifying existing pieces to be more useable as actual jackets. Most commonly, the bottoms were shortened and hemmed, the elastic on the sleeve cuffs was removed, pockets were added, velcro space for patches was added, and most places would use the extra material leftover from the bottom to add “Raid mod” style sleeve pockets. These modified parkas sold like hot cakes for two-hundred or sometimes three-hundred dollars depending on the condition the original fabric was in and how many features were added. Today most of the available originals have dried up, and so too have the pre-modified modernized examples. This prompted me to go the route of buying an original parka and modifying it myself, which was the far cheaper route. But first: What is a raid mod?
An example of a raid modded Desert Combat Uniform (DCU) in 3 Color Desert. Note the canted breast pockets as well as the lower pockets that have been relocated to the sleeves.
The term “raid mod” has been around since the early days of the War on Terror (GWOT), but the practice dates back to at least the Second World War. Airborne riggers would modify their pants with canvas knee pads, as well as tie straps around the (sometimes aftermarket) cargo pockets to keep their contents from swinging around or getting caught on something.
In Vietnam, members of MACV-SOG would relocate the lower pockets of their jungle fatigues to the sleeves in order to make them more accessible while wearing all their gear. I’ve seen these referred to as “cross-border” uniforms due to their use by MACV-SOG in Laos and Cambodia. This practice continued in the special operations community until the beginning of the GWOT when body armor was being issued more frequently. Regular ground troops would take their BDU tops to the battalion seamstress to have the lower pockets moved to the sleeves and the breast pockets canted inward to make them easier to access. It was around this time the term “raid-mod” was born, since body armor was most often worn during raids in urban areas. Today, modern uniforms and combat shirts come with this pocket arrangement as standard, leaving the raid mod as a unique part of uniform history.
Major General Ken Bowra (a First Lieutenant at the time) serving in MACV-SOG in 1971 as the Team Leader (One-Zero) of Recon Teams Idaho and Sidewinder. Also seen here is a captured Chinese Type 56 "Assault” chest rig and the use of canteen pouches for ammunition storage by SOG members.
Image from SoldierSystems.net
For my particular parka, I opted for internal pockets, sleeve pockets, velcro cuff adjustment, an elastic knit bottom, and I took the torso in by a good couple inches to get it to fit more closely. The knit bottom is from an Austrian surplus sweater that ended up being far too small for me, but was perfect for this application. It also saved my butt, since in my eagerness to get started I accidentally cut the bottom of the jacket down about 2 inches more than I wanted to. I measured once and cut twice, and it was still too short! The sweater hem fit great and added back the needed length. The sleeve pockets were by far the most complex part to get right, as I messed up the sizing on the flat zippered pocket and had to redo the flap pocket twice for various reasons. It’s also difficult to sew pockets like this onto sleeves that have already been attached to an existing garment since the machine has less room to fit. The result was completely worth the effort, as I now have a sturdy and practical jacket that I can proudly say I made myself while still being able to evade first generation Soviet night vison. I don’t think Canada Goose can do that. While this process did take quite a bit of time, it was relatively simple and only resulted in one injury! If anyone is on the fence about starting a similar project, I say it’s totally worth it to fire up a machine and start sewing.