by Moondog
Green is by far the most common uniform color worn by the worlds militaries. But sometimes it seems there's as many shades of green as there are nations. And almost as many names for them. It's a bit like going to a hardware store and seeing all a dozen different names for the same shade of off-white: "Eggshell white or Ivory or Antique White?
Olive Drab (OD)
The official color of US army uniforms from WW2 through the introduction of camouflage patterned BDU's in the 80's. But the actual color of OD actually changed through the years and even changed through WW2 (see photo). OD is a yellowish/tanish shade of green reminiscent of canned green olives (hence the name.)
http://www.olive-drab.com/od_mvg_odpaint.php
Ranger Green
Darker and less yellow than OD, this is a name for the most common shade of green used in fabric for tactical vests, belts, webbing and other gear. It too has a number of variations from manufacturer to manufacturer.
Camo Green
A dark green (bluer than OD) commonly used on vehicles and equipment (ie. helmets, radios, etc.) and the printed/darker green on Woodland camo and MARPAT.
Foliage Green
A greenish shade of grey found along with slate grey and sand in the Army's new UCP (Universal Camouflage Pattern) on ACU uniforms. Personally I think it an odd name as most foliage isn't this shade green. I would have called it Lichen Green or Agave Green (Blue agave is the plant that is made into tequila.)
Sage Green
The slightly grayer shade of Camo Green used by the US Air Force in their flight suits and in their new ABU's (Airman Battle Uniform.) Darker and much more saturated than Foliage Green.
Here's a good example of the variations on color used by various manufactures, put together by Monkey.
http://www.milspecmonkey.com/info.html wrote:Military Greens Reference Sheet
1-27-2007: Added Military Green color comparision sheet. There are some semi new greens out there so I thought I'd make a sheet displaying all the major military greens.The most known and common is OD standing for Olive Drab. This is a fairly brown / saturated green. The Airforce went with what they call Sage Green which is a much more grey green. Sometimes things are labeled OD, however really are Camo Green which is a more blue-ish green as seen in Woodland Camo. One of the more modern colors which is popular yet has no widespread military use, is Ranger Green. This green is a more brown and desatured OD. Paraclete calls their green Smoke Green, but generally looks very close to Ranger Green. Adding to the pile, Emdom uses Sewer Green which is a midpoint between OD and Ranger Green. I added in a UCP / Foliage Green sample for your reference. As you can see...it is a lot more grey than anything else.