February 6, 2008: The U.S. Army is approaching another one of those major changes, of uniform, that will enable people in the future to look at undated photos, and be able to make a good guess as to when it was taken. This time around, the quarter century tenure of the BDU (Battle Dress Uniform) is over. There were two flavors of BDU, the green "woodland" camouflage pattern, and the tan colored desert pattern. Also disappearing are the brown t-shirts, black combat boots (and multicolored jungle boot), the green name tags and shoulder insignia. By the end of the year, all of this will be gone, even from the reserves. But not from military surplus stores. Hunters, hikers and students will be wearing the old stuff for years to come, until most of it is worn out and discarded. This is the third major change in army field uniforms since World War II. For the last century or so, it's become fairly common for a nation to change its military uniforms, or at least the combat uniforms, every 20-30 years. That's in peacetime. In wartime, the uniform changes tend to come much more quickly.