Greek "Lizard Pattern" Combat Jacket

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1. History:

This right here ladies and gentlemen, is the Greek Lizard Pattern, it entered service with the Greek army in 1976 and is still widely used today.
The official name is Hellenic Lizard Camouflage, as the official name for the Greek army is: Ελληνικός Στρατός or Ellinikós Stratós, meaning: The Hellenic Army.

The camo was originaly copied from the French Lizard Camo: 

And the Greek Version:

The French picture is taking with a larger zoom, but you can clearly spot the similarities.
But as time went on, the Greeks sought to differentiate their camo from the French, and thus, the Modern Hellenic Lizard Camouflage was born:

   
My jacket is from 2004 and is the basic infantry version, three other types exist:
One made for the Greek Navy which has blue in it,

Sorry, i found this on ebay, shame on me...

One made for the Greek Airforce, introduced in the 1990s, also with blue in it, but with grey as it's main color:

 and a desert version, which, as you might have guessed, looks sort of like sand.

And while the Lizard Pattern is still widely used within the Greek Army, they have made the same choice as many other modern armies, and are slowly integrating a pixelated version.

2. The Jacket:

The jacket in it self, is a solid piece of kit, and i really like it, and for a mass produced jacket, this is a really thought through combat jacket.

2.1. The Feel

I originally spotted this jacket on ebay, at british surplus store, and thought to myself "Would you look at that right there! Lizard Pattern! don't own one of those!" 'Click, click, click'
I think the camo is awesome, it looks really cool. The best thing being that the Greeks choose to stay true to their own camouflage instead of just buying into the american m81 Woodland, like so many other countries did. Respect!
This jacket is a unique design, that you won't see anywhere ells,(not that other countries haven't had a go with the lizard pattern, but the Greek one is one of its own) but it's not as unique as the Belgian Jig-Saw or the Swiss Alpenflage, and you can actually wear this in  public.

2.2. The Build:

The Jacket is made of 80% Cotton and 20% Nylon, and is tightly woven making it a fairly stiff jacket, so it's not that comfortable by itself. Wearing a thick sweater underneath, or at least a long sleeved t-shirt is a must.
Because of the tight weave and the Nylon it provides a reasonable amount of windproofness, but i wouldn't wear this in the rain.
I'm probably going to use this as a fall jacket, since the Danish fall is cool and windy but not cold enough for wearing insulated jackets.

2.3. Features:

Considering that this is a fairly simple jacket, it does have many cool features, and it's clear that the evil masterminds behind this, were given free hands in developing upon the original design, making it better and better.

Firstly, the pockets:

Two breast pockets and two hip pockets, they are roomy, and made to have more than just paper put in them. When not in use they do WHAT THEY DAMN WELL SHOULD! and stay their place, without flying all over the place. 

The Elbows and shoulders have been reinforced: 

I really need to empathize how big of a deal this really is, because this is an ongoing problem with combat fatigues. It often seems like the different uniforms were designed with marching and parades in mind, and not really made for tough outdoor use. 

But in this case it seems that the designers have realized that war isn't just walking around tulip fields and picking flowers, but once in a while, you need to crawl around on the ground. 

This is a perfect civilian bushcraft jacket, as it, in my opinion, looks stylish enough to were on a daily basis, but is also tough enough to take to the forest for days at a time, without worrying that it'l rip apart.

A thing you'll notice is that, apparently, the Greek army has a big fetish for Velcro. there are 3 pieces of it on the jacket, two of them being ridiculously big:

This patch is about 2.5 cm wide, and 5 cm long.

And i believe this is for the Greek flag.      

The name tag above the left pocket is about 2 cm wide and an insane 20 cm long.
but then again if your name is Konstantinos Papakonstaninou(Κωνσταντίνος Παπακωνσταντίνου) i can see why your nametag would have to have some extra miles added.

This patch right here is about the size of my fist, in my opinion, a little much. I think this is the place were your unit insignia would be placed.

2.4. The Fit.

The way this fits is probably the only thing that bugs me about this jacket.
My jacket is a 42 Inch chest(about 100cm) and i am about 96cm around the chest, so it should be a perfect fit! well it isn't, because apparently, Greeks seem to have very narrow waists. I have no problem buttoning the buttons at my chest, but at the hip it becomes a problem, not that it doesn't fit, it's just not that comfortable.
BUT, luckily the designers made it so you can adjust the waist, "Oh good, i was getting worried" but it can only be tightened.. "WHAT THE HELL!?" and only about 2 cm. "this is getting stupid.."

Apart from the narrow waists, i have learned something about the common Greek soldier. They have CRAZY thick wrists! from the design of the cuffs i have concluded that the average Greek wrist is about as broad as my F'ing thigh..

This can however be adjusted so it will fit you no matter how broad or narrow that your wrists are.
But if adjust this to my size, i will look like someone who is wearing balloons inside my sleeves, and it won't be that comfortable either, as it is very tight around the wrists.

3. Overall verdict.

This is what we danish people would call "En Slider" A workhorse, it won't break, it's windproof, it's Insanely tough, it looks awesome! only problem is the fit. But if you have a narrow waist, and you can live with the cuffs, you will get one sweet jacket that'll last you a life time without bitching about having to get washed or sprayed with all kinds of weird stuff to keep it weatherproof.

Thanks for reading

Chris

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