RoKMC

Combat Uniforms

This is the traditional RoKMC camouflage pattern that was used around the 80's. It was withdrawn from service by the Ministry of National Defense, forcing the adoption of the standard woodland camouflage.  The reasoning was to save money by unifying the combat uniforms of all the branches.  The Navy and Army would go on to violate this years later anyway.


Trousers


With patches

Interesting thing about this one is that it claims the Staff Sergeant belongs to a Force Recon unit, but the qualification patch is that of an Amphibious Raid qualified Marine.  Normally he would have a Force Recon qualification badge on the side with his rank tag.  Not sure what the story is behind that.

Current uniform

Still with the traditional red name tape but the rank coloring has been subdued to black, the red "RoK Marine Corps" tape over the rank tag is gone.  This Sergeant is Amphibious Raid qualified and the symbol on top of the qualification badge means he is retired from active duty and is a reservist (or was at the time of this uniform being current).

what I thought to be strange is the camo combined with flashy red?

Once you throw on your flak jacket and all, the red stuff gets covered, which is why it wasn't a big deal.  In garrison camouflage didn't matter so much so adding colorful stuff where the flak jacket would cover you up was customary.  However, these practices have been largely been phased out.
On the current uniform, the only red is the name tape.