SEPTEMBER 22, 2023 — The Army Maternity Uniform Pilot Program, also known as “Rent the Camo,” provides eligible female Soldiers stationed in the continental Unites States with free maternity uniforms.
The pilot program is available to officers and enlisted service members in all three components of the Army.
“This program is going to help give [Soldiers] the one-stop shop they need,” said Maj. Irma Richards, Army Logistics, troop support. “By streamlining the process to where they only have one person to deal with, which is the MUPP representative, that eliminates the back and forth a female Soldier has going to several locations to obtain her uniforms.”
In June 2020, Congress passed the “Rent the Camo: Access to Maternity Wear Act,” which directed each military service to establish a pilot program for issuing maternity uniforms to pregnant service members.
The Army started their program in October 2022 with two active-duty installations and a National Guard station before expanding to all installations in the continental U.S. in May.
Due to the limited number of uniforms, the program is not available to installations overseas.
The initiative is volunteer based. Once a member reports a pregnancy to their command, the opportunity to use the program is presented. Then the Soldier works with their installation representative for measuring and direct online ordering.
Each member receives five maternity T-shirts and three sets of the operational camouflage pattern maternity uniform. The uniforms are delivered directly to the service member and are issued for up to three years.
The program saves Soldiers hundreds of dollars on uniforms.
There are currently 204 participants. Each installation representative receives feedback from the volunteers and passes that to program leadership.
The initial response from Soldiers has been extremely positive, Richards said.
The pilot will run until fiscal year 2025 or when the service uses the 12,000 sets of maternity unforms they have for the program.
At the end of the pilot, the information gathered from volunteers will be used to create the Army’s plan for providing maternity uniforms to service members. The Army will send the plan to Congress for approval.
By Christopher Hurd, Army News Service