I have been looking at a lot of pictures of desert storm vehicles. Some look pristine while others hardly have any sand color left on them. My question is how where they painted once they where over there (if they showed up in nato-3 color and they had time to paint them). I also noticed that a lot of the 82nd airborne vehicles appear to have mud/sand rubbed all over them, no real paint. Some of them also looked as if they where "white washed" with sand paint. If someone could give me a lesson on how the painting was done after the vehicles arrived there I would be greatfull.

The tanks that were drew from POMCUS sites in Europe were painted at port in Saudi Arabia, same with some of the units that brought their own tanks. Some tanks were painted stateside prior to shipping. The 82nd brought their tanks as is and were hastily painted in the field. There is much variation in the DS/DS sand, sometimes it looks an almost pinkish color, sometimes it is a yellowish sand. The paint was standardized afterwards when most of the CONUS based units started keeping their vehicles painted sand at all times. This paint is the more common yellowish sand. I recall 2nd Armor Division's equipment looked rather pink when compared to 1st Cav's equipment. Also the paint on the wheel vehicles did not adhere as well (mainly layers of paint on old M35s) and tended to chip badly. The tanks that had only their original factory applied NATO schemes held the paint much better.

I also think that the give of the soft skinned vehicle's surfaces in the desert heat (they would cool at night) might have lead to the paint chipping whereas the tanks stayed a more constant temperature throughout the day.