U.S. Army considers new uniforms

[Matt Deckard]

Marines also added chest pockets to their blues

 

[Bob Smalser]

The Dress Blues look even better when the blue and gold band belt with gold-colored, eagle buckle is used.

Here's a photo that shows the enlisted uniform belts that are part of the Army Blue Uniform. Whether ribbon sets, full-sized medals, miniatures, or none-of-the-above are worn has always been optional. This group apparently prefers a clean, uniform look. Plus uniform wear and tear is often an issue as these particular uniforms are owned by the unit, not the individuals. (Which is also why only the Noncoms are wearing rank insignia and service stripes.)

As for Marine and Navy uniforms, all the services went from high collars to lapels and neckties for most of their uniforms in 1926, the Marines and Navy only left their dress uniforms with collars. THe Marines in particular have always been a small, voluntary unit that spent more money on uniforms than the nation was willing to pay for a draftee Army with 6-fold or more the number of people. Remember at the height of WWII the Marines only fielded 6 divisions while the Army fielded 96. That dynamic remains the case today. Those wool TW's, etc are expensive, and even enlisted Marines shell out a bundle of their own pay keeping them up.

Pinks and greens were done away with as a result of a recommendation by the Doolittle Board immediately after WWII, with an eye toward a more volunteer Army, the board convened to study aspects of service life not friendly to draftees. They found widespread enlisted resentment to the officers having better uniforms, even though many didn't understand officers have to buy them out of their own pocket...which is the case for all services even today. So the Army developed the Army Green and Army Tan Uniforms for both officer and enlisted and fielded them in the early 1950's. The Army Tan blouse was done away with in the mid-60's about the time we went from white name tapes to OD name tapes on fatigues, but khakis and TW shirt and trousers remained until the late 70's.

While the recent ACU and digital uniforms may not look very spiffy, spiffy wasn't the objective of the exercise. They are functional, comfortable, and relatively well-liked. Like in the days when we broke starch daily and had to own 12 or more sets of fatigues because of it, not being allowed to stop for gas off post on the way home from work was a royal PIA, and I'd hate to see such petty nonsense return.

My personal preference (besides wool TW's with military pleats) were the plain green, poplin jungle fatitigues (the ones with slanted pockets) from VN and the 3-color Desert BDU from DS/DS. With a light ironing, they were functional and also looked decent.

 

[Harp]

Spartan 0311,
My first duty station in 1984/85 I got my butt handed to me by the First Sergeant at a liberty formation for not having a belt with my collared shirt, laced leather shoes and khaki trousers. Didn't go off base for 2 weeks after that. Made an impression.:eusa_doh:

Brasso'd the buckle too, I'll bet.

I pulled a postwar reassign as an advisor with the Greek Army
in northern Macedonia; where life was good, and things were slack,
and I let my hair grow a bit longer than regulation length.
A new first shirt showed up one day, and chewed my arse up one side
and down the other, so I went to town that nite and had a local
barber administer a basic training recruit shaved skull, which I
promptly showed at the detachment's small quonset hut bar
thirty minutes later. Top took it well, bought me a beer, then
told me to shave a stripe off for good measure. lol

 

[Otium]

Sorry to hear that, but good that you were able to see it in person what they make before you dropped down the $600. If you don't mind me asking, what was the problem with how they make theirs? Was it just cheap material/workmanship?

Like I said, be patient and watch craigslist/ebay...one will turn up. I just got the word from my detailer that we are headed to Washington DC (National Defense Strategy Division Chief/Liaision at CG Headquarters) in October, so if need be you can always borrow mine if you need to.

Like I said though, keep an eye out and one will turn up.

Best,
Ben

PS - One thing that also bothers me about the Marine Shop USN/USCG Boat Cloak is their liner is in gold; that is actually incorrect if you look at the uniform regs. The female officer's CAPE should be lined in gold (red for Nurse Corps), but every other boat cloak I've seen is lined in black.

You're right. Their store is wrong, the lining is supposed to be black. The cloak seemed little more than a badly done rough blanket with a collar poorly stitched onto it. Add to that the display model on the floor was done so poorly the collars didn't line up.

I'll consider Marlow White but their cloak is a wool blend, but what mostly I'll just watch ebay. I don't wear the mess dress enough to justify a cloak and my bridge coat is already wonderful.

I'll be here until late 2010 working on the Navy Yard so we'll have to do lunch somewhere.

 

[Spartan0311]

Thanks WH1, Yes the belt... Almost as bad as walking on the grass. While I was out in HI the "Libo" attire was much more relaxed but even then we had to meet certain requirements, but belts was that strictly enforced. Now when I was in GA you made sure that you were also properly dressed, cause you never knew when you were going to run into some one of higher rank.

fftopic: Sorry if this is way out of place, but another patron had posted a link about GA detectives wearing hats again. I've noticed on several of the A&E shows that cover detectives in various locations that more and more detectives are again wearing some type of hat. I'm glad to see that police officers are keep true to traditions like the military...

 

[Otium]

I'll be right across the river from the Anacosta Navy Yard at CGHQ (Buzzards Point). I'm a bit more strapped financially than I was in years past (paying on a mortgage of a house that didn't sell and having to give my full BAH away for living in govt quarters), so I won't be getting a membership at the Army-Navy Club - or anywhere else similar for that matter - anytime soon if you know what I mean. But, if I know the Air Force, I'm sure there are decent buffett and drink specials for lunch over at Bolling.

Just to beware though, from looking at the Marlow-White website, they are selling an Army Officers cape...not the same thing as a boat cloak in cut or style...although so few "O"s have a cloak nowadays, I doubt anyone would know enough to call you on it.

All the Best,
Ben

I thought about the Army-Navy Club, I just don't know if I would use it enough. I'd better decide soon, I'm junior enough that if I join quickly they'll wave the application fee. Still between school and junior's chemo my time is limited.

Bolling does have some pretty good food, but it isn't a flat rate for the meal like Navy, it's charged per item and gets pricey fast.

I wouldn't buy the Marlow cape without looking either and as I have no intention of going there soon I'll just take my time looking for a 44L cloak on eBay. Still, not that many tall officers around long ago to give me much hope.

 

[XPLSV]

I always eyed the Army mess cape but never got around to buying one. Just a little hard to justify the money for the amount I would have actually worn it. With the Ordnance branch color of crimson, the lining would have nicely contrasted with the blue.

I used to attend a Christmas party in Milwaukee years ago that originated with local WWII veterans. In the early 80's, there were still quite a few of them attending and they had added numerous descendents and younger friends over the years. One of the guys who ran it, the late COL MacGilles, often mentioned Marlowe White in some of his stories (the man, not the store). Having been introduced to the business first, I found it interesting to meet someone from my hometown that had hung out with the store's namesake and founder.

My Father, a retired SF CSM, was particularly fond of the jungle fatigues, mentioned earlier in this thread. They were banned about the time I started my career...and I missed the khaki's by a couple of years, too. Always thought the khaki's made a nice uniform that was suitable to wear off base.

One interesting note on the current ACU. Original design included three different prototypes for three different environments--I think there was a desert, a woodland, and maybe a jungle or ??? Anyway, the costs of maintaining various types were traded off to a single all-environment uniform. Black was eliminated and I have read reports stating that black fails to blend in well in most environments and is easily detected when movement is introduced. I, as an earlier posted commented, didn't think this new pattern would blend well...but it does and in quite a few environments. Guess because it is kind of a bland color and pattern combination. Now, interestingly, while the Army was spending all this research money to develop this pattern without black in it, the Marines were working on their own high tech pattern and spending their research money separately. They ended up with black in the pattern

The green Class A uniform was never my favorite, but the absolute worst piece of uniform I ever had to wear was that blasted beret. I'll leave it at that. I will add, however, that I think having a hat as part of the uniform for my 20 years kind of made a natural transition for me when I bought my first fedora after retirement. Imagine, being able to pick out the color and style of MY CHOICE!