Tradition? Oh boy. That’s a bad word in today’s Navy. Used to be one of the Core Values. Integrity, Professionalism, and Tradition. Those were the values I came into the Navy with. They were in place from at least the 50s, but they were changed in ‘92 to Honor, Courage and Commitment. Gee... What happened around ‘92 to necessitate a change? Tailhook 1991. The brass and politicians figured “Tradition” is what got folks into trouble, so the traditions started going away. “Tacking” on pins and Crows went away, the Chiefs Initiation is is now Chief Petty Officer Selectee Training and is unrecognizable from what I was privileged to go through. Same with several traditional ceremonies in the Fleet, Seabees, and SPECWAR. Heck, everyone can wear Khakis now, no longer reserved for CPOs and above. Man, that was my incentive to make Chief!! I wanted those khakis. Now, meh... Everyone has them. I’m glad I went in when I went in, but I’m happier I got out when I got out.
I understand how you feel about the khakis... For me it was the Black beret in the Army. We had to earn it. After I separated, they decided that all branches could be issued the black beret. The black beret had been part of the Ranger uniform since they were reorganized decades before. So the Rangers went to the tan beret... Yes, it’s still different from the others - but I’ll never be convinced that is wasn’t an attempt to demoralize the 75th Regiment (otherwise they could have issued another color to the rest and left the black beret to the Rangers...) Don’t even get me started on the lessening of standards for the female Ranger candidates during the o’bambam administration... and even then, those female candidates couldn’t pass until they let them re-cycle 3-4 times and then turned a blind eye to their poor performance...