Posted on 08/24/2008 4:26:16 PM PDT by Dawnsblood
After a century of green uniforms, the last one is being retired from the U.S. Army. The new "Class A" uniform, as of August 21st, 2008, will be the current blue "Dress Uniform.". By 2010, troops graduating from basic training will be issued the "dress blues" as their "Class A" uniform. The "Class B" uniform will be the dress blue trousers and a white shirt with decorations (ribbons, combat badge and so on). For both enlisted and officers, rank will be worn on epaulets. The new uniform "system" is similar to the one the U.S. Marine Corps has been wearing for decades, and that's no accident.
All this in response to decades old efforts by the troops, to drop the green "Class A" uniform (green jacket and pants, with light brown shirt and tie) and go to something, anything, more impressive.. The new Class A uniform is simply the existing dress uniform. This uniform, unlike the green Class A's, that were introduced in 1954, is based on the 19th century dress uniform. Most enlisted troops do not have the dress blue uniform, because they have to buy it themselves, and that is optional for most troops. But over the next six years, the old Class A will be phased out completely.
All this is the result of longstanding "uniform envy" soldiers have had for marines. The USMC has always sported the most impressive dress uniform, and young enlisted marines were glad to spend at least $300 to buy themselves one. The marine "Class A" uniform is also green, but a darker green, and the jacket is worn with a belt. This looks much snappier, and many soldiers have suggested something like this for a new army Class A uniform. But many career army types have been campaigning for a spiffier Class A uniform, and something in blue, preferably with a belted jacket. But instead of a new uniform design, the army simply made the current dress blues the new Class As. The dress blues have been around for a long time, and have a good reputation. That doesn't mean that a belt cannot be added down the road. The important thing right now is to dump those hideous green Class As, which have embarrassed several generations of soldiers.
The Class A uniform is not actually worn that much, with most troops wearing BDUs (Battle Dress Uniform, with the camouflage pattern) or the Class A uniform without the jacket, when at work. The BDUs come in several different shades, none of them featuring much green. So after a century, the green is gone. The army is also eliminating the all white tropical dress uniform, which was rarely used.
Not familiar with Army unifoms, but still posting?
Our blue uniforms are traditional, and have never had a linear break. They’re modified over the last century, but basically the same.
Again, it was the USMC that copied the Army with the blue uniform. Not that hard to look it up.
She brought me to attention!
A classic John Wayne western and a classic cast.
I’m happy to see them go back to blue for the Class A’s though the Greens were all I knew. The history was blue and I believe it stay that way.
The change in Army uniforms was an early example of political correctess. The uniform worn during World War II was actually quite different between officers and the other ranks (enlisted). Officers wore “pinks and greens”, a dark olive jacket and taupe trousers. Enlisted soldiers wore a ligher shade of olive for both blouse (jacket) and trousers that was more simply tailored and made of courser material. The Army Green uniform was introduced in 1955 to make the Army more “democratic”, reducing the differences between officer and enlisted uniforms. The basic green uniform was the same, with the addition of black braid on the cuffs and the trouser legs as the only distinction between officer and enlisted uniforms.
I think that most would argue today that they would have done better just to put enlisted soldiers into pinks and greens and be done with it.
Yep. Had that one, too. I, um, never heard it called that, though. I must’ve always been in “polite company,” LOL!
The thing I hated about the beret was the big old brass medallion you had to wear on it. It tarnished easily, and since it was a cut-out of an eagle and some other junk I don’t remember, it was a PITA to clean with Brasso. I mean, there was serious drinking to do on the weekends...and there I was, in the barracks, polishing that stupid thing with a q-tip because the three hundred thousand cut EDGES on that medallion needed to shine, too!
Really, really stupid. Plus, the medallion glinted in the sunlight to the point where you could blind a person, and it made it very easy for a sniper to take a head-shot, LOL!
It’s that the same as a “piss-cutter”?
Ouch, Ouch, Oh NO! You got me!!
WHY? To make it harder to see someone in a man-overboard situation? Blue cammies, the color of a ship's wake, is the absolute worst possible color for a Navy seaman.
The Army should revert to olive drab/khaki Ike jackets (or 4-pocket tunics), garrison caps and peaked caps. The Army Green, Blue and especially the beret caps are un-militarily looking.
The Airforce should adopt blue 4-pocket tunics with open collar and shirt&tie. The current Airforce jacket is a joke, and the suggestion of a stand-collar tunic looks too authoritarian.
The horrible Airforce "leisure" jacket
Good suggestion for Airforce (accepted by the Airforce, thank God!):
Bad suggestion for Airforce (rejected):
The style the US Army should return to:
They look like the Canadian Mounties, only in grey! Do thet ride horses?
You're 100% right about that. If you think about it, blaze orange makes the most sense, for obvious reasons...
If looking like Mitchell (who was court martialed and forced out of the service for publicly saying that the Secretaries of War and the Navy had blood on their hands following the Shenandoah crash) was their reasoning, then they might as well just adopt the U.S. Army's uniform.
They look like the SS!
huh?
Piss Cutters are the standard Dress Cover, the Garrison Cover is the one that looks like a broad brimmed cover that the Commandant wears
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