[DesScorp]

"That Slick Willie move requiring the Army to wear black berets ... what was that about??" Umm, that was done during Bush. It was purely a recruiting move... letting any grunt look stylish and cool in headgear that you used to have to graduate from elite training to get. Now any dogface slicing hams or changing tires wears the same headgear Rangers and Vietnam-era Navy spec ops boat crews had to earn.

And now other services are doing ridiculous things like this. My own service, the Navy, is now switching from dungarees to cammies for all sailors. Worse, cammies in a blue pattern. The Navy admits that the camoflauge is useless... they just bought it because they think it looks good. I think it makes sailors look like mail-order Rambos on the paintball range. Why not just go with the Coast Guards plain navy-blue BDU's, the ODU?

[VermiciousKnid]

I HATE the new Navy cammies. The dungarees looked much nicer (and neater).

[FreedomCalls]

My own service, the Navy, is now switching from dungarees to cammies for all sailors. Worse, cammies in a blue pattern.

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.

[Ronin]

Cammies for shipboard sailors has to be the ultimate stupid uniform idea of all time. I literally cannot think of anything dumber except maybe shocking pink tu-tus — and I hesitate to mention that because someone on some uniform board is probably going to think it’s a great idea.

The Zelmo (let’s make everyone a chief) uniform was bad, but at least one decent uniform came out of it. The old summer Salt and Peppers. Black (Navy Blue) trousers, white shirt, combo cover (this was before we got the dixie cups back. Simple, practical, and wearable almost anywhere in the Navy.

Naturally that didn’t last. Summer dress had to be whites, winter dress had to be blues. Trying to keep any kind of white trouser wearable for more than half a day was an exercise in futility.

OK, around 1978 or so we got the cracks back. Not bad looking. You felt like a sailor when you wore them. The leftover Zumwalt uniforms were still floating around when I got out in 1986.

God only knows what they have these days.

I thought it was funny when they put US Navy on the dungaree shirts. WTF? They need to look at their shirt to figure out what service they’re in? Yeeeeeesh!!!

[martin_fierro]

Umm, that was done during Bush.

Ummm, no it wasn't.