I'll have to support Gates on this one.
“I’ll have to support Gates on this one.”
I agree with you.
My son is a Naval Academy grad and now an officer of Marines. My daughter is an Army officer. I have been struck that Navy and Marine personnel in general are only authorized to wear fatigues in garrison or aboard ship. Otherwise, they are in professional-appearing service dress. And, official events (graduations, winging, etc) are almost always in dress uniforms.
The Army, on the other hand, seems to do everything in BDU’s, and I think, inappropriately so.
A good example is that, a few years back, the Military Channel did a big show on the day of the Army-Navy game. During the pre-game, the Superintendant of the Naval Academy and a senior USMC officer were being interviewed; the interviewers were in jacket and tie and the military officers were in service dress. When it came time for the Supe of West Point to be interviewed, he was in BDU’s, and looked ridiculous.
If it were up to me, the Army would go back to the WWII era tobacco brown/khaki service uniforms: they had real class.
Just my $0.02
They are not asking for FULL DRESS, it is what in the early 70’s in Naval service called service blues or service whites. Ribbons/dress shoes.
It is not unlike the professional business world, there is NO place for blue jeans and collarless/tshirts in my org. Although I do not expect suit and tie anymore, most of my employees naturally wear dress slacks/oxford shirt tie. Casual friday ... it is a stupid concept ... my approach to business attire is my business only professional 4 days a week?
Adm. Zumwalt brought in the liberty civilian clothes for one main reason ... sailors in uniform were being spit on as they came through the airports. I experienced that in San Francisco. Ask any sailor the prevailing attitude of Nor(folk Va. during the late 60’s .. sailors and dogs keep off the grass.
Even in an industrial setting with a ship in Dry Dock, the quarterdeck watches .. OOD/POW and associated rovers ... were in dress uniform.
The only way off base was in appropriate civvies or dress uniform. Khaki’s with ribbons were acceptable to and from duty station without a stop for officers/cpo’s, enlisted dungarees were prohibited off base in any scenario.
The service dress uniform is NOT an imposition on military, particularly in pentagon roles. It is professionalism on display. The expectation is the same in my business.