Navy admits standard-issue uniform is highly flammable and will melt onto skin

UK Daily Mail ^ | 10 January 2013 | By Beth Stebner

[US Navy Vet]

The U.S. Navy’s standard-issue blue digitized camouflage fatigues are highly flammable and will burn ‘robustly until complete consumption,’ a report revealed last month. The findings show that the digital-print camo, which is made from 50 percent cotton and 50 percent nylon, will drip as it burns, causing potentially hazardous burn injuries. But the Navy’s top spokesman said that the government organization is aware of the report findings, and added that sailors had asked for a fade-resistant uniform that was also comfortable.

[US Navy Vet]

If he was in the Main Space during Light-Off w/ a 100% Poly Uniform on then:
No 1 your MMC,MM1,BT1 or BTC was NOT doing his JOB if he let this happen AND...
No 2 he was prob a DUMB ASS Naval “Academy” grad!

[yuleeyahoo]

I found them to be very comfortable and only went through several pairs a year.

[longhorn too]

Bring back the denim shirts and denim bell bottom pants. I still have a pair that I wore in the late 60’s.

[ro_dreaming]

As a Navy veteran myself, I never understood the desire to be camouflaged if I fell overboard. I’d want to wear bright yellow/day-glo hunter orange to make sure I got spotted and picked up by someone. Even the enemy.

[Titan Magroyne]

Oh geez. And it’s taken them this long to figure that out?

Wasn’t there also a period in the 70s or 80s of an open-collar, pullover Navy issue shirt that had a horizontal seam across the chest? That seam made it more difficult to rip your way out of the shirt if it caught fire, so eventually that design was dropped.

[matginzac]

Well, I think you are right on point number one...
But as the daughter and wife of USNA grads, I resemble that remark!
Actually, I rag on them all the time for going to a “trade school”....
Seriously, when I was stationed at Mayport, we had not only this dip-shit event happen but also, an XO lose his legs on the fo’castle when a line parted and other strange things...horrible when it happens.

[Goldsborough]

Again, all Mullin’s fault...

Adm. Mike Mullens was my CO for the first half of my hitch back in the day. If you peruse his bio, you'll see my handle is represented in his rise to the top. He was a Commander back then. We called him "Iron Mike" because he was a hard ass. He wouldn't even let us wear ball caps, making us the laughingstock of Pearl Harbor for a year before he relented. He was big for busting hopheads and gays too.

Never foresaw him being the fashion queen in chief of the Navy, let alone on the JCS. If he took a Viagra, his whole body would be stiff for four hours or more and he'd need to see a doctor.

[matginzac]

Our family knows Mullin also...rather well, in fact...just saw him at an event in Aug...could not be pleasant to him, just nodded his way and moved on...his wife is rude and a snob...
We know him around here as “ Midnight Mike”...this also helped him rise to the top.....only good thing he did was fire Sestak....

[Drumbo]

Wasn’t there also a period in the 70s or 80s of an open-collar, pullover Navy issue shirt that had a horizontal seam across the chest? That seam made it more difficult IMPOSSIBLE to rip your way out of the shirt if it caught fire, so eventually that design was dropped.

Fixed it. That was the butt ugly "China Boy" blue jumper which was standard issue and "required" utilities for enlisted personnel below E-5 in '74 along with ugly navy blue pants that came with wrinkles built in, attracted lint and showed any dirt they encountered (and burned like a roman candle). The Navy spent a fortune on "developing" those utilities and then discovered they were both highly flammable, melted to skin and impossible to tear away because of the shoulder to shoulder seam and slip-over style. The Navy quickly issued a "never mind" and we went back to the Seafarer dungarees and light blue chambray shirts popular in Zumwalt's Navy.