Silver lame, or whatever that was the Robinsons wore in Lost in Space.
[edna]aNO CAPES![/edna]
If you change a lot you can steer more contracts to your former Army buddies who work at the suppliers. And then they can hire you when you retire.
How else would you know which war the war movie you are watching takes place in?
More seriously, I’m sure fashion actually has something to do with it a bit. If you want to look like a first rate military, you can’t have your soldiers wearing 70s style dress uniforms. Not to mention actual practical utilitarian changes to the combat / utility uniforms.
Although I have to say that I do think the utility uniforms the soldiers wear do look sort of sloppy and casual when they aren’t on active duty. It used to be they wore more dressy uniforms traveling through the airport and whatnot. It’s not like they are deploying out of the back of a Chinook at LaGuardia.
A joke, but I got curious, were capes ever a part of the uniform of the US? Maybe on the revolutionary war for the higher ups?
As others mentioned: Since the 1950s until the late 2000s the Army had the same Army Blue Dress uniform (with the 1800s-style officer rank insigina), but in practice mostly reserved for ceremonial ocassions; a full-formal Mess Dress uniform, an Army Green “business suit” Service Dress/Class A uniform, battlefield uniforms that varied per environment, and a series of special-ocassion and special duty uniforms. Until the early 1980s, they also had a summer khaki variant of the AG uniform, a “shirtsleeves” khaki uniform similar to that worn by the Navy, and plain green fatigues for most physical work. There was quite the pushback in the 50s over the change from ODs to AG, go figure, but at least it was a gain in, well, uniformity, for the time.
In the 1980s the plain green fatigues and many of the battlefield uniforms were melded into the BDU camo suit. The khakis were eliminated and what was done for officework or summer uniform was that the AG’s shirt was changed in color, from light khaki to light green, and all you had to do to change to Class Bs was take off your jacket. In a portent of things to come, many situations where you’d have been working in khakis were redesignated as requiring the BDU. Then in the 2000s came the simplifications and discontinuations that **Paul **described.
Since in the past decade, after adopting the ACU a.k.a. cammie jammies, it was made into the Uniform of the Day for almost everything short of getting decorated at the White House, someone figured they might as well further streamline things and after doing some polling, decided to repurpose the Army Blue uniform, with some modifications, to cover also the few remaining functions that required any of the other dress uniforms including the Class A “business suit”.
Airman Doors, the Navy recently adopted its own blue/grey version of digital camo for all ranks (I know… what the heck have they got to blend against? The justification is because it better conceals stains from working around machinery); resuscitated the WW2-style Class A dress khakis; killed off the Aviation Green (see José Ferrer’s first scene in The Caine Mutiny) and made everyone’s “shirtsleeve/summer street/office work” uniform be a khaki shirt.
Now, here’s the thing about whether the REMFs at Service HQ should be dressed like the frontline troops: for much of history, those of the same rank WERE dressed much the same and the difference would be a matter of cleaning and fancying it up for cushy duty/going out-on-the-town, vs. stripping it down and adding battle gear for fighting. (Have a look at some Old West Cavalry movie: their everyday-duty officer’s uniform is the direct ancestor of today’s Army Blue dress uniform.) It is only by the 20th century that there’s enough of a division of labor that besides formalwear uniforms for fancy events, you also wanted to issue everyone an entirely different set of uniforms for walking out vs. general duty vs. field work.
For a long time the Army did not even really have a uniform for a ceremonial ocassion that didn’t rise up to the Mess Dress level. Instead you’d fancy up your Service Blues/ODs/Tropicals/Pink’n’Greens with special-ocassion accessories (sashes, aguilettes, braid, gloves, spats, spurs, sword, whatever depending on place and time) and pin on your Bling of War (think George C. Scott at the start of Patton). By making the Army Blue the new regulation Class A, the Army would be reviving that pattern of “Full Dress Uniform” = “Service Dress Uniform, all gussied up”, which I believe is what the Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard do anyway.
Let me just voice my opinion that if your biggest complaint about the armed forces (whether you’re inside looking out or outside looking in) is the uniforms they have to wear, well…
we’re all doing just fine.
Capes are currently an optional accessory for the US Army dress uniform. It is only authorized for wear by officers.
Seems to me the military spends an awful lot of time worrying about its uniforms. shrug I guess it gives generals something to do.
However, on my last flight home from Iraq, I packed up and left my COP, full battle-rattle, went to another post, bad weather came in, no birds, no trucks, so I slept on a helo LZ for three rat fucking days, went to another post, was there for six hours, went to Kuwait, got one shower, changed into a fresh uniform, and I’m still carrying a rifle mind you, spent 1.5days there, then flew to Dallas, stopping through LaGuardia. So, I may not have ACTUALLY jumped out of a helo at LaGuardia, but it was close. 
Gentlemen, and Ladies too of course,
As I recall, being older than almost all of you guys (and gals), when the question was asked, “So, what’s the uniform (today)?”, the answer was usually always the same = “Dress blues, tennis shoes, a steel pot and a light coat of oil.” I suppose nowadays it might be “ASUs, unshined boots, kevlar helmet and a light coat of camel grease.”
Kind of like at Fort Apache when Harry Carry, Jr. said, “I won’t always be a second lieutenant, someday I’ll be a first lieutenant.” And John Wayne and the others answered in unison, “Yeah, in about 10 or 12 years!”
I remember being in AFROTC in 1956 when the Army changed over to the AG uniform. The Army gave all their kay-dets a kit to dye their brown shoes black - then they had to spit them back to a shine. Ugh. When I finally got commissioned in the field artillery in ‘62, I had to buy a set of TWs (tan tropical worsted), Army Greens, dress blues and was issued cotton khakis (with ‘bermuda’ shorts and knee-length socks - no kiddin’) and of course I already had my fatigues.
My big gripe with the US Army these days has been alluded to here. Our soldiers, NCO’s and officers are going to forget how to dress for a wedding, funeral, church, formal dance, or birthday ball by NEVER wearing anything but rumpled combat clothes. For gosh sakes, generals, why award them those well-earned medals, CIBs, CABs, jumpwings, and qual badges if they NEVER get to wear them? And no one can tell what rank anyone else is unless they are staring at their chest, and even then they have to be two feet away to tell a SP4 from a light colonel, and forget the branch. (!)
As a final note, I am so glad to see the patrol cap instead of those hokey berets. The troops like it too. So bring back the service cap for the ASUs and eliminate the beret altogether - except for our elite forces.
And remember, “Artillery lends dignity to what otherwise would be a vulgar brawl!”
McNulty: You know what they call a guy who pays that much attention to his clothes, don’t you?
I agree on the utility uniform, but I personally think it’s more the design of that uniform in particular. The older style Marine BDUs never looked that bad to me—I think it’s a combination of the color and the cut.
The new Army Class As, I must day, do a wonderful job of letting the wearer look like they’re in the Air Force or the Navy, depending on the jacket. :smack:
And, as I mentioned in another thread, they have no idea of the proper shape of a beret. They’ve really mangled them in a way that looks both silly and ugly.
And then there was the entire green/black beret fiasco.
I agree. Forming a beret is a bit of an art form and personal, but there is no reason it has to look like a pizza landed on your head.
Forming a beret is a pain in the ass. The worst part of Basic Training was the last day or two, which consisted of cleaning your gear, cleaning the barracks, and shaving and shaping your damn beret.
Holy Shit - why isn’t every officer wearing these?