Do military personal wear dress uniforms anymore?

Factual Questions
1

So I’m watching The Pacific and Saving Private Ryan this weekend and I’ve noticed that unless soldiers are in a combat zone or training, they would be wearing dress uniforms - pressed shirt and pants, jacket, ties, cap, etc. In fact up until the 80s, military folk seemed to wear dress uniforms pretty often.

These days, I can’t recall ever seeing military personal wearing anything other than their camoflaged utility uniforms passing through the airport or during Fleet Week or whatever.

So do military folk not dress up for work (or off-work) anymore?

2

Yes, and Good read

3

Worth pointing out that there are different levels of dress to the uniforms, and just plain fun to point out some of the weird things we do with some of the less dressy uniforms.

What you’re likely thinking of nowadays in the Air Force is called the Service Dress Uniform, AKA “The Blues”. You have Full Service Dress, which is equivilant to a (rather uncomfortable) business suit, with long-sleeved button-up shirt, necktie, pressed slacks, polished black leather shoes, and a button-up coat, with all the ribbons, awards, nametag, and other shiny things along with the rank. We only wear this uniform for special occasions (promotion ceremonies or when you’re in trouble or something. The joke is, you have to have done something real good or real bad to find yourself reporting in one.) There is a “Semi-Formal” version of this uniform where we wear a white dress shirt instead of the blue uniform shirt, and don’t wear a name tag.

There are less dressy versions, switching out the coat for a zip-up lightweight jacket (or a sweater, or no over garments at all), and the long-sleeve shirts for short sleeve shifts (with the tie optional on the short-sleeves). We just call these “Long sleeve Blues” or “Short Sleeve Blues”. In the Air Force, if you work in an office environment (ie: minimal manual labor or outside time), then you wear blues on Mondays, and the camo uniforms the rest of the week.

Most folks who work outside or do hands-on work (like shop craftsmen) or anybody in the offices who can come up with some reason why they might need to do manual labor or work outside, just wear the camo.

I’m not sure, but I want to say the other services might have a similar policy of designated “Dress Up Nice” days where they wear the slightly fancier uniforms rather than the battlefield fatigues.

Now, if you say “Dress Uniform”, you could be talking about the grand-daddy fanciest uniform of them all, basically military tuxedos, with all the dangly medals and such. We call them “Mess Dress” in the Air Force, not sure if the other services have a different name for them.

4

I see dress uniforms almost er, uniformly, during Fleet Week. I was taking classes last summer at the Hotel Pennsylvania and the joint was packed with Navy Officers, all dressed up mighty spiffy. I think the enlisted men have to wear those white goony sailor suits (if they didn’t have to wear them, surely they wouldn’t do so voluntarily? They look hideous) . The Navy seems to have both the best and the worst uniforms; I think their Full Dress Whites are the sharpest uniform in the armed forces.

I’ve seen soldiers travelling in their camo (I think “BDU” is the right term) but not on formal shore leaves like Fleet Week.

5

That was the olden days (BDU=Battle Dress Uniform=woodland camoflage). Nowadays, only the Marines have retained some variety of an active woodland camo uniform.

The somewhat new standard Army dress uniform - the Army Service Uniform is easily the worst of the services. I can kinda see that they were trying to preserve the dark blue uniform tradition and style that was around since the time of the Mexican-American war (and more famously the Civil War), but they look more like waiters or bellhops than anything else.

While not a dress uniform, the Navy’s new Working Uniform is inexplicable. If a sailor were to go overboard, they better carry an inflatable raft with them because they aren’t going to be spotted quickly in that.

6

Prior to the advent of the war, what **Raguleader **said pretty well covered it for both the Army & Air Force.

The Navy was similar. Folks who got dirty working wore the working uniform (about like what a civilian garage mechanic would wear), and folks who stayed clean wore either the business casual uniform = open necked short sleeve shirt or the business suit uniform = long sleeve with tie & with or without suit coat. This was both ashore or at sea in a ship. And working pilots & submarine guys wore their one peice jumpsuits / coveralls.
Fast forward to a few years ago, shortly after the US invaded Iraq.

As part of getting the whole DoD to think & act like they’re in a war even if it’s just business as usual at some HQ stateside, the brass dictated that most people wear the current issue camo most of the time even if they work in an office in Ohio.

As shown by the wiki’s above, this is a gross simplification, but gets to the gist of what’s typical & why.

7

I’ve mentioned it before on the SDMB, but one of the fastest and easiest ways to check if a filmmaker has done his/her homework WRT the military is getting the uniforms right.

Given that there are roughly a gazillion permutations involved, this is tough, but you rarely find filmmakers try for even the most basic accuracy, instead picking and choosing what “looks cool.”

The most commonplace example of this is the egregious overuse of the service dress uniform, regardless of the era. Every bad movie or TV show does this: they’ll have these officers in at their desk or in briefings wearing full dress uniform, wearing their jackets or even their hats/cover indoors, saluting everyone they see in the hall, etc.

Each base/post has its own discretion on the rules, of course, but in practice, no one wears the jacket inside, and rarely even outside (what Raguleader says is good). You never wear cover indoors. You don’t salute indoors.

You’ll see Class A uniforms for official functions-- promotions, ceremonies, official meetings (congressional hearings). Other than that, it’s shit and tie (and usually just shirt). You’ll see even fancier uniforms for other functions (i.e., mess dress for formal functions).

To add a corollary: in Hollywood, every member of the U.S. Army after 1965 has served in the 1st Cavalry Division. How do I know this? Because that cool patch of theirs is irresistible to costume designers.

8

I live within bugle range of the biggest basic training facility in AFAIK the world, so we get our fill of uniforms. It’s a damned dirty shame what they’ve got them wearing these days - seriously, I get that there are surely great advantages to your camouflage pajamas when in a desert combat zone, but when it comes to picking up some milk at Publix it makes the whole organization look bad that your shirt isn’t tucked in. When I was a kid you NEVER saw anything but the ironed shirts tucked in off the base. The new uniforms are sloppy as hell and I hate them.

Look at this guy. He is walking a dog that is dressed up just like him and he still looks awesome and professional because he woke up in the morning and tucked his shirt in.

9

I was always amused by the Navy going camo. What, the enemy won’t see you blending in with your ship?

10

You’d think the Navy camo would be flat gray, wouldn’t you?

Instead it’s “man overboard” blue, which seems… counterintuitive.

11

Maybe it’s extra incentive to stay on board.

12

That reminds me of a question I’ve had for a long time. Why are they called a “cavalry division”? They don’t ride horses any more, do they?

13

That’s not why they went with a camouflage pattern.

From here:

Basically, the Navy finally realized that the camouflage utility uniforms that the other services have had for decades are very practical working uniforms. However, they didn’t want to go with a woodland or desert pattern, as that would be completely pointless on a ship, and not look at all like a Navy uniform.

When I first saw the new Navy working uniforms, I also did a double-take, but I see why they chose to go that way.

The old Navy dungarees (for enlisted) and working khaki uniforms (for officers and chief petty officers) got trashed very quickly in a shipboard environment. I was constantly replacing uniforms or walking around with permanent stains from a spot of grease, oil, paint, etc.

On the other hand, the “throwback” Service Dress Khaki uniforms that are being reintroduced in the U.S. Navy seem to be completely pointless. And don’t get me going on the new Navy Service Uniform. As a Navy veteran, it’s very odd for me to see junior enlisted sailors wearing khaki shirts.

14

They’re trying to hide dark spots and stains on the uniforms, not blend in with the ship. If the enemy can see the sailors walking around, they’re much too close. :wink:

And cruise missiles and torpedoes don’t care what the sailors are wearing.

15

I was just kidding about the camo thing, but thanks for the info. I was almost always in joint service outfits, and the Navy guys said the camo BDU type uniform was much nicer than the old stuff.

16

Short version:
Cavalry was proved to be pretty much obsolete during WWI. Rather than simply disbanding the cavalry units, the US army started re-equipped them with armored cars and tanks between the world wars. The role of mechanized cavalry varies between countries and has evolved over time, but cavalry units are highly mobile and often heavily armed. Currently, a US cavalry division consists of several combined-arms “brigade combat teams”, consisting of a mix of tanks and mechanized infantry.

The wikipedia page on the 1st Cavalry Division has a lengthy section on its history, which covers how its role has evolved over time…

17

Everything about the new Navy uniforms rub me the wrong way. The khaki service dress makes everyone look like extras in a World War II movie, and the khaki shirts for enlisted confuses me as well (I see Navy enlisted and think they’re officers until I do a double-take).

Anyone know why the Navy did this? It seems to me they saw the Army going back to blues and felt similarly inspired to go “back to their history” or some such thing.

18

Collection of thoughts:

The new Army Class A’s: I like them, overall. The airborne trooper looks ridiculous with the slacks bloused over his boots. He should just tuck them in with minimal blousing appearance (why would you need to blouse your boots in a service dress uniform anyways? If you need to keep bugs out of your boots in your office that badly, you really oughta call pest control or something.)

As for the bellhoppiness of the thing… eh, they’ll make it work. At least they don’t look like they’re wearing cheap business suits with rank insignia like the Air Force’s Service Dress uniforms (sigh, I was looking forward to the new service coats. The ones that’d make us look like we were in the military for once. Alas, I understand WHY we decided to back burner that until we fix the ABUs, the PT program, the EPR system, the tanker contract…)

The Navy uniforms: The khakis? Eh, they’ll make it work. Every new uniform looks weird when they’re new. I like the black-and-tan uniforms too, lower enlisted and junior Petty Officers wearing the khaki tops is a bit strange (and not nearly as strange as the E-2 and E-3 collar pip ranks…), but at least they wear distinctly different colored pants. This way I only have to worry about getting Chief Petty Officers mixed up with Lieutenant Commanders, a chronic problem of mine…

Going shopping in the camo uniforms… basically, the rule of thumb is, you can go somewhere on your lunch break or on your way home in the uniform only if it is typical for civilians to go there in the civvie equivilant of that uniform. So if you go to a grocery store or a gas station, and it’s not uncommon for folks in coveralls or t-shirt and blue jeans to be shopping there, you can do it in fatigues.

As for the guy tucking his shirt in or not? The shirt has to be tucked in on pretty much all of the uniforms now (including the PT uniforms, a recent change in the Air Force that nobody really likes…) I think there might be an exception for thermal shirts (a sweater or a second layer of undershirt worn over the t-shirt to stay warm), but that could just be a bunch of guys I’m seeing not wearing the uniform properly. What you’re most likely seeing is the guy’s camo top (technically they’re called blouses, tops, or jackets, depending on the uniform), which is never to be tucked in, just the same as the Marine’s coat in the other picture.

Also, ahem, that Marine is not walking a dog. He is escorting a Marine NCO during a parade. Don’t worry though, at first glance, it’s easy to mistake a Marine for a bulldog. The key difference is that bulldogs are more subtle and eloquent in communication. :wink:

And yeah, in modern (general) terms, Cavalry is anybody who rides into combat. Used to be done on horses until they went out of fashion, later they added jeeps, tanks, Armored Fighting Vehicles (think the Bradley and the Striker APCs), and helicopters to their arsenal. The thing is, I believe they’re only cavalry if they typically fight from those vehicles. If they ride the vehicles TO the battle, then get out to fight on foot, they’re Mechanized Infantry or Airborne/Air Assault (Airborne fall out of airplanes, Air Assault fall out of helicopters. Either way, the general idea is to fall from the skies to generally tear somebody a structurally superfluous new rear orifice.)

Sometimes a unit will get called one thing when they do something else, because they are traditionally a certain kind of unit. For example, the 101st Airborne Division, which has not had any paratroopers for a long time.

19

White House military staff are routinely in their best duds, especially for ceremonies: http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/09CVdvy30x2PT/610x.jpg

But sometimes you can dress down for a meeting with POTUS: http://www.google.com/imglanding?q=obama%20mcchrystal%20"air%20force%20one"&imgurl=http://whitehouse.blogs.foxnews.com/files/2009/10/obama-mcchyrstal.jpg&imgrefurl=http://whitehouse.blogs.foxnews.com/2009/10/07/president-obama-received-afghanistan-troop-request-last-week/&usg=__1_0MJLTMGiuLrS6gG7_fEtJr574=&h=333&w=500&sz=113&hl=en&itbs=1&tbnid=QUgcPpVQnTlUHM:&tbnh=87&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dobama%2Bmcchrystal%2B%2522air%2Bforce%2Bone%2522%26hl%3Den%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:1&gbv=2&tbs=isch:1&start=3#tbnid=QUgcPpVQnTlUHM&start=7

20

Maybe somebody decided to extend the concept of Birth Control Glasses to the entire uniform. Just about every guy, myslef included, who wore the old crackerjack navy uniform encountered at leat one woman at some time during his enlistment who wanted to have sex while he kept his uniform on. I’d be interested if any of the guys in the new uniform have this same experience.