If you think the bare minimum number of pieces of flair expresses who you are, well, ok.
My tiny 2 cents: I am happy to buy a coffee for a serviceperson ahead or in back of me in the cafeteria line. Least I can do, I figure, and it’s easy just to tell the counter clerk “Excuse me miss, I’ve got that” for the guy in front of me or else “Ask the gentleman next in line what he’d like” for the guy in back of me. Never had anyone take offense yet.
But I’m a little timid about trying this with a large muscular person trained in unarmed combat who looks seriously tired or stressed. I try not to do anything at all unexpected around large muscular persons trained in unarmed combat who are seriously tired or stressed. And walking around airports in slovenly uniforms does tend to give that impression. (Especially with face stubble.)
Okay, I’m not paranoid enough to sincerely believe that any ordinary frazzled-looking traveling soldier really is likely to be a PTSD catastrophe waiting to happen, but there’s no question that I feel more reassured around the clean and tidy ones. And I imagine many other civilian travelers feel the same. So, for what it’s worth, trim-looking uniforms and gear are good things, if only because they might lead to free coffee!
I know, he might just break down and tell you about how much he misses his Mom who he’s going to visit for the first time in two years. It could be awful! Nothing like having a big bear of a man sobbing in the latte you bought for him while your flight to Houston is delayed because you thought that saving $ 100 bucks by transferring in Detroit was ok, until of course the Blizzard hit, which no one told you about when you were ordering the fucking tickets!
Look, for those of you who keep chiming in with the “leave them alone he probably just got back from Iraq” stuff just save it. I’ve already said that I don’t expect a guy just back from the AOR to have a uniform that looked like it was just picked up from the BX. I’ve made it clear that I’m not talking about those people, though as I mentioned there are bare minimums that you (we) SHOULD do when possible and it’s unacceptable to not do.
Some things civilians might not know:
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Believe it or not ALL of the military members you see traveling through the airport in their uniform are NOT on their way to or back from war. MANY of them (us) are traveling doing business and or going to training etc… Even the guys with big fat rucksacks. I would guess that less than 50% of the people you see in the airport in uniform are on their way into/out of the AOR. If you want to err on the side of them being en route to Iraq that’s fine. I’m just telling you that it isn’t always the case so don’t act shocked when another military member (me) is appalled at the dress and appearance of these warriors in public places.
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Those of you that don’t understand why this is such a “big deal” never will and theres no way to explain it in terms you will buy. Also, for those saying I’m over-reacting, since when does something have to be a “big deal” to have a pit thread about it? Over reacting would have been locking up a bunch of soldiers I don’t know over dress and appearance issues who weren’t under my command. Though if I came across airmen looking like that in the airport I certainly would have a nice chat with them about it.
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My uniform is trump tight every single day. I lead by example and don’t expect more out of my troops then I’m willing to give myself. The uniform is SO easy to handle and there is no excuse to look like shit in it unless you just walked off the battle field (and being on an airplane in the US is NOT just off the battle field, even if we are en route home from Iraq)
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I have not said that soldiers in general look like shit. I’ve said that every single time I travel (which is several times a month) I see soldiers looking like shit en masse. I’m not saying the soldiers you see on or around base necessarily look like shit. I’m talking about soldiers in the airport.
Bottom line again for those that missed it earlier:
Keep your shit straight in public.
Kind of says it all IMO. I am glad I am ‘old school’ because I think in this case, it is the correct way. I still have my last Class A uniform. At 48 I could still wear it. At 65 I can not. It is still hanging neatly in my closet.
Exactly.
Opal, I know your views on this matter, and they will probably never change. Neither will ours. I will never try and tell you that your view is stupid, wrong, unacceptable, ridiculous, or the result of living in a fantasy world, though. Which you seem to be saying about those who don’t share your views in this matter…
Agree to disagree, without malice. Yes?
I never said any of those things about your views or people who share them. I’ve just said that this is one of those examples of how my world [my world being that of art geeks, theater nerds, computer people, etc., and one in which things like dressing differently is a good thing and breaking rules is expected and accepted (not talking about laws here, talking more about things like “what’s expected”)] is so different from the military world that I can’t comprehend those kinds of things. It isn’t saying that world is stupid, wrong, or any of the other words you’re trying to put in my mouth. It’s simply saying that I don’t understand that world, don’t “get” it, and so it is hard for me to put myself into the other person’s shoes and see the same issues. I pretty much can’t envision a world where I would be so upset by someone not having their pants tucked into their boots would prompt me to write a letter to their boss. That isn’t a judgment. By a similar token, a lot of people would probably have the same inability to see my perspective when I say that encountering a grammar issue/spelling error/similar in a novel or something, I have to restrain myself from writing to the author or editor to point it out. I’m sure most people can’t envision a world in which something like that would matter enough to them. I don’t assume that means a judgment against me.
If you read it as “malice” then I’m sorry, but it wasn’t presented as such. Saying that I, personally, would be in hell living in that environment isn’t malice, it’s simple truth. I’d be in hell living as an accountant or working at a fast food restaurant for the rest of my life, too. It’s not me, it’s counter to my personality, and would not work out. I’m sure that many aspects of what I do would be just as awful to someone with a very different personality.
There is nothing wrong with expecting military discipline from members of the military. 
I never thought Opalcat came across as disdainful of the military. He/she (sorry I’m not sure if Opal is a guy or gal) said he/she couldn’t imagine living under the rules the military has.
<–is a she
Ok. Just wanted to be sure before I committed myself.
I’m sorry if I misconstrued, Opal. It’s just that you use words like “repellent,” “unimaginably awful” and “third level of hell.” Also “I disagree with just about every aspect of it that I’ve ever been told about or seen” and “It goes totally against how my brain works.” And “I seriously cannot grasp how this stuff could possibly matter to anyone.”
It sounds a bit like a judgment, but I’ve been wrong plenty of times before. I’ll take your word for it.
When I was in the Navy back in the '60s we would take great joy in asking Air Force guys “What time’s the next bus to Long Beach”. So did our Marines. Mean, huh. 
I have seen some of the types the OP worries about, But I really don’t give a shit. If this were peacetime, I might care a little more. Probably not, though.
Basically, I say leave them the fuck alone. Most of them have enough to worry about, like, say, the possibility of combat. Combat is where people with weapons try to kill each other. Leave them alone.
Sorry, I feel myself increasingly irritated by this.
Peace,
mangeorge
Argh!
Please, no more of that “tax payer” crap, okay? I’m paying for body armour, not steam irons.
I’ll also buy a latte for that scrawny little runt of a man to sob into, if that’s okay.
As I said, those are how those things are to me not how those things are inherently. If I said I found a certain food loathsome and gross, would you assume I thought that other people were wrong for eating it and that I thought it was inherently a bad thing? The idea of eating raw oysters is unimaginably awful to me as well, so (leaving aside my vegetarianism–I though it was just as disgusting a concept back when I still ate meat) would you leap to the same conclusion that I thought people who liked them were bad or wrong? I disagree with just about every political opinion my fiancé has as well; I still think he is a good person, but I could not think the way he does or vote the way he does.
ACU - Army Combat Uniform. It’s that new digital thing the Army uses now, along with Navy Sailors attached to Army units. Pix
MCCUU - Marine Corps Combat Utility Uniform… or something. Its pattern is called MARPAT (Marine Pattern, more or less). It comes in woodlawn green or desert tan. IMHO it is the sexiest of the uniforms. Forest | Desert
ABU - Airman Battle Uniform. This is the Air Force’s new tiger stripe thing. Pix
BDU/DCU - Battle Dress Uniform, and Desert Combat Uniform. These are your more ‘classic’ uniform patterns people are used to. Currently only the Navy still uses these (SeaBees, SEAL, SWCC, EOD, Beachmaster, Master-at-Arms, etc.), altho not all Sailors do (see ACU). Sometime next year or so the Navy is expected to start expanding its cammie usage by introducing the Navy Working Uniform (NWU), which is a digi cammie thing in black and blue. Not so much to blend in with the water as show ‘solidarity’ with the other services and disguise stains better. BDU | DCU | NWU
Reminds me of a short story that went like this: Bunch of us around the smoke pit, coking and joking, swapping whore stories and the like. Guy sez “Oh shit, the chaplain’s comin’.”
Chaplain goes, “yeah, the fucking chaplain’s here.”
Hey, I didn’t say it was a good story.
Then he’s a dirtbag and that level of carelessness in other matters could get people killed. In boot camp (or ‘Basic’ to the Army) they make you do stuff like clean shitters and pissers (toilets/urinals) so clean you could eat off of and make you count the pubes to prove it, to show that the recruit is 1) paying attention, and 2) gives a shit. If I’m on an aircraft carrier’s flight deck and I don’t feel like following this rule or that rule because it’s a PITA, or don’t bother with a pre-flight check, the whole flight deck could go up in flames and get a lot of people killed just because I felt like being comfortable.
I know not tucking in or blousing your pants is not the same as that, but it’s a kind of mentality that has to work for all things for it to work for all things. The rules exist for a reason.
Our uniforms are different. I can look at a guy’s uniform and tell how long he’s been in, what his job is, probably how good he is at his job, whether he’s been to sea and how long, if he’s been to the Middle East (and where), if he’s done recruiter duty, how many awards he’s gotten, how handy he is with a gun, and how much volunteer work he might do in his off time.
It’s not the silenus’s arbitrary expectations. When it comes to Marines, it’s Chesty Fuller’s expectations.
Bro, I am so fucking with you on the beard thing.
Deployed - it’s a bit old - but
I’d imagine that lots of your guys have been there, and they rightly do not give a shit what you think.
It’s like going in for a parent-teacher meeting and your kid’s second grade teacher is dressed like she’s about to go clubbing. Does it mean she must be a bad teacher? Of course not. It doesn’t exactly give you the warm fuzzies, though.
If your life depended on someone, you’d want them to give you the warmest fuzzies imaginable. Are you going to die because some guy forgot to button his pocket or his shoes aren’t shiny? Of course not. But now you have a doubt about whether he does his job correctly down to the smallest detail. Some other little thing that he didn’t sweat about could be the little thing that kills you.