http://www.army.mil/symbols/uniforms/
What a bunch of bastards. Yet another “cost saving” idea that will require soldiers to spend hundreds of dollars. Thanks for saving me the money, Army! Good looking out!
Materials suitable for everyday wear? Will replace all service uniforms including the mess white??? Looks like we’re gonna have some really nicely dressed dishwashers and hash slingers now.
The uniform looks nice. … nice and expensive.
The article says mandatory posession date is expected to be 4th quarter fiscal 2011. That gives you over 4 years. It’s not like you have to run out and get 5 sets by the end of this month. Heck normal wear and tear means a most of the uniforms you have now will need to be replaced in 4 years and you just buy the new ones to replace them.
Bear, you’re not an officer, are you? If not whats the problem? You will get any uniform you are required to wear as an enlisted man issued to you. I got out …shit almost twenty years ago, things haven’t changed that much have they.
You want to talk crazy, when I was in the gulf all we had was green LCE and green ALICE packs. They stuck out pretty bad in the sand so they gave us sand colored paint and told us to paint them. We did as instructed and then when we re deployed stateside they made us pay for them because they were no longer serviceable, and said we had caused the damage by painting them as instructed. Now thats crazy.
Mmm, I think Bear_nenno is showing a distinct lack of pride in the uniform. What better way to raise morale than more buttons and bows? I think it was Napoleon who said that.
Ha, we* did the same thing, except it was 2002, and everything we had was green, including uniforms. The great thing was that in 1991, we HAD desert pattern (well, tan, like the Afrika Korps) uniforms and equipment, but sold it all to surplus after the Gulf War because why the heck would we ever need them again?
Of course, it all worked out happily in the end, because the dye quality of the then new green uniforms was so poor that they turned basically grayish white after about 3 days of acutal use in Afghanistan, I heard a liberal MP actually go on the air and say “Yeah, we knew that would happen, that’s why we gave them the green uniforms when they went to Afghanistan! Yup, totally meant to do that.”
They didn’t make us pay for the painted stuff though, since we were all fairly confident that the desert pattern stuff wouldn’t be ready until 2014 or some such, we could just keep touching up the paintjob.
*By “we” I mean the Canadian army, I wasn’t personally there myself.
I don’t know about the other services but I was in the Navy from 85 to 95 and we had to pay for all our uniforms. Even the initial issue in boot camp was taken from our pay. That wasn’t really that big a deal for me since it wasn’t like I had anyplace to go spend money for 2 months. Except for the base store if we needed more toothpaste or shaviing cream etc…
I recall, in my Navy days, receiving a once-per-year clothing (uniform) allowance of a couple of hundred dollars. Has that gone away?
I forgot about the allowance. It did usually enable you to keep up with normal wear and tear replacement. But the initial outfitting was taking from our pay, probably taking that years uniform allowance into account.
They must have. This is the reason I still do not own a pair of ACUs. I’m holding out until the wear out date. I hate when they make me buy shit. Especially when it’s a uniform that’s inferior to the old one. And even more when it’s supposed to “Save Soldiers Money”, and it actually costs MORE money.
The brilliant idea behind the ACU was that soldiers would no longer have to have their badges and patches sewn on. Everything will be velcro and pin-on. What a great idea, right? Now soldiers down’t have to spend SO MUCH money on having things sewn on.
BDU Shoulder sleeve insignia, plus sewing charge = 2.50
ACU velcro shoulder sleeve insignia = 3.50
BDU Airborne badge, plus sewing charge = 2.00
ACU Airborne badge pin on = 3.00
BDU Drill Sergeant Badge, plus sewing = 4.50
ACU pin on = 12.00!!!
What the hell were they thinking?
Plus the pinon crap scratches easily and looks like shit after a couple weeks. The sew on stuff lasts forever.
Even the uniforms themselves cost nearly TWICE what the BDUs cost. And their hotter, have too much velcro, zippers, (WTF!??) and all kinds of stuff that will break or wear out. Not to mention the tactical deficencies.
Oh, and the 8 pairs of black boots I own cannot be worn with the ACU. So that’s a ton of waste right there. And those boots could theroretcally have lasted a career.
Granted, if I deploy, I’ll be issued all the ACU stuff at no cost. Well… the uniform and boots, but not the expensive ass pin ons and insignias. So I’m gonna hold out and see if I get issued that stuff before the wear out date.
But the new Class A thing. There’s no chance in avoiding that inevitable purchase. I wonder if it will be loaded will velcro and 30 dollar integrated shirt stabilizers or some shit.
Yea… there’s the Dress Mess. I was thinking about the white Morgue-looking thing they wear now on a daily basis. I wonder if they’ll still wear that.
Blue. . . blue? No! Soldiers must be all hot and green!
Come 2011, my life is over. Or something like that.
Nope, that’s still around. This years allowance would have covered less than half the initial costs of aquiring ACUs. And that’s assuming I didn’t actually use any of that allowance for it’s intended purpose of maintaining the serviceability of my current clothing bag items.
You could always offer to kit yourself out in a Zulu War-era style Pattern 1871 Uniform, although for Desert enviroments, I’d say the Sudanese Campaign/Boer War-era style Pattern 1888 Uniform would probably be more appropriate.
Come on, you know you’re thinking about it! 
Dont get me wrong, I hate the Green Class A. That thing is hideous! The Army should go back to the Brown from WWII. The new Blue does look MUCH better. But that’s not the point here. And who knows how much the Army spent redesigning the new Blue uniforms. Apparantley it would not have made enough nonsense to just say “Discontinue the Green Class A, and go with the Dress Blues”. Nope, couldn’t do that. They had to go make a NEW Dress Blue. I wonder how much R&D went into that!?
Also, yes I have better things to bitch about. But this info just went out to every soldiers’ email address – Army Wide. So I just now read word of this, and really felt like venting.
God and look at that hat!! I bet it costs like a hundred bucks!!
Look at the bright side. As long as they know your sizes, the family back home will never have to wonnder what they should give you for Christmas and your birthdays.
Oh, look, it’s even in gorgeous polyester and acetate! That must be a bitch to wear. My skin just crawls at the thought of touching that polyester shell. Blech. Two-hundred-and-fifty dollars and it’s polyester? That’s bullshit, I say. My condolences.
Wh,wh,wh…?
They felt a world-class Army needs a world-class uniform… so they make something in poly-acetate that looks like Dress Blue the standard single service uniform for all ocassions, from office wear to full formal? Sweet Jeebus on a rollerskate, first the berets, then this, who’s the frustrated fashion designer over at Natick? He seems to be finally getting serious about competing with the Air Force for the bottom rung in style… 
Like Bear and Diosa said, if they wanted to evoke history they could have evoked history from the Army’s peak of great power, when it wore OD green.
Bear, can you not still wear cochrans with the class A? Every Airborne unit and Ranger Unit I was in wore pants bloused into jump boots. Did they do away with that when they let the nasty legs wear berets?
As for initial issue, I was issued everything I was ever required to wear, including Class A. Granted I had to buy my own jump boots and other special boots. The clothing allowance did not really cover much, but most of the units I was in replced BDU’s that got messed up in training or in combat.
Sewing sucked. All the patches and tabs do add up.
Don’t let me interrupt your bitch though, it every service man’s god given right to bitch about the big green momma, but we all loved the shit out of her. The biggest mistake I ever made was not re-enlisting. After Dessert Storm my wife said its either me or the Army…obviously I made the wrong choice. (Would hate to be in Iraq now though)
That’s currently still going on. Airborne units still wear pants bloused into jump boots. But I bet that will soon be a thing of the past. Both because of this new uniform and because it’s on par with the Army’s recent decisions. I see one of two things happening. Either EVERYONE will be allowed to blouse jump boots in the new uniform, or NO ONE will. That’s the new Army. Everyone’s equal… or at least, everyone should appear equal when they wear a uniform. What a stupid concept.
But I dont believe people ever bloused Dress Blues, so this new uniform will probably cause the end to all that tradition. Another Victory for LEGS. Kinda sad.
I was initially issued everything I’d ever need, clothing wise. But that was before the Army started changing all the outfits. Now they want people to buy the new shit. Cherries get issued all the new stuff and dont have to pay, but those who were issued the old stuff, has to come out of pocket for the new stuff.
Yea, I still love her. But only cause she’s family!