IIRC, anyone who’s been in less than six months, gets the new issue gratis. The rest of the folks get to pay for it out of their pay and allowances (and one of those allowances is uniform allowance). That’s why the phase in dates are staggered so long.
I have not yet followed the link in the OP, but I think we can all agree that the Class A uniform is pig-ugly and anything to simplify and un-ugly it would be most welcome.
You do remind me, Bear_Nenno, of the Air Force guys I worked with who insisted on wearing right up to the obsolescence date their 250-lb wool greatcoats. The polyester shell with a cheap-ass liner that replaced it not only looked stupid but was only about 25% as warm. That wool greatcoat was the best-looking outerwear ever in any branch of the service, and the guys who had it hung onto it with a love that could not be quantified.
So the Army is turning blue like the Air Force? Why? The Air Force wants to keep its blue to itself, thank you very much! The sky is blue, the ground is green/brown. What’s so difficult with making uniforms to match the concept?
Well, it does save money if you don’t have to own a set of class A’s, dress blues, mess blues, and mess whites. Apparently you do not have sufficient rank or experience to be aware of all the different uniforms that you’d eventually need to own over time.
Anyway, you won’t have to throw out your dress blues; they’re going to look pretty much the same. They’ll just be altered in fabric and fit. Presumably because as formal uniforms, they aren’t designed for everyday comfort and need to be altered for the people who will have to wear them every day (the same people who wear class A’s every day).
Doofus… The mess blues and mess whites aren’t what cooks wear, they’re worn at highly formal occasions (which you apparently don’t have enough rank to attend). Class A’s are worn in many office environments. There’s no reason to have 3 different kinds of suit-and-tie uniforms in a modern army. That’s the real waste, which is being eliminated. Although it will be kind of sad to see the mess blues go… officers with many years of experience look quite sharp in all the tails and embroidery.
So I followed and the link to this slide here:
http://www.army.mil/symbols/uniforms/slide.html
And I have to say I don’t really see the difference between the old green and the new blue. Are the gents’ trousers really bright blue? They should make the ladies’ skirts that color. And I hope the skirts don’t really flare out like that at the hem. That is one ugly cut of skirt.
But the big news for me was the uniform timeline which contained this blast from the past:
Sadly they don’t have a picture. Under what circumstances do military women wear floorlength skirts and do they still get tiaras? Does anyone know where we can see pics?
Um… the Army has been wearing blue for over 200 years now, long before there ever was an Air Force. Perhaps you’ve heard of “the blue and the gray?”
Anyway, there’s no risk in mistaking a sharp-looking set of Army dress blues with the Air force bag of rags. For one thing, it’s a different shade of blue; for another thing, Army uniforms are laundered and pressed.
Mess uniforms (the ones being phased out) were for formal evening dining events. White for summer, blue otherwise. The women’s mess uniform has floorlength skirts. Men’s dining jackets with tails were supposedly phased out years ago although some officers refuse to replace theirs and continue to wear them.
I knew I’d get a reaction to that one. But I still think the Air Force uniform is the most practical. And I say this as someone who had to live with someone wearing AF blues for ten years; they’re durable, inexpensive, and minimally covered with crap. Which keeps the cost down, too. Of course, now my son who’s been in the AF for a couple of years goes to work every day in his BDUs now, doesn’t even bother with his blues in spite of their minimal upkeep
In the 20th Century, the Army moved more and more to green, it seems to me. Both WWI and WWII uniforms were almost totally green, weren’t they? It does seem odd that they’re dumping the green in favor of blue again. The services’ uniforms do seem to be getting more and more like each other. I know the Coast Guard basically wears the same blues as the AF, with different insignia.
But the new Army blue uniform is UGLY, the women’s especially. The jacket is too long so that it makes even slim women look heavy, and the skirt flares just exactly the wrong amount in the wrong place and is exactly the wrong length so that it makes even slim women look dumpy and frumpy. What’s wrong with a uniform that’s attractive on women as well as on men? The men don’t look like idiots in their uniforms; there does seem to be a conspiracy of ugly design for the women’s versions.
As for the long skirts, military women’s mess dress included a long straight skirt for many years. It actually was attractive, although it looks kind of dorky with the waiter’s jacket. You can see photos of several services’ versions here.
Here’s a picture. The tiara is unfortunately not diamond 
.
To clarify, The Army wore brown in both world wars. According to Paul Fussell’s book on uniforms, soldiers objected to this, and the DoD commissioned the swankiest New York fashion designers in the 1950’s to develop the green uniform that’s now being phased out. (Perhaps they were preoccupied with the Army contract: this would explain the sack dress)
My only lament is that the phrase “Big Green Machine” will be replaced with “Big Blue…crew?” (no; crews are made up of sailors). "Big Blue…slew. A whole slew of highly motivated people.
Bear_Nenno starting a pit thread about fashion = priceless
Huh. I actually quite like it. Very elegant.
Good thing I’m not in a military. I only have to buy a couple of suits a year.
What year again does this regulation become effective?
I only bought two suits in six years in the military. It’s not like you have to have six of them or something. Even better than that, you get to wear the exact same thing every day.
I don’t know why the Army had to make this new uniform blue, though. Too Air-Forcey.
And once again I thank providence that I got out before they introduced the stupid beret.
IT’S NOT A NEW UNIFORM, DAMMIT. It’s a retirement of 3 other uniforms, to be replaced with one existing uniform. Future production runs of the same uniform will have slight modifications to the fit and fabric.
Who are you people that you served in the Army and are completely unaware of the dress blue uniform?
Thanks for the pictures of the ladies’ formal duds! I kind of like that tiara too, in a grecian urn sort of way. That’s not at all what I thought they meant when they said “princess jacket”, though.
Mama Tiger, I know precisely what you mean about the shorter ladies skirts! I thought the exact same thing. It’s like they were designed by a committee of people who thought Helen Crump was little too “fast” for that nice Sheriff Taylor.
Ick. Looks like an Air Force uniform. What were they thinking? Oh well. Beats Kelly Green…or Pink.
Oh, potato, potahto. To the ninety-five percent of the soldiers who have never owned one, they’re new uniforms. That and the fact that they’re going to change the fabric so that everyone can buy a new one.
95% ? :dubious:
No. Nobody will be required to replace their existing dress blues with new ones.
Officers already have dress blues.
Many enlisted already have dress blues.
The ones who don’t will be issued dress blues (if I recall, enlisted people still have their uniforms provided at no cost to them).
The waste and excess is part of the past practice of having 4 sets of dress uniforms. Using the dress blue uniform as the only uniform eliminates this redundancy.
There is simply nothing to pit here.