Hooray!!! More shit to buy!! Thanks Army!!

The BBQ Pit
41

To be fair, all the military uniform skirts are Teh Ugly. When my son was in Air Force basic training, he said the “females” (the AF’s term of choice, not mine or his) all had simply lovely things to say about their, as they called them, “Make My Ass Look Fat” skirts.

I guess women in uniform aren’t supposed to look nice so men in or out of won’t be distracted by their female attributes, i.e. curves. Whereas men in uniform are supposed to look so wonderful that women will be throwing themselves at their feet to have their babies before they go marching off to war, thus perpetuating the portion of the species that volunteers to die so politicians can score useless points.

42

Aren’t Warrant and Commissioned Officers required to have those?

Isn’t that optional for Enlisted? Can’t the Enlisted wear their Class A uniforms for the events at which Warrant and Commissioned Officers must wear the Dress Blues?

IIRC, the Enlisted receive one issue (comprising of a certain number of fatigues/dress greens, underwear, etc.) when in-processing. After that, they’re required to obtain their own uniforms; thus, the annual uniform allowance.

Agreed.

43

Out of curiosity, can the women buy pants instead of the skirts?

44

No. You’re wrong. The officers who came up with this idea are thinking just like you. The truth is, MOST enlisted men DO NOT own Blues. And they WILL NOT be issued the new Blues. In the past, Class As with a bowtie was an acceptable substitute for the Dress Blues at any formal event. So no enlisted soldier was actually ever required to buy Dress Blues. Now we will be required to buy a set. And they are pretty damn expensive. I wonder how much cheaper the new type will be. But if the ACUs are any indication, then CHEAPER= TWICE AS EXPENSIVE!
So… that’s the issue.

New soldiers will be issued the new Blues. Current soldiers will be required to purchase their own. And the clothing allowance isn’t mana from heaven. It does not even cover the actual cost of maintaining clothing bag items, which is it’s purpose. It’s not free beer money. It’s reimbursement for cleaning fees, repairs, sewing, gradual replacement purchases, etc. Claiming that it can and should be used to purchase a new required item is incorrect. If a uniform is required for wear, then it should be issued. Clothing allowance is then used for the upkeep of that uniform.

This issue alone might not deserve such a pitting. But the Army’s new uniform changes and brilliant “money saving” ideas have been ridiculous. Somehow they think making us buy new shit and pay twice as much for half the crap will save us money. It wont. And as was mentioned earlier, this also means that Airborne units will most likely no longer wear boots with or blouse the pants on their service uniform. That alone is worth a vile pitting. And if that happens to prove true, I’ll be sure to start a new thread.

45

Things may have changed since I got out in 2000, but at that time women were issued both pants and skirt (two skirts, two pants, one jacket). Your command could dictate that you had to wear one or the other on a particular day or for a particular event. In my old unit they would usually decree that the skirt would be worn about twice a year or so, so that they could make sure that everyone’s skirt still fit properly.

For day to day wear you wear BDUs. Some units designate one particular day of the week or month for wearing the dress uniform. Another time you might wear the dress uniform would be to appear before a promotion board, and in my experience the women usually had the option to wear either the pants or the skirt. Some people insisted you should wear the pants to a promotion board, and others insisted the skirt was the way to go.

46

Actually, I just did some googling and found out, not entirely to my amazement, that USAF is itself thinking of changing their Service Dress once again. And the ideas being thrown about include – are you ready for it? Keep the blue, but bring back the patterns from back in the days of the Air Corps, like so. They have already announced the adoption of their own version of digi-camo, the “Airman Battle Uniform” for fieldwear.

Not only that, but the Navy has announced that they, too, are officially (a) going digi-camo for working uniforms for ALL ranks, and (b) also introducing a single all season, all-location, “service” uniform for junior enlisted that will replace summer whites, working blues, etc. and will result in all ranks now wearing khaki shirts (sort of Marine-ish, only with black rather than FG pants).

So if you add to that the introduction of MARPAT a couple of years ago, the Coast Guard Operational Duty Uniform (ODU) some time before that, and ACU last year, over the 2001-010 period you’ll have every branch of the US military having done a major change in their everyday-wear uniforms*.

So don’t feel bad, Soldier, Uncle has spread the pain evenly all around :smiley:

*The current Army Blues are a standard uniform, but they’re NOT everyday-wear, and are not “bag” issue, ya gotta buy them and a majority of junior enlisted don’t, as Monty suspected and Bear confirms.

I suspect that by the time they get around to final issue, they’ll “simplify” some more the everyday-wear version of the Blues, add a grey or buff service-dress/class-B shirt, maybe even make the brass and buttons a baser material, and then arrange for the fancier elements of the current “dress” version (19th-century-style officer’s epaulettes, visored cap with gold braid, corps colors details, real brass) to remain as add-ons to turn it into a more-formal version.

47

Sheesh JR, you make it almost sound like Haliburton has the military clothing concession…

48

Yea gods. I forgot how horrid women’s military clothing was since my days in ROTC. Although, they never issued us skirts there.

I feel for you, though. Halfway through the Navy started issuing orders regarding ROTCs and we weren’t allowed to wear khakis, the only comfortable uniforms out of the lot, anymore. Luckily, though, the Navy paid for our uniforms.

~Tasha

49

Though I must say, the Marine women’s white kepi-style dress cover is an outstanding-looking piece of headgear – they’re the only ones who’ve got the women’s dress headgear right IMO.

50

Can someone explain to my why the freaking Navy needs camo uniforms? Is that going to suddenly make the USS Stennis disappear to the enemy?

51

The Navy has been known to have combat personnel on land. There are also Navy units that never go to sea.

52

And the cost when you get a 2nd uniform?
Move velcro and pin stuff to new uni = free
Sew on multiply by two.
Get a third uni multiply by 3
Lather rinse repeat.

53

I didn’t realize safety pins cost so much.

54

But the answer to the question “Why ALL Navy personnel would or even should be required to wear camo uniforms?”
The answer to that is the same stupid reason why all Army soldiers wear camo, even pregnant women!!! There was the time when the PAC Clerk wore his Class Bs in the office. Why does a pay personnel on base in the middle of Kansas, need to wear camo? Uniformity?

The answer is simple. It makes everyone feel better.
This way everyone can feel like a hooah combat warrior and be proud of their job. Might as well give them all berets too. Oh yeah… they did that already. Hmmm… that’s not enough, lets give everyone a ribbon just for graduating AIT. That will be good. Oh… and it’s not fair that people in theatre get to wear flags since “We’re all warriors, and it’s a global war” :rolleyes: So everyone should wear US Flags on their uniforms. Not just deployed or deploying soldiers. Got that covered.

You know that train of thought where the Little League gives EVERY PLAYER a trophy?? It’s the same thing going on in the military. Everyone’s a winner, and everyone’s special, and everyone’s a warrior.

55

Yeah, that doesn’t seem like a pain in the ass at all… Oh, and velcro lasts forever, it never wears out from excessive use. The real answer to the pins is simple though, just dont buy any and dont wear any. The look like shit after a week anyway.

Safety pins?

56

To pin on your stripes and whatnot. How else would you do it?

57

The “pin ons” I’m talking about are little badges. They are metal and they push through the fabric and are fastened on the other side. Think of a pin for like a necktie, or something.

Here, I made this for you.
http://img102.imageshack.us/img102/6445/pin7pz.png

58

Oh, THOSE. Aren’t you just awarded them?

59

I’ve got one of those, it was quite comfortable when I camped in it.

60

HA!

In theory, anything the Army requires you to wear or possess much be issued to you. If everyone in formation is required to have a Reflective Vest, then the unit must GIVE everyone a reflective rest. And when the unit runs out, they cannot pressure a soldier into buying his own. (Though it happens) A soldier who has not been issued a required item cannot be disciplined for NOT having it. He should just be allowed to wait for the unit to aquire more and then issue one to him. He has to be given the item. The soldier is then given a yearly allowance to maintain these items.
However, it is gradually becoming more accepted for soldiers to just go out and buy their own stuff. And that’s bullshit.
I guess one needs to understand this to understand the point of the pitting.