As I sat on the Metro today (not my usual commute), watching military types getting on and off around the Pentagon, I noticed that the khaki Army uniforms had three vertical creases down the back. And I’ve never seen any other shirt creased like that. Usually creases in the back are an artifact of folding, and in that case there are two creases, and they’re not ironed in on purpose. Even if they are supposed to be ironed in to make fold creases more even and crisp, you don’t need three.
Sleeve creases I get, that’s because you have to iron the sleeve if you don’t have a Dry Cleaner’s Big-Ass Shirt Press Machine that steams a whole shirt in one shot with no creases at all. But a well-ironed shirt should have no creases other than on the sleeves if you have a proper ironing board. (Listen up, guys who crease the yoke and cuffs.)
And I noticed that no other uniforms had the same triple crease. So why does the Army do this?