just curious, but is there a practical reason for US Navy sailors to wear bell bottoms?
Starting next January, they won’t anymore.
Here is what I was told by a couple of friends who were in the Navy.
The pants are/were made to act as a floatation device. One navy friend told me that they have draw strings at the bottom and can be tied around the ankles and that the air that is trapped inside (they are waterproof and airtight) helps the sailor to float. (This guy was in the Navy about 10 years ago. The other navy friend who was in the Navy about 20 years ago, said that you take the pants off and jump in the water. The water then gives the pants the ability to hold air and then you tie off the legs and the waist and then you wrap the pant legs around you and you float.
I do not know if this is still true or if they just continue to do it out of habit, but I do trust the friends who gave me this info.
Jeffery
I don’t know, Jeffery, someone might be pulling your pant leg. The bell bottoms we used to buy at the Army-Navy Surplus weren’t waterproof or airtight, just plain old denim. And the reason I always heard for bell bottoms, was that the flapping legs dried faster - handy if you spent large amounts of time surrounded by water.
As I remember it from boot camp (almost 20 years ago, now): If you fall overboard unexpectedly then the wide bottoms on the pants make it easier to take off your boots. That was the first step. Then you remove the pants --this step is also easier with the wide bottoms. Then you can use the pants as a flotation device. There are no draw strings at the bottomof the pants. You were just supposed to tie off the bottoms (IIRC, with your boot laces, but I may be misremembering this part) and then blow 'em up and close off the top. All this while treading water. Frankly, I think I’d justa drowned. I don’t know what they’re telling the boots nowadays to do if they fall overboard – maybe the new uniforms and boots are lighter than the old stuff and don’t need to be removed at all.
Jess
Remember the Straight Dope credo: It’s all about wiping out ignorance, not coddling the ignorant.
Again? 
Peace,
mangeorge
A guy I knew who was leaving the Navy just as they abandoned them the last time said that a lot of sailors were mad because they were very practical–it is easier to roll up pant legs that start with a wider mouth when you need to scrub decks, etc.
Tom~
Many US navy traditions are based on old European naval traditions, especially the British Royal Navy which I served in.
If you look at old Photographs of navy ratings you will see that their bell bottoms had sharp horizontal creases in them.These allowed the wearer to easily roll up the trouser leg which in turn made for less wear when scrubbing the decks.Knees are much cheaper than clothes and they repair themselves becoming more hardwearing as well.
Being such a shortarse I only had to put 5 creases in but if you were taller you had to but in more.These creases are not easy to maintain so many of us resorted to sewing them in.
I believe they were replaced by ,ugh!, flares for a time in the 80’s but have since been replaced.
Question for you, why do they wear those collars? I know ,but do you?
David Feldmen(?) answered this in one of his imponderable books.
He gave the same reasons as you lot got. The flotation device. The easier to take your pants off bit. And tradition.
Tradition, tradition, tradition… not only the US and British navies but most others I can think of also wear bell bottoms.
Have you guys thought that for centuries these guys had to wade ashore? Wouldn’t rolling up your pants come in handy?
Other stuff about the unform:
The kerchief is traditionally black as a token of mourning for Lord Nelson. Sailors are trained to make its knot “so it looks like a pussy you can kiss anytime you want.”
The little cape-flap behind the neck, called a tallywacker, was origianlly used to protect the neck from pine tar while aloft. There are 13 buttons on the front of the enlisted dress trousers: “you have 13 chances to change your mind,” (more Navy sex humor - don’t ask me about the other gibe invited by the drawstring fly in the back). The creases on the dress whites and blues are set while the garments are inside out, becuase they are stored that way to prevent visible staining while in storage. (Sailors on leave usually come to grief on thhis point, no matter how precise their instructions to their home-town dry-cleaners) And those dungaree trousers? The washed-out ones you buy at the Army/Navy store are too pourous to hold air, but could at their original issue-time due to the fire-proof sizing in them. Maybe they’d keep you from drowning, but only if they didn’t kill you first from a crotch-chafing rash. Also, regarding the dungaree uniform, I can recall at least one sailor wondering aloud how he was supposed to proudly wear the same clothes that Uncle Sam also issued to convicts in federal prisons.
Tove: The knot in the neckerchief is a square knot, aka Sailor’s Knot.
The Navy Dress blue uniform or “crackerjacks”
have a lot of tradition in them.The thirteen buttons were for the original 13 colonies…the three white stripes on the sleeves and “tallywhacker” are for Admiral Nelsons three victories.
Let me tell you,those 13 buttons SUCK when you REALLY gotta piss!They were definately NOT designed for comfort.That wool itched like hell!
The dungaree,or work uniforms consist of a chambray shirt and IRONHARD denim pants with completely useless patch front pockets.The first time you wore the pants and got wet,your legs were died indelible blue!
Rich “G7SUBS”