New US Navy Uniforms

[Starwolf]

As a Navy retiree I was interested to see this and thought it might apply to modern military campaigns....

 

Basically the US Navy is getting away from the Dungaree's of old and issueing blue and gray camo BDU's with a matching marine style cap and blue t-shirt, with silver collar rank insignia for enlisted. Navy combat type's like SEALS will get both the standard marine style BDU's in green and desert tan plus an issue of the blue and gray.

 

Here is the link

 

While this article is from back in 2004 it was announced yesterday that the changes had been approved.

[Killer Shrike]

Re: New US Navy Uniforms

 

You'd think the guy in the picture could at least manage to get a crown insert to keep his cover blocked correctly. And the yellow is sniper bait. But thats the Navy for you....

[gojira]

Re: New US Navy Uniforms

 

I dunno if I should comment, not being military and all, but what's the point of blue camo? Does it make you hard to spot on the deck of a ship? Does it make you hard to spot if you fall overboard? Personally when I go boating I like something bright orange on my shoulders, just in case.

 

It seem like they should either be getting real camo, or saftey gear, not something that looks like urban camo.

[Starwolf]

Re: New US Navy Uniforms

 

Heh... I agree, blue/gray would tend to make you hard to spot if you fell overboard. There is also a sort of working dress uniform that will be a Khaki shirt with black trousers.

 

One of the things that many people... and apparently the uniform designers/politicians did not understand was that the old bell bottom design actually served a useful purpose. If a sailor fell overboard the bell made getting the trousers off easier so that they could be used as a floatation device.

[Zeropoint]

Re: New US Navy Uniforms

 

As a member of the Navy, I, too, feel that the blue camo is ridiculous. I also think that the "working uniform" looks too much like a Marine uniform.

 

Lucky for me, I should be out of the Navy before any of this filters down.

[Killer Shrike]

Re: New US Navy Uniforms

 

You'd be suprised by how comfortable boots and utes are. You might grow to like it -- all the green side corpsmen I served with back in the day vastly preferred them to their navy uniforms.

[Edsel]

Re: New US Navy Uniforms

 

Blue camo is a rather strange choice. Do they want the sailor to blend in with the bulkheads? The cut may be okay but why not just go with a solid color.

[Vondy]

Re: New US Navy Uniforms

 

Actually, the blue camo is a marine corps design used for work in some kinds of forrest. That hue of blue (a medium value as opposed to a true value), when mixed with combinations of yellow or gray and black fools the eye as being a shade of naturally occuring green (as well as reflecting green better than a true green), whereas true green doesn't really appear in forrests and works as a target indicator if you have someone with strong primary vision (color). Most people, however, rely on secondary vision (shape) looking for you. Its a mental trick, but one that works very effectively in the right kind of forrest. Its a question of hue, value and environs. The navy probably picked it because the blue and gray goes with their "element," but that's not why the marines developed it. And I doubt Naval units that have to work on land in combat ops (such as the Seals) will use it if another camo-design is more appropriate.

[LordGhee]

Re: New US Navy Uniforms

 

the blue cameo was chosen accoriding to an artilce I read on stragey page to blend in on the deck so that if you are on wacth in port you are harder to be seen so the terr cannot shoot you in a strange port.

[Zeropoint]

Re: New US Navy Uniforms

 

Actually, the article linked to states that the colors were chosen to make the various stains and smudges that a sailor might pick up blend into the uniform better.

[LordGhee]

Re: New US Navy Uniforms

 

in the article on the stragey page the saliors like the fact that it hid stains ect. that was one of the reason it was slected. wearablity and ease of maintance was one of the theames for the selection of the new uniforms from all of the sevices.

[Spence]

Re: New US Navy Uniforms

 

in the article on the stragey page the saliors like the fact that it hid stains ect. that was one of the reason it was slected. wearablity and ease of maintance was one of the theames for the selection of the new uniforms from all of the sevices.

 

One of the local sqd's was a test unit for all four of the patterns. The maintainers loved the pattern picked and the design/material as a working uniform. It was great for ease of upkeep, and like was mentioned above, hides stains and tears/patches extremely well. Someone actually noticed that the sailor must not only present a clean well kept appearance, but actually do some work. back in the day when I was a bluejacket, I remember having to keep extra sets of clean uniforms at work (when ashore) just so I could go to PSD or leave the hanger, because you always seemed to find the Zero who had seen too many movies and didn't realize people actually got dirty when working on aircraft.

[Zeropoint]

Re: New US Navy Uniforms

 

Oy. Tell me about it. You're wearing a "working uniform", but not allowed to look like you've been working.