Wear of the Uniform/Appearance Off-Installation
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But then, there was also that story in the papers recently about RAF men in Peterborough (not far from me) being told not to wear their uniforms out in public.
seek Kipling's Tommy for a historical take on this...
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I went into a public-'ouse to get a pint o' beer,
The publican 'e up an' sez, "We serve no red-coats here."
The girls be'ind the bar they laughed an' giggled fit to die,
I outs into the street again an' to myself sez I:
O it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, go away";
But it's "Thank you, Mister Atkins", when the band begins to play,
The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play,
O it's "Thank you, Mister Atkins", when the band begins to play.
I happened on a discussion on a Brit press web site about a move to finally give RAF Bomber Command veterans a gong for their sacrifices in WWII. Despite the so-called safer night attacks, Bomber Command lost more bombers in the same month that the 8th mounted the Schweinfurt raids. It was amzing to see some of the utterly senseless vituperative posts against the move because the veterans were "war criminals".
We have gone through it here in the States. Ken's experiences I am sure attest to it. As members of the Army in the 70s, we were prohibited from wearing uniforms in the national capitol region under Peanuts Carter. At the same time, we were getting letters about how to apply for food stamps...
Hopefully we will not repeat that.
Tom
Been a soldier both AC and RC and
a DA and DOD civilian. I well remember when Class A and B were the only authorized uniforms off post and for office wear. I also recall when the army started wearing BDUs in the office and the classroom in the early 90s (perhaps the late 80s). But there were the DACs always in coat and tie. It seemed to me (and still seems the same) that if soldiers wear ACUs to the office the DACs should wear blue jeans, tee shirts, and sneakers - same-o same-o.:rolleyes:
Regarding beards: the old saw about can't get a seal on the protective mask is just that. I mentioned that reason in 1970 to a distant cousin who skippered a nuclear attack sub. He replied that his crew had been the test population and they got seals just fine - thank you very much!:wry:
Cheers
JohnT
Do you want starch with that?
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Originally Posted by
Schmedlap
I hated the rationale that your DUTY/FIELD uniform does not look professional unless it is starched, and your boots are not presentable if you cannot use them to signal an aircraft. Where did that come from?
I vividly remember standing in formation to hear a battalion commander rail about how he didn't want to see any starched BDUs, that that was in fact, against regulations, and he was going to make life hell for anybody he saw with them on. Then having NCOs make life difficult for us soldiers if our BDUs didn't look like they were starched. What to do?
It was then, at that moment, that I realized that Catch-22 wasn't merely a good novel and work of fiction, but something accurate that I would just have to learn to live with in the military.
That BC had to have seen soldiers walking around all the time with starched BDUs afterwards, but I never heard of anybody getting in trouble for it. The feeling in the ranks was that if (the mysterious "They") had it in for you, this was a sort of selective enforcement of regulations they would get you for, if they wanted to.
One of only two pieces of military headgear
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Originally Posted by
wm
...For a real golden oldie, who, besides Ken, remembers, the Louisville cap (AKA the Fidel Castro Cap)? Some hot shot put a cardboard circle in a standard issue fatigue baseball cap and created it. As far as I can recall, it was never an Army clothing bag item, but it was required for wear.
that were of US origin instead of being adopted from someone else. The cardboard added to the old Field Cap (aka a patrol cap...) by some troublemaker led to the Lousiville Cap Company developing their semi-permanent stiff model.
Both it and the Campaign hat were sort of impractical.
Hmmm. Maybe there's a message in that somewhere... :wry:
A picture of fidel with his cap on will show the hat,
here's one on a US Army soldat (LINK) back in the day, apparently in Korea in the late 50s...
Well, the link says the guys name is
Off-post wear and qualifications
Unfortunately my main reasoning for the feelings of not wearing the uniform off-post is that most who do this are not presenting a good image. Too many who do this look as if they haven't pushed themselves away from the table in years or are "too cool". Generally these are the ones who love the APFT uniform the most. I understand given the public a chance to meet and talk with soldiers. Having experienced these conversation many times on flights all over the country, some the stories that come forth from these encounters, I have to ask are they productive or counter productive? I guess this comes down to one of those personal thoughts and preferences and their is no right or wrong answer, other than what is in the regulations at the time.
As far as airborne wings, who cares. I never have and never will wear my badges on BDUs/ACUs or whatever comes next. What a person wears on his chest or shoulder does not make the man/woman. It shows they can pass an Army school. There are too many out there who judge a soldier by this and it tells you absolutely nothing about them. it's no different than judging a book by it's cover. Funny this came up, I had a brother of mine call this morning asking me what he should wear when he reports to his Reserve unit. I told stripped down ACUs, let his new unit members judge him by his performance not his badges.
You might want to talk to some of them instead
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Originally Posted by
Fred III
...To me, it's just another case of lowering the bar, but maybe that's what a volunteer military needs. ... Why should the military set its standards any higher than our civilian "bosses"? Pretty soon, the bar won't have any lower to go... then everyone should be happy.
denigrating something you apparently aren't familiar with.
Having also played in the SEA war games -- though not in Saigon -- and watching and talking to many serving today, I have no doubt that these kids today, officer and enlisted, are across the board, smarter, better educated, better trained and far more tactically and technically competent than the vast majority of folks who served in Viet Nam.
As was true during Viet Nam, they are not responsible for stupid decisions made by their bosses.