US Army announces selection of new — blue — Class A’s

[big bad john]

From todays Stars & Stripes.

 

[geo]

not sure but.... think it's gonna be a B!+@H to keep dust off and just plain clean.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

I suspect this is being done to help flagging morale - along with the mandatory denials that this is being done to help flagging morale?

Seems very dressy - even the Marine Corps has a green DEU-like uniform.

Oh, and I don't see any shoulder boards on the tunic, just gold-piped shoulder straps. I was thinking of the Civil War type ones they use on their mess dress.

Having said that this looks dressy, am I correct in that Class A's are not used often for parades, the way DEUs are in Canada?

 

[ExSarge]

[You might have a large knowledge of CDN military historical facts but your lack of professional military courtesy to Allied services is severely lacking!  My morale is fine, as is the vast majority of the U.S. military]

For crying out loud guys, lighten up! It's a uniform for C***t sake! From experience my guess is the average trooper/soldier in a combat unit will wear the Class "A" uniform about a dozen times during the course of his/her career. I know that I never wore it again after the Airlines stopped requiring its wear to qualify for fare discounts when flying!

 

[Michael Dorosh]

DOROSH, I gotta tell you this is the kind of stealthy mocking response that gets my Dander up.  Since when does a professional CPL in the CDN reserves have insider information about the U.S. military's morale?  I suppose if you read all of the liberal rags and watch all of the liberal T.V. programs you might come to that conclusion, however, you sir need to have a big swig of Kool-aid.  You might have a large knowledge of CDN military historical facts but your lack of professional military courtesy to Allied services is severely lacking!  My morale is fine, as is the vast majority of the U.S. military.

I hope you're not from Guyana!  Now, now, no offence intended, and I phrased it as a question.  So why the change after 50 years? Honestly, uniforms ARE a morale issue. Our DEUs certainly were a huge one. After the army languished in the 1970s in the post-Vietnam era and post-Unification, going back to different coloured uniforms I think played a huge part in revitalizing the CF, as well as renewed sense of purpose when Yugoslavia went south. I don't think it is unreasonable to at least ask if this is not somehow tied to morale. The whole point of having a nice uniform is for morale, no? Seriously, I don't see a lack of courtesy in the suggestion. The hypothesis has been proven incorrect in the past, incidentally - ie some suggest the German Army issued more medals and decorations for the uniform when it was losing, but that was coincidental I think to the amount of combat they were seeing. Nonetheless, new uniforms and morale go hand in hand.

ExSarge - so this is more of a ceremonial uniform then, as opposed to a form of working dress for office troops?

 

[ExSarge]

Depending on the Unit or Command, it may be a working uniform. Troops assigned to DOD or other higher headquarters will propably wear it. Troops assigned to Divisions generally wear (or at least did in my day) fatigues or BDU's (Battle Dress Utilities). Other then that you may wear it for one parade a year. And then you had to be a pretty sad or unlucky trooper if you couldn't find something else to do that day! I once volunteered to clean bat s**t out of a pre war gun position in Panama to avoid a "Class A" parade. The and I suspect now, there was nothing the average GI was worse at then D & C!

 

[Red 6]

Mark Flowers here. I just signed onto Army.Ca. I retired in May of 2001 with 22 years active and reserve component in the US Army. The dress blue uniform in my opinion is an outstanding idea. A revamp of the Army uniform is long overdue and this is a real winner.  The Army green uniform is way too busy in terms of patches, badges, crests, etc., and I won't even start on the color. Army blue is the traditional color and the dress blue uniform has existed in its current appearance since before World War II. Another plus for this uniform is that the black beret isn't worn with it.

 

[geo]

Interesting..............
who says they won't start throwning patches on them though?

If the CF and the Brits are any indications, the forage / peak caps are being dropped in favor of the berets.... which, to most members of the CF, is a good thing.

 

[Red 6]

Boy, I sure hope they keep the blues simple. The Army could authorize unit crests to be worn on epaulets by enlisted soldiers, or on the lower lapels. They were worn that way before WWII. I read on the informational web site about the changeover that the beret will only be worn with the ACU's in garrison.We'll see what happens…

 

[geo]

Years ago, the CF went with a "simple" green uniform.......... didn't stay simple all that long.

Command badges,
brigade badges,
trade qualifications,
shooting proficiency
wound badge
unit shoulder titles
unit collar badges,
etc,
etc................

 

[Red 6]

We'll have to see how it turns out. I would think since blues are an existing uniform combination with many years of service, the Army won't mess around too much with them. The whole idea is to have a traditional uniform and blues definitely fit the bill. We'll see though...

 

[Michael Dorosh]

Years ago, the CF went with a "simple" green uniform.......... didn't stay simple all that long.

Command badges,
brigade badges,
trade qualifications,
shooting proficiency
wound badge
unit shoulder titles
unit collar badges,
etc,
etc................

Some of the changes were a relatively long time in coming; the Brigade badges and wound stripes weren't introduced for over 20 years after the CF uniform came out...unit shoulder titles about 10 years, according to Grant Tyler in Drab Serge and Khaki Drill

The other badges were not new; they had been worn on Battle Dress and Service Dress up to Unification; I've not seen the introduction of the CF Uniform attributed to "simplification" so much as simply the desire to have a common standard. It was a unique situation where uniformity was desirable but different functional Commands still had their own necessities and desire for tradition.

 

[geo]

I wore the bus driver suit...................
It wasn't all that uniform and it certainly wasn't desirable.... or functional

IMHO

 

[Michael Dorosh]

I wore the bus driver suit...................
It wasn't all that uniform and it certainly wasn't desirable.... or functional

IMHO

Probably better than Garrison Dress; I wore both the bus driver jacket and the Garrison Dress jacket. Both were ugly and both required the collar of the shirt worn over the jacket collar like a 1970s lounge lizard...ugh

 

[geo]

1st uniform issued was Battledress, Bush, TWs & Patrol bules...............

Lagoon green shirts, garrison dress boots.............. Yetch!!!