Advice on a planned outfit for a parade. Servicemen please chime in.

[Whidbey78]

Hear, Hear!

I got out about a year or so before they switched to that uniform (2007), And I am so happy. One of the guys in our Veterans Club at school (mostly a group to help eachother sort through issues with our GI Bills) is still Active Duty, and sometimes wears his uniform to school. When I first saw it from afar I thought he was a Marine.

I got out in '07 also, so I missed the new uniforms.


I might be one of about ten people who actually likes the new working uniform. It's not really the uniform I like as much as the fact that they finally got rid of working whites. I hated wearing them--my CNT's rarely went thirty minutes before there was something nasty on them. I never could wear white! And utilities going away was probably a good thing too in the long run. They weren't really all that well made and didn't hold up well. I always liked the working blues with garrison cap and wished they would just make it a year-round uniform.

I have a "Johnny Cash" top that I wound up never using, never sewed my crow or rocker on it either. I wear it with the kilt now and then, including once in a parade with US Army tartan and American Legion garrison cap. IMHO it looks better with the kilt than a dungaree or working white shirt. I still haven't gotten my Edzell kilt even after six years active duty and two years selres in the Navy. My stint in the Army was much shorter due to a training injury which has resulted in two operations, the second one coming next month.

My next kilt will most definitely be an Edzell.

[Drac]

I too hated the "Good Humor Mans" and liked the Johnny Cash the best but the utilities are a good overall uniform. I am definitely all for making our seabag smaller.

As for the old utilities I hated even more than I hated the dungarees. The dungarees were just ugly but the utilities were ugly and didn't last. Right now I'm in OUUs with the seabees but were are shifting over to the NWU-3s in the future. I would rather keep the camies.

Supposedly the dress uniforms are next for revamping. We are going back to the dress whites instead of the undress whites we have now. They are also changing the material away from the poly to a cotton blend. Both dress uniforms are suppose to have a decorative 13 button fly and a zipper on the side.

Jim

[Whidbey78]

I was pretty lucky that I didn't have to wear the old utilities hardly at all. We called them "Conoco's". 95% or the time it was cammies, or flight suit, sometimes coveralls. Watches were stood in working whites(Milkman's) or Johnny Cash's and my dress whites got worn twice(change of command and my squadron's decommisioning) and Crackerjacks once for a command photo. Probably wore ute's 25 times outside of attending various schools, and still managed to destroy two ute shirts and a pair of pants. The TP in the heads on the Nimitz were made of tougher material!

[Whidbey78]

When I was at Ft Sill I saw a few Seabees there wearing ACU's with an 8 point cover in ACU camo. NMCB-3 and 17, maybe thirty guys altogether. I was with NMCB-17 Det 1 at Ft. Carson when I was a reservist...even though I was an AM. It was odd to see DON personnel in ACU's considering they still had the SCU's. I wonder if it was one of those Operation Uniform tests to check the feasibility of the uniform for their purposes. I wouldn't use them given the choice. ACU's don't "breathe" very well compared to the ripstop summer weight uniforms. Plus prior-service personnel going through Warrior Transition Course wore the beret, so it's hot and humid, we wore a hot-as-hell uniform, AND a wool cover. I actually sweat less during PT than I did marching to the chow hall.

[swampfox]

s. Plus prior-service personnel going through Warrior Transition Course wore the beret, so it's hot and humid, we wore a hot-as-hell uniform, AND a wool cover. I actually sweat less during PT than I did marching to the chow hall.

i did the WTC up at ft knox back in 2005 and we had regular summer cammies... that lasted about six minths till they threw me out on a med 400 lol got injured in the navy but it took the army to tell me i couldnt play anymore lol.

[Bill aka Mole]

This last fall I was at the Charleston Scottish Games and saw a gent wearing the CNT Khaki Shirt with ribbons and a Navy Veteran ball cap with his kilt. While there was not a reason in the world for him not to wear it, it didn't look good to me. I wasn't upset that he was wearing those items, it was just something that I wouldn't wear at a games.

I'm a bit more comfortable with a qualification pin (in my case, either ESWS or Craftmaster) on my kilt or a jacket compared to wearing my ribbon bars or miniatures at a semi- to non-formal event.

And a parting shot to my brother Marines:
The Marines have plenty of good men. U.S. Navy Corpsmen.

To any Veteran whom I bump into, we can argue about who gets to buy based upon rank. But a dram or three will be shared!