Tuesday, April 20, 2010

NWU - don't get them dirty!

Just received a note from a USNR friend of the blog.

T.I.N.S.

He is about to head out for a few months at sea for something like ADSW. Paraphrased, his Reserve unit CO told him - I kid you not -
"Don't get your NWU dirty while at sea. They need to be clean to wear for your duty days when you get back."
It was only a matter of time. Don't get a uniform dirty that was intentionally designed to get dirty.

Sailors belong on ships; ships belong at sea? Don't be silly.

47 comments:

Anonymous said...

Idiot commanders like this?  Wow...who keeps putting them in positions of responsibility, when such a simple concept can't be grasped?

Southern Air Pirate said...

It makes sense. I just blew $408 to get the full kit for just two pairs of NWU's, the Goretex, Liner, and nylon/lyrca mock turtleneck. It amounted to something close to $100 for just one NWU set. At those prices you really can't afford on some people's pay to get a set dirty.

SNAnonymous said...

So, a quick question.  Is TFU composed of actual, active duty sailors (officers and enlisted)? If so, where do they get these glorious ideas (and who approves them)??

ewok40k said...

what next? troops who dont need to get dirty in the field?

C-dore 14 said...

Ewok, No they'll just go back to the early 1960s (pre-Vietnam) tradition of having separate sets of uniforms for use in the field and use in garrison.  This was one of the things I learned from four years at a military boarding school.

C-dore 14 said...

And to think that they allegedly did this to save people money.

Any Mouse said...

Is this really a question of SELRES sailors figuring out how to use ship's laundry and get all their stuff back before they head home, or is the NWU becoming the "Not While Underway" uniform?

Let me guess, the new standard among the landlubbers is to have their NWU's starched and pressed....

YNSN said...

Don't wash it to much either... It fades pretty quick.

Last NAVADMIN on it forbade the wearing of ballcaps and coveralls while in port.  So, yes the NWU is the inport uniform. 

LT B said...

Down here in MS, it is evident that uniform is only suitable for in the office wear.  To light for winters, too heavy for summers, especially down here.  Besides, it looks horrible.  Oh well, USN, embracing the repeal of DADT before its time! 

Anon said...

HTF do you string DADT with NWU's?  Jack@ss

Andy said...

I'm not sure which plumbs the depths of our service's stupidity more: The "don't get your utilities dirty" mindset or the Uniform Board which has given us, over the years: The "San Diego Zoo Seal Trainer" uniform (Salt and Peppers), the Gestapo unform for office wear (all black with tie), the all-polyester at-sea khaki set (mandatory double knits), the "I wanna look like a Marine" unfiorm (Khaki shirt and black trousers) and other "WTF, do these people ever leave the Beltway?!?" moments.  Sigh.  I grew to appreciate the blue coveralls the 'shoes and sub-bubs wear, the cammi's for SeaBee's, SpecWar and others and the flight suit. Just what are we trying to digitally camoflage on a ship?.

Spade said...

Who didn't see this coming?

Should go back to the old WW2 jeans, blueshirt, and white hat. It's probably a lot cheaper, and then just declare that the first person to complain about a working uniform being dirty gets shot.

AW1 Tim said...

Oh yes... I had a flight suit, ball cap and spare pair of boots (all purchased out of pocket) set aside for inspections. Same with the other parts of the uniform. I learned that lesson right wuickly and, to my mind, it was one of the best investments I ever made. never failed a uniform inspection.  In fact, I had the creases on the white shirt (double knit) sewn into place by some very talented Philipino seamtresses who had a shop in Brunswick.

It's all in how you play the game.

AW1 Tim said...

Because the new Navy sea-cammo is teh ghey... natch!  ;)

AW1 Tim said...

Best working uniform ehvvah, in this old airdale's view. I wore both the dungarees and the Dickies, and I got rid of the latter and bought dungarees out of pocket. Comfortable, easy to maintain and replace/repair, and wore like iron. Pluss, the name was stencilled, and crows were iron-on, so the only time you needed a needle and thread is if you had to replace a button or reinforce a seam. 

Salty Gator said...

relax, Anon.  I think he was just saying that the new NWU is faaaaaaaaaaaaabulous

Salty Gator said...

I work with Marines and laugh whenever they tell me "no no...these are my "office cammies."

Salty Gator said...

CNO approves them, TFU is headed by a special CNO appointed Command Master Chief with inputs directly from MCPON.

CNO had a lot of input on this though, same with the Diet Marine E1-E6 office wear and the retro/new design khaki dress (which I love)

Salty Gator said...

same people who passed nationalized healthcare.  Your senators.

LT B said...

New regs state Sailors will have 4 sets of NWUs.  Hah!  Not likely at these prices.

LT B said...

Because the whole new Navy stance of Global Force for Good, the ghey Combat Smurf uniform is thilly and oh so Ab Fab.  Un-twist your panties shipmate. 

butch said...

How many minutes after ADM Roughead retires until the Navy shitcans the NWU?

Hey, I can dream, can't I?

C-dore 14 said...

AW1. Now that's the Navy I remember.  Did you also have the "tailor-made" dress blues with the dragons embroidered under the cuffs?

C-dore 14 said...

Andy, I think you're on to something.  I went through all of the uniform combinations you list plus the "coat and tie uniform for all hands" and the jumper style working uniforms of the early '70s.  It's funny but when all is said and done the USN always returns to "wash" khakis for officers and CPOs and dungarees for everyone else.

C-dore 14 said...

I predict that the NWU will become a footnote in history much like FADM King's "Grays".

sobersubmrnr said...

Tim, the problem here is that the brass want a uniform that looks good, not one that is functional. I agree, I would have been more than happy to go back to dungarees, but I didn't have a problem with the utilities, either. I'm glad I never had to wear the NWU.

sobersubmrnr said...

Hey Anon, who are you to call him or anyone else here a jackass?

Anonymous said...

Anon, it's a message board.  Can't expect people to make sense.  Of course DADT and uniforms are connected, it's all part of Obama's conspiracy to completely disarm the US.  Don't you keep up with Fox News?

AW1 Tim said...

 Why yes, yes I did. Liberty Cuffs were still around and a lot of fellows had them. I had a waist back then that was smaller than my chest size. My dad showed me a trick that he had done to his dress blues, and I copied it. You take your bell bottoms and button them up, and then have someone adjust the laces in the back to where you want them. Then, you pull them off and take them like that to the tailors. The ladies there open up the side seams and put zippers in them, which face the inside and are hidden on the outside by a welt. Now you can just pull them on and pull up the zippers without having to deal with those 13 buttons.

  The other trick was to take a roll of dimes and put them into your neckerchief before rolling it up. Then, either sew them into place, or put a tight rubber band against each end. When you wear the neckerchief, the roll of dimes is hidden beneath the collar of the jumper. However, if you are in a tight spot, you can grab the square knot and pull the thing up over your head, and have an excellent blackjack to hand.

  Nothing quite says "lights out" like a roll of dimes to the side of the head.  :)

cdrsalamander said...

What an a55.  This ain't a message board - it a blog.  Oh, and you do know that I support homosexuals serving openly...right?

Douglas Stanley Jr. said...

+1 to the guy that said the cammies are gone as soon as ADM Roughead retires. Maybe the Marine-wannabees and Khaki's too.

I hate to admit it, but the Coast Guard got this one right, and we got it wrong. Just adopt their dark blue BDU's and get it over with. Either that, or just make blue coveralls the issue working uniform.

C-dore 14 said...

AW1, That's good to hear.  I'd forgotten about the zippers.  I learned the trick about the roll of dimes and the neckerchief at the Naval Academy although there it was primarily used to make the neckerchief look better and keep it from sliding.  That uniform was primarily worn by Plebes during the summer and was never worn off the Academy grounds.

SCOTTtheBADGER said...

Dungarees and a chambray shirt is the working uniform of the US NAVY, a Navy that by the end of WWII, went where it wanted, and did what it wanted, a Navu with an unprecedented string of victories, and missions successfully carried out.  A Sailor wearing that uniform is sending the message that the USN is here, you have just lost.  How can a uniform possibly look better than one that says that?

  I guess the problem is people in command that want a uniform that they think looks cool, rather than one that is comfortable, durable, and sends a message of historical linkage to our past, and pride in being Sailors of the UNITED STATES NAVY.   

UltimaRatioRegis said...

Don't confuse him with the things of reality, Phib.  You will break his concentration....

AW1 Tim said...

 I overheard a coversation a couple weeks back outside the One-Stop store across the street from BIW. Some of the Navy guys were there waiting for a cab, and one of them made a remark that what he hated most about the new sea-canmmo NWU is that he got mistaken for a member of the Maine State Police SWAT Team.

 I nearly bit through my lip to keep from saying something, but the kid (a PO2) was serious.

  Respects,

Grumpy Old Ham said...

Wouldn't be the first time a service Chief's favorite togs were unceremoniously dumped immediately upon his departure.  Skeletor McPeak, call your office, there are some spare bus driver uniforms ready at the dry cleaners.

claudio said...

Well, since this is going downhill and LT B mentioned smurfs, I've always wondered, what color do smurfs turn when they're choked? 

claudio said...

Tim,

I wore crackerjacks from 86 to 91.  Roll of dimes were still de'rigeur.  As was the inspection dungarees and a both sets of whites.  Those things were dirtmagnets.  I had buttons sewed on the marine bib and velcro inside.  My dress whites I hated the bellbottoms (didn't on the blues) so I had them taken in a bit.  Noone ever noticed.  Ahhh, the good old days.  That wool in the blues sure had a distinct feeling. 

fdChief100 said...

Company commander, BM1, in boot camp in 1966 made it clear we were to be standard USN issue dirty dungaree sailors. It all fit in one bag, unlike todays offerrrings. Yeah they needed improvement but you knoew what you were looking at when you saw one of us. No cammo envy here, or playing dress up to look like ??? How long before the term "Bluejacket" becomes obscure as to meaning?

DM05 said...

Khakis & dungarees, like fall follows summer. NWU - out, and the stormtrooper meets marine has got to go too. Shame on the leadership d'bags that foisted this on some good Sailors and are helping kill a Navy.
//
BT
//
Yeah it was another bad day at work in an industry the king d'bag has taken over.

C-dore 14 said...

AW1, Very few of the sailors I've seen wearing them at Sub Base Bangor would ever be mistaken for anybody's SWAT Team.

AW1 Tim said...

I would say that as well. The difference here is that the Maine State Police have a cammo uniform where the blue shades are almost identical to that of the new NWU.

AW1 Tim said...

Claudia,

  The thing I didn't like about whites was that the Mess Cooks always seemed to know ahead of time when we were supposed to wear them, and would serve up large helpings of Chicken Adobo or Spaghetti, etc.  :)

Anonymous said...

cdrs, if this isn't a message board, you might want to relabel the little part on the right that says "message boards" over the updates of "messages" in your comments sections.  You might want to make it say "comments" if you feel so strongly about it that you'd call someone an a55.  

The comment wasn't directed at you, it was directed at the fool that uses uniform policy as an excuse to blame gay people for something, and it speaks to a conspiratorial outlook on life.  I believe that needs to be called out, so I did by taking it to the logical extreme. DADT has nothing to do with uniform policy.  Doesn't everyone want to blend in with the water when they fall overboard?  Gotta love functional cammies.

LT B said...

I just saw Losers.  The mercenaries guarding the port facility were all wearing the Angry Smurf Aquaflage.  Pathetic.

LT B said...

I don't blame gay people.  Tacos or sausages have nothing to do with the uniform.  The problem is the ill begotten silliness coming out of DC when the ships are broken, manning is hosed, we have more admirals than ships, coed Navy stuff is not what they say it is in DC and is known by all who deploy, double standards abound, diversity is lowering standards just to count skin color rather than recruiting the best and brightest we can and now we are going to add, yet another social experiment to make others feel good about themselves.  So, yes ANOTHER policy change that does fu** all to make us a better fighting force. 

Diversity, females at sea and gays will make us a better fighting force?  Show me the metrics.

Anonymous said...

Yeah looks like you weren't making a connection between DADT and uniforms.
"<span><span>LT B</span> </span>
<span><span>Down here in MS, it is evident that uniform is only suitable for in the office wear.  To light for winters, too heavy for summers, especially down here.  Besides, it looks horrible.  Oh well, USN, embracing the repeal of DADT before its time! "</span></span>