Should the Army return to "sleeves up" on the duty uniform?

SSG Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 27 Apr 2014 07:10:50 -0400

It has been more than a decade since the Army changed the wear of the duty uniform by taking away the "sleeves up" look that our sister services currently allow. What is your opinion on the presentation of a Soldier with sleeves up? Should the Army bring it back?

Response by SFC Douglas Eshenbaugh made Apr 27 at 2014 7:31 AM

SFC Douglas Eshenbaugh — Sun, 27 Apr 2014 07:31:26 -0400

Part of me says yes and part of me says no. The yes part because there is a part of me that for some strange reason misses rolling my sleeves. While my heart says yes my head says no. Rolling the sleeves on the ACU would prevent the wearer from using the pen pocket and potentially restrict the arm pockets. I would mention the elbow pad slots but I haven't seen anyone use those in years. On top of which in most instances where there is a heat concern you'll leave your jacket on because of other concerns (i.e. abrasion protection) or take it fully off.

Response by MAJ Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 27 at 2014 7:56 AM

MAJ Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 27 Apr 2014 07:56:07 -0400

I like sleeves down. The uniforms are flame retardant, and if we can wear them down downrage, we can do the same here.

Response by SFC Michael Hasbun made Apr 27 at 2014 7:57 AM

SFC Michael Hasbun — Sun, 27 Apr 2014 07:57:32 -0400

We kind of blew that when we shoved that huge hunk of Velcro onto our arms.. Rolling sleeves would require a redesign.. Either that or the roll would be really low on the arm, which looks sloppy.

Response by SFC Stephen Hester made Apr 27 at 2014 1:06 PM

SFC Stephen Hester — Sun, 27 Apr 2014 13:06:57 -0400

Changing the policy no longer affects me but I was content with "sleeves down" all the time.

Response by SGM Matthew Quick made Apr 27 at 2014 3:12 PM

SGM Matthew Quick — Sun, 27 Apr 2014 15:12:43 -0400

Where would I put my pens?

Response by LTC Jason Mackay made Apr 27 at 2014 6:27 PM

LTC Jason Mackay — Sun, 27 Apr 2014 18:27:59 -0400

Leave it the way it is. Sleeves down keeps the sun off your skin and is cooler. The uniform was never designed for sleeves up....and as others have said, where would I put my pens? The last thing we need is another uniform fielding, Wear out dates, etc. then there is the circus with sleeves up vs sleeves down for formations etc. you also had to be sleeves down to do anything. Definitely sleeves down.

Response by SSG William Sutter made Jun 25 at 2014 7:58 PM

SSG William Sutter — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 19:58:57 -0400

We rolled our sleeves up when we had the old woodland greens, why not now? Other than the problem with using the pen pocket and covering up the unit patches I don't see a problem.

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Aug 8 at 2014 7:22 PM

SSG Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 08 Aug 2014 19:22:00 -0400

Being in the heat is a huge killer with the sleeves down, rolling the sleeves up but doing it in a professional way not all sloppy i believe would be fine. The uniform isn't great for being in the heat and its not great for being in the cold.

Response by MAJ Private RallyPoint Member made May 5 at 2015 2:51 PM

MAJ Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 05 May 2015 14:51:44 -0400

Bring "suns out, guns out" back! I'll leave it to the CSM/SGMs to figure out how. Not worried about where to put my pens, the ACUs have enough pockets for me to figure something out...

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 21 at 2015 4:46 PM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 21 Jul 2015 16:46:14 -0400

I said this the other day.

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 10 at 2016 2:35 PM

SSG Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 10 Jun 2016 14:35:17 -0400

Roll the sleeves in the summer time, if sunburn and mosquito bites are such a problem then I guess the other branches are missing something. Place the rank back on the collar. Get rid of all the Velcro, sow all patches, replace pocket Velcro with buttons. We finally got the camouflage right, got our Patrol Caps back, we are almost to a functional decent uniform. "After 10 years the beret is still hated", Army times. We need our senior enlisted and congressman to assist in getting the Army to make these changes. That's all I got.