Navy to downsize NWU, shake-up fleet uniforms

Some how I don't see this lasting for too long. But hopefully it will for the Sailors sake and wallets!

So they're talking about reducing the required NWU by 1 set? Of course that means that whatever they decide to replace it with will probably cost 1.5 times as much and you will be required to maintain the reduced number of NWUs in addition to NWU+2 sets of the new uniform.

It's about time. In the 70's we had "Salt and Peppers" and Winter Blues and Dress Blues and Summer Whites. All of those were incompatible. Then the Navy added Summer Khakis to the mix for E7 and above. The logical thing would have been to have a system built on the Salt and Peppers, with short and long sleeved white shirts which could be worn under the dress blue blouse, or as a stand alone uniform shirt, the way the other services do or did until recently. I think the Coast Guard still follows that practice.

The addition of the blueberry cammies was inevitable but foolish - it just doesn't fit the sea service. The new E6/below uniform of black pants and khaki shirts, with collar devices instead of sleeve crows is idiotic. You don't know what rating a sailor is anymore, and it's really hard to tell, from a collar crow, what rate one is...

I would love to see the Navy go back to a very simplified uniform system. I don't like crackerjacks any more, although I thought they were cool in 1979 when I started wearing them. I just don't think they look professional in this post-modern world. They certainly don't blend well with Army, Air Force and Marines in blues at honor guards and joint parades...

I hope someone with some brains instead of "yes-men" get behind the uniform actions and get it right, finally. Our fleet deserves it...