Navy says goodbye to the 'blueberry' camouflage uniform, the dumbest uniform ever.
Sailors must maintain a certain number of uniforms.Sailors are at risk of burn injuries by melting their threads.Sailors said they were uncomfortable and only offered camouflage when someone fell off.
The blue-and-gray cammies originally intended to be the Navy's mainstay uniform are officially headed for Davy Jones' seabag, ending a decade of wrestling with a revolutionary uniform concept that failed to get its sea legs despite updates and hundreds of millions of dollars in investment.
The blue-and-gray Navy working uniform, known as the Type I, will be phased out over three years.The standard shore duty uniform will be the digital woodland pattern cammies.The NWU Type III is a tactical uniform that has a reputation for being more comfortable and officials anticipate some cost-savings by changing to it.
Over a decade of wrestling with a uniform that never got it's sea legs will come to an end over the next three years.
At least in port, the green type III's will be in place.The uniform is preferred by nearly every sailor who is allowed to wear it.
"We have heard the feedback and we are acting on it," said Navy Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus in a statement provided to Navy Times.The primary shore working uniform will be the NWU Type III, as a direct result of sailors' input.
The Navy's changing seabag is shown by the announcement.There are many details that need to be worked out.You need to know what to look for.
The clothing replacement allowance can be used to purchase woodland cammies and accessories.The law requires officers to pay out of pocket.
Is it time to say goodbye to your fruit?Tell us what you think of the changes.
Is it time to say goodbye to your fruit?Tell us what you think of the changes.
Vice Adm. Robert P. Burke is the Navy's top personnel officer.He has had his ear bent about the shortfalls of the NWU.
Burke said in a phone interview that sailors want uniforms that are comfortable and lightweight, and that they want fewer of them.He told the Navy Times on August 3.Our force really likes theType III's.The feedback from the fleet is that it is lighter, breathes better in hot weather, has the right accessories for cold weather climates, and it just wears better.
I think we can give our sailors quickly, as compared to starting from scratch, because it's already designed and used.
Burke is aware that this announcement will seem to many as yet more uniform upheaval.He says this effort will lead to a smaller, more common sense that will signal the end of upheaval and the beginning of the implementation of a simpler seabag.
Masters-at-arms and expeditionary sailors, like Seabees, SEAL and explosive ordnance disposal technicians, who deploy in detachments on missions around the globe and rarely wear their blue-and-grays wear Woodland cammies, a tactical uniform that's typically worn by masters-
Sailors are paid $215 a pair to maintain three sets of blue NWU.Getting rid of this requirement would save the service $10 million a year in organizational clothing costs.
The phase out will be three-tars long and will end in October of 2019.
The service is working to redo it's seabag without the blue-and-gray cammies which were introduced in 2009.The working uniforms expected to be in the Navy's seabag of the future are only half the picture.
The seabag is expected to have an underway, fire retardant working uniform.Burke said what that will be is still up in the air.
The flame- resistant coveralls are being improved and that uniform is being developed by the Fleet Forces Command.The NWU and utility coveralls were found to have synthetic fibers that could melt onto a sailor in a fire.Efforts have been made to develop and design an improved fire retardant.
As the Navy develops and fields this new uniform, it's likely to be years.The prototype of a uniform is still being worked on and it's not known if they'll be issued in the seabag or organizational clothing.What is decided on will become a seabag item and no longer be command-supplied organizational clothing.
Mark D. Faram was a reporter for Navy Times.He was a senior writer.Faram served in the Navy from 1978 to 1987 and was a Navy Diver and photographer.