4 ms·

I personally find the who camouflage switch to every branch of service, including the navy to be bizarre. Who thought it was good idea for navy seamen to be cam

I personally find the who camouflage switch to every branch of service, including the navy to be bizarre. Who thought it was good idea for navy seamen to be camouflaged in the water? With that line of reasoning why didn't the airforce get their own camouflage to look like a flight line? hah > After six years in the fleet and some controversy, the blue-and-gray cammies could be headed for Davy Jones' seabag. https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2016/04/23/the-navy-is-ready-to-dump-the-military-s-most-pointless-uniform/ https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2016/04/23/the-navy...

ARandomerDude 4y ago
Much of this is service pride, politics, and recruiting. If the other services switch and you don't, your service looks dated, boring, and irrelevant. Imagine the JavaScript cool kid mindset but with guns.
- russellbeattie 4y ago
  > Imagine the JavaScript cool kid mindset but with guns. A more terrifying sentence than this has rarely been written.
  - imwillofficial 4y ago
    The table stakes are uniforms here, lets not blow it out of proportion.
    - kragen 4y ago
      Until the Javascript cool kids invade your country because the USans elected a guy with a family grudge against your president. Then the Javascript cool kids decide whether to blow you into assorted body parts and pink mist in front of your parents because you tried to help a wounded child.
      - imwillofficial 4y ago
        I for one welcome our JavaScript cool kid masters
      - WooAndMayIAdHoo 4y ago
        Don't forget...... .... the USans will also come back in 20 years to make a film about how invading your country and blowing you into a pink mist in front of your parents made their solders feel sad.
nordsieck 4y ago
> I personally find the who camouflage switch to every branch of service, including the navy to be bizarre. Who thought it was good idea for navy seamen to be camouflaged in the water? With that line of reasoning why didn't the airforce get their own camouflage to look like a flight line? hah Not everything the military does is about effectiveness. Sometimes senior NCOs want the enlisted to "look military", not just be effective. Here's another example: why is the military PT (physical training) test varied by sex and age? If it was only about combat effectiveness, presumably there'd be 1 set of values that determine if someone had sufficient fitness relative to the rigors of combat (or whatever their job requires).
- Retric 4y ago
  It was a diagnostic test. Like how a loss of fuel efficiency is a sign that something is wrong with an engine, if someone can’t meet the standard something has gone wrong. Which is why it was treated as a pure pass fail.
  - imwillofficial 4y ago
    It’s a standards test, where failing can potentially get you kicked out. While also used as a diagnostic to let you know if you’re slipping, its primary and only stated purpose is to uphold an objective standard. This makes variations by age and sex concessions to that goal, rather than design elements.
    - Retric 4y ago
      The standards test is different. Occupational Physical Assessment Test results are Unqualified, Moderate, Significant, or Heavy which is then used to decide if someone meets an appropriate standard. Meanwhile the Army would sometimes retain people incapable of passing the old age and gender standard. As an extreme example people with missing limbs could be retained.
- rcurry 4y ago
  The new Navy camouflage is designed to keep your uniform looking clean when you are working around paints and oils and so on. It’s purely for workplace aesthetics and not intended to hide you from anyone.
NovemberWhiskey 4y ago
The Air Force did get their own camo - the ABU (Airman Battle Uniform) digital tiger-stripe; based on a Vietnam-era tiger-stripe uniform but with a color palette similar to the UCP; only with more blue. In fact, it's not just their own camouflage pattern, the ABU actually had a distinctive blouse and pants that are different from the BDU that came before, or the ACU that the Army had adopted. Then they took the sage-green fleece from ECWCS Gen III (what the Army was wearing), and added the APECS Goretex parka that the Marine Corps was wearing, only in the ABU tiger-stripe rather than MARPAT. Most of the actual battlefield airmen (i.e. the people who might reasonably expect to find themselves in combat conditions where camouflage could help like combat controller, TACP, PJ) didn't wear it anyway. As pointed out elsewhere, this is very largely about esprit-de-corps in the context of a military organization, even if your job is actually avionics maintenance or personnel. It does seem like a huge waste for all the services to have their own completely distinctive utility uniforms though - the pendulum is swinging back the other way now with the Army, Air Force and Space Force all back in the redesigned ACU/OCP with stitching color (black/spice-brown/blue) as the service-distinctive element.
- volumetric 4y ago
  I don't get why the branches in which very few folks are likely to need camo (basically anyone other than the army, then, and some sub-divisions of other branches like the marine corp) don't go with old-school olive drab or navy or something. Those single-color uniforms with a slightly dressy cut looked damn slick. I'd think that'd be better for recruiting or improving morale or whatever than the camo uniforms (which, often as not, are the butts of jokes and not considered at all appealing) Then again, maybe those old styles only looked good when they were made with nice materials, like wool and heavy waxed canvas, and would look bad with cheap modern synthetics.
  - imwillofficial 4y ago
    As a sailor, I always really liked the Coast Guards working uniform. Simple, effective, dare I say elegant.
  - jcranmer 4y ago
Taniwha 4y ago
I think that seeing 'Space Force' going around in camo is even more asinine ....
- imwillofficial 4y ago
  Space force is still in many ways still a child of the Air Force, and follow Air Force uniform refs.
  - jcranmer 4y ago
    Space Force does have its own dress uniforms.
    - imwillofficial 4y ago
      Yup, but these things take time. I’d imagine they’d keep most things in alignment with the AF however
      - Taniwha 4y ago
        So you're arguing that they're using the camo to hide within the airforce?
imwillofficial 4y ago
Former US sailor here. The “camouflage” blue is no longer in use, but when it was, we jokingly referred to each other as “ocean warriors”. The reasoning for why this pattern was chosen for working use, was that it hid oil stains and fresh paint really well, letting you wear the uniform longer. The reality? Some politician or admiral wanted to leave their mark.
Gordonjcp 4y ago
> why didn't the airforce get their own camouflage to look like a flight line^W^W bar stool? ftfy

ARandomerDude 4y ago

Much of this is service pride, politics, and recruiting. If the other services switch and you don't, your service looks dated, boring, and irrelevant. Imagine the JavaScript cool kid mindset but with guns.

russellbeattie 4y ago
> Imagine the JavaScript cool kid mindset but with guns. A more terrifying sentence than this has rarely been written.
- imwillofficial 4y ago
  The table stakes are uniforms here, lets not blow it out of proportion.
  - kragen 4y ago
    Until the Javascript cool kids invade your country because the USans elected a guy with a family grudge against your president. Then the Javascript cool kids decide whether to blow you into assorted body parts and pink mist in front of your parents because you tried to help a wounded child.
    - imwillofficial 4y ago
      I for one welcome our JavaScript cool kid masters
    - WooAndMayIAdHoo 4y ago
      Don't forget...... .... the USans will also come back in 20 years to make a film about how invading your country and blowing you into a pink mist in front of your parents made their solders feel sad.

nordsieck 4y ago

> I personally find the who camouflage switch to every branch of service, including the navy to be bizarre. Who thought it was good idea for navy seamen to be camouflaged in the water? With that line of reasoning why didn't the airforce get their own camouflage to look like a flight line? hah Not everything the military does is about effectiveness. Sometimes senior NCOs want the enlisted to "look military", not just be effective. Here's another example: why is the military PT (physical training) test varied by sex and age? If it was only about combat effectiveness, presumably there'd be 1 set of values that determine if someone had sufficient fitness relative to the rigors of combat (or whatever their job requires).

Retric 4y ago
It was a diagnostic test. Like how a loss of fuel efficiency is a sign that something is wrong with an engine, if someone can’t meet the standard something has gone wrong. Which is why it was treated as a pure pass fail.
- imwillofficial 4y ago
  It’s a standards test, where failing can potentially get you kicked out. While also used as a diagnostic to let you know if you’re slipping, its primary and only stated purpose is to uphold an objective standard. This makes variations by age and sex concessions to that goal, rather than design elements.
  - Retric 4y ago
    The standards test is different. Occupational Physical Assessment Test results are Unqualified, Moderate, Significant, or Heavy which is then used to decide if someone meets an appropriate standard. Meanwhile the Army would sometimes retain people incapable of passing the old age and gender standard. As an extreme example people with missing limbs could be retained.
rcurry 4y ago
The new Navy camouflage is designed to keep your uniform looking clean when you are working around paints and oils and so on. It’s purely for workplace aesthetics and not intended to hide you from anyone.

NovemberWhiskey 4y ago

The Air Force did get their own camo - the ABU (Airman Battle Uniform) digital tiger-stripe; based on a Vietnam-era tiger-stripe uniform but with a color palette similar to the UCP; only with more blue. In fact, it's not just their own camouflage pattern, the ABU actually had a distinctive blouse and pants that are different from the BDU that came before, or the ACU that the Army had adopted. Then they took the sage-green fleece from ECWCS Gen III (what the Army was wearing), and added the APECS Goretex parka that the Marine Corps was wearing, only in the ABU tiger-stripe rather than MARPAT. Most of the actual battlefield airmen (i.e. the people who might reasonably expect to find themselves in combat conditions where camouflage could help like combat controller, TACP, PJ) didn't wear it anyway. As pointed out elsewhere, this is very largely about esprit-de-corps in the context of a military organization, even if your job is actually avionics maintenance or personnel. It does seem like a huge waste for all the services to have their own completely distinctive utility uniforms though - the pendulum is swinging back the other way now with the Army, Air Force and Space Force all back in the redesigned ACU/OCP with stitching color (black/spice-brown/blue) as the service-distinctive element.

volumetric 4y ago
I don't get why the branches in which very few folks are likely to need camo (basically anyone other than the army, then, and some sub-divisions of other branches like the marine corp) don't go with old-school olive drab or navy or something. Those single-color uniforms with a slightly dressy cut looked damn slick. I'd think that'd be better for recruiting or improving morale or whatever than the camo uniforms (which, often as not, are the butts of jokes and not considered at all appealing) Then again, maybe those old styles only looked good when they were made with nice materials, like wool and heavy waxed canvas, and would look bad with cheap modern synthetics.
- imwillofficial 4y ago
  As a sailor, I always really liked the Coast Guards working uniform. Simple, effective, dare I say elegant.
- jcranmer 4y ago

Taniwha 4y ago

I think that seeing 'Space Force' going around in camo is even more asinine ....

imwillofficial 4y ago
Space force is still in many ways still a child of the Air Force, and follow Air Force uniform refs.
- jcranmer 4y ago
  Space Force does have its own dress uniforms.
  - imwillofficial 4y ago
    Yup, but these things take time. I’d imagine they’d keep most things in alignment with the AF however
    - Taniwha 4y ago
      So you're arguing that they're using the camo to hide within the airforce?

imwillofficial 4y ago

Former US sailor here. The “camouflage” blue is no longer in use, but when it was, we jokingly referred to each other as “ocean warriors”. The reasoning for why this pattern was chosen for working use, was that it hid oil stains and fresh paint really well, letting you wear the uniform longer. The reality? Some politician or admiral wanted to leave their mark.

Gordonjcp 4y ago

> why didn't the airforce get their own camouflage to look like a flight line^W^W bar stool? ftfy