Army: What’s Old is New Again
The video below shows Major General James Gaven leading the 82nd Airborne Division in the 1946 New York City Victory Parade. They are followed by the heavy armored equipment and guns used during the War. (At age 38, GEN Gaven was one of the youngest senior officers coming out of WWII.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s90og73p2fo
It relates to this article from Army Times about the “new” Army uniform, which looks like a return to the post-WWII uniform, as the article indicates. The olive drab belted jacket and khaki pants constitute the uniform worn by the 82nd Airborne Division during their postwar victory parade in New York City in 1946, which was the standard issue uniform.
I had no idea that the military was interested in making fashion statements these days.
I wonder now if the Navy will be returning to WWII gear for sailors. For the Navy, there is the sleeve insignia, in which the crow faced right or left, depending on which sleeve the rating badge was attached to, as well as the shoulder slash and sleeve stripes indicating nondesignated ratings for deck crew, such as Seaman First Class. Will there be a return to the aviation greens and grays with navy blue rate badges, never mind the crackerjack Donald Duck hat?
Nothing will surprise me less.
But not the Marine Corps. They have not made any essential changes since about the 1920s in much of anything other than dumping the jungle greens from Vietnam to switch over to more modern patterned camouflage fatigues, and better armor and footwear.
Category: "Your Tax Dollars At Work", Army News
At least it looks good.
Yes, it does.
I prefer this version with the Hell March mix.
https://youtu.be/X7NQXjcS-wo
Cool. I’ve got my old man’s Marine blues blouse and my Marine blues blouse. 2 different generations. Put them side by side and you can’t tell the difference (except for the rank).
What’s being glossed over, is that the belted uniform and the tan pants was the WWII OFFICER Uniform. Enlisted Soldiers wore a jacket with no belt and matching colored pants. So the Army is essentially picking through and pulling the “coolest” looking historical uniforms without any actual respect for the history. An equivalent would be the Navy dressing every sailor like a Civil War Admiral because it “looks so snazzy.” I was a HUGE supporter of this concept until the Army butchered the execution in accordance with our current everyone-is-exactly-the-same, everyone-gets-a-trophy, socialist “values.”
If you noticed in the video, all the troops including the officers were wearing what was known as the Eisenhower jacket, instead of the longer suit-style jacket.
I don’t think it’s so much glossed-over as showing that the Army is simplifying things a bit.
^^ I agree. Every person who mentions the new “Pinks and Greens” points out that during WWII this was an officer-only uniform. Nobody has ignored it or “glossed over it”, if anything it’s usually the first thing they point out.
But the fact is, the P&G is objectively a much better looking uniform and always was. During WWII the “caste” system of the pre-war Army was strong enough that Army leaders were still OK with officers having uniforms that looked better than enlisted uniforms.
It was the democratizing influence of having 16 million Americans in uniform that finally put an end to the practice of officers having better uniforms than enlisted – in fact, it was one of the most significant recommendations of the Doolittle Commission after the war.
So adopting the officer-only WWII uniform for all ranks seems to make perfect sense to me.
Like most of you, I’m not thrilled at the waste of money that switching uniforms for the second time in 15 years will entail, but given how awful and stupid the ASU is, I’m in favor of anything that consigns the ASU to the dustbin of history.
The ASU is an ugly mish mash of colors and styles that doesn’t look good on ANYBODY, and has no distinguishing characteristic that makes you think “Army.”
The only thing worse than the Class A ASU is the Class B with its ridiculous white shirt, which makes America’s soldiers look like shopping mall security guards.
I liked the deck jackets the Navy wore back then, Navy blue looking tanker style jackets which were super warm and comfortable. I wore one for years around the house in winter getting firewood and the thing worked like a charm.
I prefer the current Army Dress Blues but the new Army Greens is a sharp looking uniform with a nice historical flair. The waist belt though is going to be problematic especially with some of our more mature warriors in the Army Reserve, Army National Guard, and Active Guard Reserve (AGR) components. Can only hope the belt has an elasticity that will expand in direct proportion to the “waist creep” seen in some of our part-time patriots. Creative APFT pencil whipping, generous waist/neck taping, and favorable scale recalibration techniques will need to be employed perhaps more frequently with the introduction of this new belted uniform.
As a retired Army Reserve mustang officer who still fits perfectly in my dress uniforms, I admit to having USMC uniform envy. The Corps seems to have achieved sartorial perfection with their Dress Blues choker uniform a century ago. The Navy white dress uniform is a close second to the Corps IMHO.
Civil war Dragoons dressed pretty sharp…
nah, son. our new dress uniform should be zouave full dress. I dont care if it’s American civil war era or Crimean war French. or maybe even go back to the founding padres and their Buffs and Blues, maybe everyone can adopt The Old Guard’s ceremonial dress. if we’re gonna do this, we need to go hard or go home. instead of worrying ourselves with proper training and equipment, let’s keep focusing on being the most fabulous looking troops on God’s green earth.
it’s just gonna be another thing the leadership will jack up until something else shiny distracts them.
Don’t forget the Tri Corn Hat….and a .75 smooth bore Brown Bess…with bayonet (would have to be crosscut saw attachment…chain saws had not been invented yet)
Oh and leggings with cross buckle shoes. Would look just smashing in Buffs and Blues.
Chuck the ASU, just go back to the green Class A’s and Dress Blues. And give the Rangers their beret back.
Sounds good to me!
Going back to the “ain’t broke and don’t need fixin'” dress greens would be fine with me but the Army would never do it because if they did they’d be tacitly admitting what a dumb mistake it was to go with the blue ASU in the first place.
I always liked my dress greens, still have an old set hanging in the closet (though they seem to have shrunk in the waist area…do all uniforms do that after you retire? 😉 )
Great Lakes Boot camp ran out of the Donald Duck hats just before I enlisted in Oct of 63. They were issued to get rid of them but never worn. Rumor has it that a number of Sailors were hit by cars while hitch hiking at night wearing their Blues. Don’t know if this is true or not.
The CSM of the Army should be relieved.
Not to be all anal, but the Marines switched from their OD utitlities to camo jungle fatigues sometime prior to 1971 in Vietnam. I still have a set I inherited from the 1st Recon Battalion when they stood down and re-deployed from Da Nang back to Okinawa. When I arrived at the 1st Mar Div base camp in early 1971, the entire division was wearing camo jungle fatigues.
General Gavin was indeed a great man. He also was a top adviser to the making of the film “A Bridge to Far”, about operation Market Garden, Montgomery’s disasterous airborne operation. Both the 82nd (under Gavin), and the 101st (under Maxwell Taylor) were involved. Taylor was another gem of a General.