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Plankowner
Posts: 9165
Location: Upper lefthand corner of the map. | Subject: Navy tests new fabric, zippers for dress blues
Navy tests new fabric, zippers for dress blues
By Jeff Schogol, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Saturday, July 14, 2007
ARLINGTON, Va. — The Navy wants to make it easier for sailors to get into their service dress blues.
A new uniform for male sailors at E-6 and below features a zipper for the pants, leaving the traditional 13 buttons just for cosmetic reasons, said Robert B. Carroll, head of the Navy’s Uniform Matters Office.
The new uniform also features a zipper on the side of the shirt, making it easier to put on — especially for sailors with broad shoulders, Carroll said in a Friday interview with Stars and Stripes.
The new blues are one of three uniforms that the Navy is testing this fall and winter, Carroll said. Testing is expected to involve about 300 sailors; none of it is expected to be carried out overseas.
There is not yet a time line for when the uniforms would be delivered to the fleet if approved, said Lt. Cmdr. William Marks, a spokesman for the Chief of Naval Personnel.
The blues being tested are also made of a lighter material than what sailors wear now, Carroll said.
This is meant to make sailors more comfortable in regions that require the blues for winter but do not get too cold, such as Naples, Italy, he said.
The Navy is also testing out new dress whites for both male and female sailors at E-6 and below, Carroll said.
The current dress whites are made out of polyester, meaning they can be very hot in warm climates, he said.
The uniform being tested is made of a material that is supposed to let the body breathe, keeping sailors cooler, Carroll said. It also features blue piping on the collar and cuffs to make it look more like the dress blues.
Another uniform being tested would give chiefs and officers a khaki service dress uniform for formal occasions, Carroll said.
Resembling Navy uniforms from many years ago, the dress khakis feature a tie and a coat with shoulder boards, allowing chiefs and officers to go from the office to a more formal setting without changing their entire uniform, he said.
Another benefit is the khakis look sharp, Carroll said.
“It has a very crisp military look to it,” he said.
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COMSUBBBS
Posts: 6180
Location: Summerville, SC | Subject: RE: Navy tests new fabric, zippers for dress blues
This is new????????? We had tailor made blue's like this years ago. All of a sudden it's someones new idea. It's about time the Navy Dept. caught up. |
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Master and Commander
Posts: 1431
| Subject: RE: Navy tests new fabric, zippers for dress blues
Zippers are a great way to sober you up when you have had a few too many beers.....gettin your family jewels caught in the zipper wil get your attention twice. Once goin up and once goin down!!!! |
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COMSUBBBS
Posts: 2540
Location: Wappingers Falls, NY | Subject: RE: Navy tests new fabric, zippers for dress blues
But Bob, don't you think if you get "the Jewels" caught...there may not be any "going up or down"...you might just be "stuck in the middle"!!!!
Edited by miss lumpy bumps 2007-07-13 7:23 PM
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Master and Commander
Posts: 1431
| Subject: RE: Navy tests new fabric, zippers for dress blues
miss lumpy bumps - 2007-07-13 7:19 PM
But Bob, don't you think if you get "the Jewels" caught...there may not be any "going up or down"...you might just be "stuck in the middle"!!!!
No such luck! goin up is a surprise. Now you have a dilema. If I pull the zipper back down to free the jewels ......YEOW AGAIN,,,,,,but this time I'm expecting it which makes things alot worse. So do I go out ,have a few more driks to build up some courage or do I grit my teeth and just.......unzip again YEOW!!!! |
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COMSUBBBS
Posts: 2540
Location: Wappingers Falls, NY | Subject: RE: Navy tests new fabric, zippers for dress blues
Gritting your teeth can be as bad as the zipper...because if you have "enough"...and slip once...you could loose a tongue!!! |
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COMSUBBBS
Posts: 3202
Location: Alexandria, Virginia | Subject: RE: Navy tests new fabric, zippers for dress blues
There has to be something somewhere in the Navy that some twinkle toed, light-in-his-loafers fashion designer won't be allowed to mess with. Have the once iron men of our national sea service, become so enamored with trashing the traditional for the ease of momentary convenience...How can a sonuvabitch who finds operating thirteen simple clothing fasteners to be too awkward and time consuming bring himself...or her self to find common linkage with men who in the sixties damn near mutinied to keep those damn magnificent thirteen button bells? There is a visitors center at the entrance to DesSub Piers ( the present name for the old CE (Convoy Escort Piers))...In that center, there's a large shadow box display of a set of right arm rate dress blues, with a set of old 13 button tailored and cutdown bells...Two late editions to the enlisted ranks were snickering about "those goofy looking pants"...They were in undress canvas and looked like busboys at Denny's....TRADITION and respect for the legacy left by our ancestral line of senior sailors...the guys who kicked ass at Leyte Gulf, Midway...the Coral Sea...Linguyen Gulf...the Solomons...the Atlantic left us the sacred vestments of our trade....the uniform they gave meaning to...a uniform recognized around the globe as belonging to the lads in the finest Navy God ever produced. It began with s**tcanning the flat hat...the taking away the solid wool five ton peacoat with the hard rubber indestructable buttons and downgrading it to a Dacron-Polyester bed jacket with plastic poker chips for buttons....now lazy boy zippers and phony display buttons....What's next, deployment disposable undies? Barber pole striped neckerchiefs? Glow in the dark crows? Collar flaps with a plastic window for JOIN THE NAVY advertisements? What would Little Johnny Jones and Little Bullie-Bullie Halsey say? Too damn much Mister Rogers and not enough Farragut and Decatur. "Run out your guns and lay'er alongside...". DEX |
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Senior Crew
Posts: 188
Location: Manassas, VA | Subject: RE: Navy tests new fabric, zippers for dress blues
While I loved the dress khaki's, I hope the material is carefully considered. Anyone suggesting polyester should be required to spend one month is a burn ward treating the patients who were wearing it when they had it melted to their skin.
Joe P |
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Senior Crew
Posts: 124
| Subject: RE: Navy tests new fabric, zippers for dress blues
Polyester was being used in Navy uniforms In the mid 70's. Something I remember is that you would burnup wearing a polyester uniform in hot humid weather.
It never ceases to amaze me that every generation of folks serving in the Navy has to come up with some idea to improve the uniform.
The "tailor mades" of years past had the jumper and pants zippers. Maybe they will add liberty cuffs as a uniform standard. |
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COMSUBBBS
Posts: 2673
Location: New Jersey | Subject: RE: Navy tests new fabric, zippers for dress blues
Whites being made out of polyester? What a bitch it must be to wear them in the heat of summer. Whatever happened to good 'ol cotton? Lots of starch....Okay so it wrinkles quickly, so what it looks good. Not the oversized envelopes these guys are forced to wear nowadays, but the good looking Seafarers. Man those uniforms looked real good. Neckerchief above the V in the jumper and the whtie hat sitting just above the eyebrows......Forget the two finger measurement above the eyes. Makes em look retarded!  |
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Master and Commander
Posts: 1455
| Subject: RE: Navy tests new fabric, zippers for dress blues
I cursed those polyester poopie suits every minute I had to wear one. When I was qualifying I think I spent most of my rack time on top of the haugahyde fart sack cover. I'd always feel clammy and uncomfortable not to mention eau de pits. I was helping put out a fire in the O2 generator and parts of the sleeve melted on my arms. Boy did that hurt and the goo stuck there. I hate polyester including all that stuff they sold in the 70's. Habband bell bottoms with stretch polyester, ugh. |
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COMSUBBBS
Posts: 3202
Location: Alexandria, Virginia | Subject: RE: Navy tests new fabric, zippers for dress blues
Joe, You have it exactly right...SEAFARERS...Boy there's a million dollar flashback...cotton...patch pocket jumper...Bells Naval Tailors Special...Tailored "Seafarers", rate, ship strip, hashmarks and a greasy snake neckerchief, $29.95....The oriental seemstresses came from a Far Eastern location where men must have been equipped with retractable testicles...because as we said,"Bells whites and Methodist churches had no ball room"...They were great...made you feel "salty"...you looked like a seagoing bluejacket, not like some looney bin escapee running around in his PJ's. Seafarer tailor mades...ah what a ressurected long forgotten memory....If you travelled more than 500 miles via Grayhound or Trailways you always arrived at your destination looking like a Mobil station dipstick wipe...but dammit you looked like a deep watwer bluejacket. Thanks for the long ago image excavation. DEX |
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Navy tests new fabric, zippers for dress blues
