Friday, August 05, 2016

Bell-bottom trousers, coats of navy blue...

About the only thing that makes me laugh harder than wing-wipers all decked out in camouflage outfits is when squids do it.
I mean, those cammie suits'll make you SO hard to see on that ginormous fucking hunk of steel out in the in a fucking hole in the water, right?

What, blue cotton shirts and dungarees too much not-like-a-video-game for ya, Navy? They worked just fine when grandpap went out to sink the Imperial Japanese Navy.


I think what irks me about this nonsense is what some of the other waitstaff over at MilPub have complained about; that this isn't what services at war do, and, at least in theory the armed services are out fighting in various less-paved portions of the world even if the nation as a whole (outside of Victor Davis Hanson's prion-disease-addled brain) isn't. This also, IMO, isn't what services with a better grasp of their actual mission do; this is an artifact that ISTM that our armed services are infected with something that you see a lot if you look around the United States - that it's "better to look good than be good".

I realize that this is an extreme effect of selective observational bias, but...to me the impact of all this fussing about appearance give the impression that We the People (and We the Armed Forces) care if you are terrific at something only if it gets out there in the news, or into social media.

Oh, and the solution to the USN's cammie-pant problem?

Put all the gobs in GREEN cammie outfits.

FFS, people. You're fucking sailors!
Why not be proud to look like 'em?

7 comments:

Ael said...

The new uniforms are made with the same nylon/cotton blend as the old. I.e. in a fire, your uniform melts all over your skin.

Good thing that Navy ships don't ever catch fire.

BigFred said...

That uniform, which I never had to wear, was an abomination.

Labrys said...

My military sons and I have often laughed over the idea of blue camo. We wonder just how easy it is to find some poor bastard who falls overboard while dressed in blue camo in a blue sea.

Barry DeCicco said...

Labrys, I was thinking that it's a real hazard for deck crews in poor light.

Talyssa said...

Hahaha this was a funny read. I haven't seen any Aussie people wear these before, but usually whatever the US does, Australia tends to follow.

And damn, judging by the older photos, I'd take a 'traditional' sailor outfit any day ;)

Big Daddy said...

I remember reading somewhere that the primary intent of the blue "camo" pattern was to hide oil stains. Plus the Navy apparently had camo envy since the Army, Air Force and Marines all had their own patterns.

FDChief said...

The blue-shirt-and-dungarees-and-dixie-cup-hat is a classic USN look; I have NO idea why they'd want to fuck with it. For more formal occasions the "crackerjacks" - the blue jumper blouse and bellbottom pants seem like a perfectly presentable Class A uniform.

But as BD says; I think a LOT of this is the goddamn "Woah on Terra!" cammiephilia. Everybody and their dog has to have some sort of neato camouflage pattern, and the squiddley brass is no exception...