Tonight I had the pleasure of working the headcount station for supper at the DFAC. Every staff section on this base takes a rotation working the headcount, and I drew the last hour of the evening dinner hour. What this job entails is taking count of the people who come through the line for chow. Now I know this sounds so simple a Marine could do it (I joke, I really respect the USMC), but it's a little more complicated than it sounds. Everyone who comes through has to scan in their ID card into the computer, and then they're manually counted as well. For all U.S. Military, you click the hand counter. All DOD civilians and DOD contractors are marked down on respective sheets. Finally, all foreign military sign in on their respective sheets for their nationality. You also need to make sure no one brings in a bag of any kind (for security reasons) and everyone come in wearing the proper uniform.
Since I'm still relatively new here, I took this opportunity as a meet and greet. I spoke to just about everyone who walked through the door, officer, enlisted, civilian, and foreign alike. Some I recognized and others were new faces. Personally, I think a friendly hello and a smile goes a long way in making a person feel good if they're not having a good day. But I digress.
The real reason I decided to write this blog entry today was because I got to see the plethora of uniforms our Military now wears. In stark contrast, just on my small base alone, we have elements of the Canadian, French, and Greek militaries, and each country's contingent wear the same uniform, no matter the branch of their military.
Uniforms in the U.S. Armed Forces are a source of pride and a sign of affiliation. Every few decades or even shorter, each service changes their uniform to update its look and match requirements of the job.
Currently the U.S Army wears the digital print ACU (Army Combat Uniform), and some like myself deployed to Afghanistan have been issued the Multi-Cam uniform pattern. The previous uniform was the BDU (Battle Dress Uniform) and the DCU (Desert Camouflage Uniform). The Multi-Cam pattern is in testing for potential fielding to the entire U.S. Army in a couple years. Even though the uniform patterns may differ, what's put on it is pretty standard. We wear our rank, nametape, US Army tape, the American flag, unit affiliation patch, and a patch for a unit of our choosing that we've previously gone to war with. The ACU pattern, which I affectionately refer to as the "turquoise uniform" was phased into use in 2006. It appears it will be phased out in one or two years, which will rank it among some of the Army's other great ideas like the black beret that we no longer wear and the short lived slogan "An Army of One".
The Air Force probably changes their uniforms more often than any service if you include the dress uniforms and flight suits, but for the sake of time I'll only discuss the duty uniform. To complicate things, they have a version of our ACU uniform colors, but it's in the tiger stripes. They also wear our digital ACU and Multi-Cam uniforms with their own insignia as well, apparently at their own discretion of what whey feel like.
Marines are probably the most simple. They have two uniforms, a digital woodland and a digital desert pattern, and they believe in nothing but rank, USMC tape, and a nametape.
The most complicated is probably the Navy. They wear the same uniforms now as the army, at least when deployed, but they don't seem to have any uniformity at all. The Navy not only wears all of the Army's insignia except for the U.S. Navy tape, but at times they also wear the "Don't Tread on Me" flag. They put other non-standard patches on their uniform as well. I've seen Sailors wearing such non-authorized patches such as "the Fun Meter", "Jersey Girl", "Combat Smartass", "Infidel", "Modern Crusader", etc. None of that would never fly in the Army, and I'm surprised the base Sergeant Major doesn't rip them a new one.
I asked one of the Navy personnel in my office why he didn't wear his Don't Tread on Me flag among other patches I've seen, and he said that (to quote the movie "Office Space") he felt could express himself with the minimum amount of flair. Shouldn't we all...
More to follow.
Since I'm still relatively new here, I took this opportunity as a meet and greet. I spoke to just about everyone who walked through the door, officer, enlisted, civilian, and foreign alike. Some I recognized and others were new faces. Personally, I think a friendly hello and a smile goes a long way in making a person feel good if they're not having a good day. But I digress.
The real reason I decided to write this blog entry today was because I got to see the plethora of uniforms our Military now wears. In stark contrast, just on my small base alone, we have elements of the Canadian, French, and Greek militaries, and each country's contingent wear the same uniform, no matter the branch of their military.
Uniforms in the U.S. Armed Forces are a source of pride and a sign of affiliation. Every few decades or even shorter, each service changes their uniform to update its look and match requirements of the job.
Currently the U.S Army wears the digital print ACU (Army Combat Uniform), and some like myself deployed to Afghanistan have been issued the Multi-Cam uniform pattern. The previous uniform was the BDU (Battle Dress Uniform) and the DCU (Desert Camouflage Uniform). The Multi-Cam pattern is in testing for potential fielding to the entire U.S. Army in a couple years. Even though the uniform patterns may differ, what's put on it is pretty standard. We wear our rank, nametape, US Army tape, the American flag, unit affiliation patch, and a patch for a unit of our choosing that we've previously gone to war with. The ACU pattern, which I affectionately refer to as the "turquoise uniform" was phased into use in 2006. It appears it will be phased out in one or two years, which will rank it among some of the Army's other great ideas like the black beret that we no longer wear and the short lived slogan "An Army of One".
The Air Force probably changes their uniforms more often than any service if you include the dress uniforms and flight suits, but for the sake of time I'll only discuss the duty uniform. To complicate things, they have a version of our ACU uniform colors, but it's in the tiger stripes. They also wear our digital ACU and Multi-Cam uniforms with their own insignia as well, apparently at their own discretion of what whey feel like.
Marines are probably the most simple. They have two uniforms, a digital woodland and a digital desert pattern, and they believe in nothing but rank, USMC tape, and a nametape.
The most complicated is probably the Navy. They wear the same uniforms now as the army, at least when deployed, but they don't seem to have any uniformity at all. The Navy not only wears all of the Army's insignia except for the U.S. Navy tape, but at times they also wear the "Don't Tread on Me" flag. They put other non-standard patches on their uniform as well. I've seen Sailors wearing such non-authorized patches such as "the Fun Meter", "Jersey Girl", "Combat Smartass", "Infidel", "Modern Crusader", etc. None of that would never fly in the Army, and I'm surprised the base Sergeant Major doesn't rip them a new one.
I asked one of the Navy personnel in my office why he didn't wear his Don't Tread on Me flag among other patches I've seen, and he said that (to quote the movie "Office Space") he felt could express himself with the minimum amount of flair. Shouldn't we all...
More to follow.
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