Here is a question I need answered - why do our working uniforms need to "look good"?
For several reasons, which I'll cover below.
They are meant to do work in. If you're in the engineering spaces or on the ramp maintaining aircraft, they are going to get dirty and disgusting. If you're flying in an aircraft they are likely going to get sweaty and disgusting. About the only people who don't risk getting dirt on their working uniform is the admin office - although if you've ever seen a toner cartridge explode upon forced removal you know they should probably wear working uniforms too just in case.
We have coveralls for exceptionally dirty work that would soil the NWUs, so I'm not sure what you're driving at here. They're even provided at no cost to the sailor.
I don't get it. We do manual labor - we aren't doing pass and review every day.
You don't do manual labor. Some of our men do. Those sailors are afforded coveralls as organizational clothing, even in port. And if they're not, then you can fix that. However, the majority of sailors don't do work in the course of a normal day that you describe above.
Who gives a shit if Seaman Timmy wants to stop at 7-11 for a Red Bull after a 12 hour shift and he's got grease on his pants? Is some unknowing civilian going to think "God, our military is so unprofessional because this 19 year old kid is stopping at the store to get some caffeine and he has a STAIN on his mechanics uniform?" Do we even care if they do?
Because our public image and public relations actually matters. We like it when towns welcome military bases, not shun them because it brings in greaseballs who walk around in ripped clothing. We like it when people think of the military as a worthy profession from all walks of life, not something you do when you are impoverished or you can't make it in another job. We've actually made a lot of headway as an organization in the last couple decades in this area. Presenting a neat and orderly appearance in public is part of that image.
Aside from that, putting on something you can be proud of raises morale. The NWU Type Is were better than utilities, but missed the mark a bit in this case. I don't hear any of those snickers about Type IIIs. You're deriding uniform changes away from a uniform that looks like a prison uniform as someone who didn't have to wear them. The fact of the matter is that they were overwhelmingly unpopular. Aside from being uncomfortable for most people, our men just want to be able to stop for gas and maybe some groceries on the way home without being screamed at, and they don't want to spend 30 minutes a day pressing their uniforms when they spend 60-80 hour on the ship in-port or 50+ hours a week at sea standing watch. That's not a lot to ask.
The only things working uniforms need to be are functional, safe, and comfortable. I don't press my jeans and starch my shirt before I go work on my car or paint my house, but that's the same kind of work we are talking about. Need to go someplace business casual? We have another uniform for that. Formal event? Wedding/Funeral? We have uniforms for that too. Stop trying to make the working uniform something it isn't meant to be - a show piece for civilians.
You can't have your cake and eat it too. If you want working uniforms to be allowed to be worn in town (which I think we all do), then they have to be presentable for the reasons that I detailed above. And again, if your sailors are painting or working with grease in NWUs, your command is doing it wrong.
And FFS if MCPON could tell the whole worldwide mess to lay off the nonsense enforcement of bullshit uniform rules, I think we might actually develop morale again. Nothing worse than a 50lbs overweight chief with khakis above his ankles huffing and puffing at some poor kid because he wore his PT uniform into the wrong side of the Jacksonville NAS in violation of local instruction (true story).
Why do you need the MCPON to come do it when you could just do it yourself?
When it came to utilities, the goat locker was mostly enforcing the rules of the time.
