• Please take a moment and update your account profile. If you have an updated account profile with basic information on why you are on Air Warriors it will help other people respond to your posts. How do you update your profile you ask?

    Go here:

    Edit Account Details and Profile

Uniforms

Gatordev

Well-Known Member
pilot
Site Admin
Contributor
I'd wear the IIIs over the Is any day, but alas, we're all not CEC/Snake Eaters.

I still haven't figured out the method to the madness, but plenty of non-CEC/"special" people are wearing them. They're all over the exchange everyday, and worn by people with "nothing" more than EAWS.
 

Pags

N/A
pilot
This canard is stupid. The previous uniform was... blue... the color of water...
And to get really nerdy about it, the SAR TACAID doesn't increase your probability of detection if you're wearing safety orange over any other color. The only thing that does increase detection on an object of a given size is retro-reflective tape. So until we all start wearing retro-reflective uniforms, this whole discussion is kind of silly.
 

Uncle Fester

Robot Pimp
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
I had to wear wash khakis and swoveralls as a daily shipboard working uniform. I can tell you from experience that they both sucked. Wash khakis were hot, uncomfortable, non-functional (useless pockets, wore out quickly), and looked like crap. You had to starch and press the fuck out of them to get them looking halfway presentable. Tradition's fine and all, but unless we're also going to bring back tricorn hats, I really don't give a fuck about How We've Always Dressed in This Man's Navy. I want a working uniform I can work in.

Swoveralls were marginally better, but also had useless pockets and you couldn't easily half-mast them when you needed to (say, for flight deck jerseys or dirty work in tropical latitudes). Still, they were wash-and-wear, and held up pretty well under working environments. My three swoveralls were faded but still presentable and functional after five months on the equator, most of that on deck or in a RHIB.

The digiflauge of NWUs is kind of silly - dark blue utilities like the Coasties wear would have been perfectly fine - but other than that, they're a decent working uniform. Yeah, they're kind of warm, but Egyptian cotton doesn't hold up very well doing mechanical work in salt air.

Would I rather wear a flight suit? Fuck, yes. But for everyone else, I really don't see the problem with Aquaflauge.
 

kmac

Coffee Drinker
pilot
Super Moderator
Contributor
The digiflauge of NWUs is kind of silly - dark blue utilities like the Coasties wear would have been perfectly fine - but other than that, they're a decent working uniform.

Isn't that the only real gripe for the uniform? I'm fine with keeping tradition on the service/service-dress level (except I still hate poly-wool blends). Why couldn't we have gone to a solid-color blue uniform like the Coasties? Does the aquaflage really hide stains better than a solid color? I haven't been around them enough to know.
 

eas7888

Looking forward to some P-8 action
pilot
Contributor
Does the aquaflage really hide stains better than a solid color? I haven't been around them enough to know.

That was ONE of my biggest gripes about the switch from the BDU to the ACU on the Army side. Grease and dirt would stand out like a sore thumb on the new uniforms, sometimes ruining a uniform's use in a garrison environment. God forbid someone have grease on a "Combat Uniform" in a garrison environment. There were a host of other gripes, like the seams ripping on pants after a couple months of wear.

The NWUs at least seem to be durable, and though they don't seem as practical or traditional as other uniforms, it seems to be a fair compromise, minus the camouflage pattern.
 

Pags

N/A
pilot
Isn't that the only real gripe for the uniform? I'm fine with keeping tradition on the service/service-dress level (except I still hate poly-wool blends). Why couldn't we have gone to a solid-color blue uniform like the Coasties? Does the aquaflage really hide stains better than a solid color? I haven't been around them enough to know.
I'm convinced that the "hides stains" was a line pitched once people started questioning why the USN was wearing camo on boats.

I think the camo came from leadership's desire to make every sailor look/feel like a "warrior." you have to remember that the uniform was originally dreamt up when "urban camo" was a hot fashion accessory for every 18yr old, so when they presented the options of a traditional or digital camo to the e-3s of the fleet, they all clamored for digicams. Just my opinion, but still tend to think that the NWUs were an effort to pander to the deck plates.
 

exNavyOffRec

Well-Known Member
I don't know a single engineering type that prefers the NWU over the coveralls, the coveralls are cooler when you are in a hot environment, the biggest problem with them is when you are up north you get a bit cold, many guys would wear long underwear underneath them, The NWU's you are warmer in colder environments but when it is hot you are hotter then you would be in coveralls, and you can't half mast NWU's, and you can't run around the engineroom in just the NWU t-shirt.
 
Top