TFU just seems to be another excellent example of the road to hell being paved with good intentions. It started out so well with the idea that the Navy wanted to simplify the seabag and provide sailors with a uniform they can be proud of and wear out in town. Sounds like a decent idea, who doesn't like that? And then they decided to start listening to the average 18yr old Navy Times reader about what they wanted in a uniform. Next thing you know we have blue camo that looks like we're trying to look like East Podunk County SWAT Team in their "urban" camo. So now we have NWUs. Oh, and since my current command falls within Naval District Washington, NWUs are relegated to organizational clothing so people won't be tempted to wear it to the Pentagon. Despite the fact that that was one of the original goals for a uniform that was designed in Washington! Sometime in here TFU jumped the shark and started thinking about adding MORE uniforms to the seabag (like SDKs) because people liked them. Now we're replacing camo with new camo. And their reasoning seems to be the same spurious logic that I use to convince my wife that we need a bigger TV/new car/toy: "but sweetheart, there are no parts left for the old model, so we might as well buy the new one. plus, this one has all sorts of advances in technology! our lives will be changed forever!"
TFU is also a great example of making a leadership decision based on popularity, as opposed to what is right/facts/best. If I made leadership decisions based on what the airmen had to say, the Skipper would kill me. But that's how we design our uniforms. There's no way you can convince me that NWUs and the PTU are what's best for the fleet. And like others have already said, do you want to know why Naval aquisitions are so messed up and why we've just re-started Burke production? It's because we can't even design a good PT short. You could have given the PT short problem to a couple of JOs from different communitities and said you wanted a solution in an hour. They'd come to a better conclusion in 20min and spend the remaining 40min doing real work that took TFU years and millions of dollars. If TFU had at least remained consistent with some of their original goals, the uniform change would alt least be palatable and make sense. Instead we have a uniform program that's all over the charts and does not send a consistent message.
TFU is also a great example of making a leadership decision based on popularity, as opposed to what is right/facts/best. If I made leadership decisions based on what the airmen had to say, the Skipper would kill me. But that's how we design our uniforms. There's no way you can convince me that NWUs and the PTU are what's best for the fleet. And like others have already said, do you want to know why Naval aquisitions are so messed up and why we've just re-started Burke production? It's because we can't even design a good PT short. You could have given the PT short problem to a couple of JOs from different communitities and said you wanted a solution in an hour. They'd come to a better conclusion in 20min and spend the remaining 40min doing real work that took TFU years and millions of dollars. If TFU had at least remained consistent with some of their original goals, the uniform change would alt least be palatable and make sense. Instead we have a uniform program that's all over the charts and does not send a consistent message.
