Obviously, someone didn't see the sarcasm portion of that post!

 

We get our NWU's (Navy Working Uniform's, the Navy's version of the digital cammies) in the spring of '08 . Currently our E-6 and below are authorized to wear their "Dungarees" off base on a limited basis. I fear that since Uncle Sam's Misguided Children are no longer able to wear their cammies off base our COC will do the same. Those da*n Marines!!!! Mess it up for eveyone.

 

The worst thing that ever happened to Marine cammies is the addition of the name tapes. It happened just a while after the First Gulf War. Then there was talk (rumor?) of Marines wearing berets. Thank God that didn't happen!

 

It will probably only apply to Corpsmen. Even then they are pros at BSing their way out of trouble with the Marines. I don't see why they are giving all of you guys our uniforms though, I would think only the sailors serving with us should need them (Or even have them).

Stonefly - You don't like the name tapes? I like them but it is kind of funny how they are at an angle now That's another thing that separates a Marine serving in combat from a garrison Marine. For us (Infantry) we are issued a bunch of cammies without name tapes before the deployment. Most of us only take one pair of taped ones for the return home and don't wear them the whole deployment. I can really tell by looking through my closet which cammies I wore in Iraq, they look terrible

 

I actually agree with "Task Force Uniform(s)" recommendation to switch our working uniform to cammies. There's actually a good reason. I have to agree with you on the sailors BSing their way out of trouble. I'm frankly tired of it. I hope an unintended benefit of switching our working uniform is a sense of military pride. We suck when it comes to pride and professionalism, however, I'll put our technical expertise and our "can-do" spirit in the aviation maintenance arena against any service. Our military bearing sucks-a** though. BTW, I love (I mean LOVE) it when I catch young Marines messing up. And boy do they. I just spoke to a PFC who was standing watch in our Navy building with no cover, leaning on the podium with both elbows, and giving a "Kill" for every request to come aboard. I love the enthusiasm but I take a moment to remind them they are standing a watch in a Naval facility with all services present and that they need to use proper NAVY terminology. It's fun working with Marines. This isn't my first tour either. My director is a LCOL and I have two MGySgt's in my office. Let's just say that it's pretty interesting. I will say this though, when it comes to a battle of wits those two Top's have their hands full with me.

 

Nah, I hated the nametapes! Part of my resistance was tradition, traditionally we didn't wear them. Another reason was the anonymity. Instead of someone saying "Hey, Marine!" into a crowd, now they could single you out. Finally, if you got back late from Kinville the night (morning) before, and didn't have a uniform ready, you could always borrow one. I like the fact that the Marines haven't festooned their uniforms with a bunch of patches and what not, a Marine is a Marine. There is only one insignia that matters, the Eagle, Globe and Anchor! The set of my cammies (I only had two sets of the old school "chocolate chip" deserts and only wore one during the ground war portion)from Kuwait were all oil stained from the burning oil fields.

Semper Fi!

 

Yeah, but even "real" Marines (the Grunts) have issues with the Wing nuts!

 

Right up until the point at which they need Close Air Support and hear the sound of pointy nose jets overhead!

 

I wear the utilities every day for work, the two times in the past 3 years I wore my charlies was for a promotion picture and a change of command. We did have a CGI a couple months ago and I had to break out the alpha's, first time I wore them since I reported almost 3 years ago.

Technically, since utilities are a "field" uniform, my uniform of the day should be charlies. But, its not. Everybody at my command wears utilities, except the career planner.

So, I change my clothes twice a day. Add in PT during the work day, and its easily 4 or 5 times a day. That's a lot of wasted time. The NEX gas station is more expensive than the Wawa down the street, so I don't use it except when I'm no kidding on empty.

This past weekend my wife drove my truck and left me with less than a quarter tank, and I wore my utilities home on Friday so I wore them on Monday morning. I was swamped at work and forgot about it, then PT'd at the end of the day, and left work right after PT, got in the truck, saw the gas gauge and thought "oh ****." I made it home, but geeze, what a pain in the butt. And my wife wonders why I don't like the cars getting below 1/4 tank.

I really don't have a problem with the new rules except for the part about pumping gas. ATM, food, even dry cleaning you can use the drivethrough. Not too many full service stations around any more. I just really need to hawk the gas gauge now and probably cut my wife off from driving my truck.

Contrary to the article in the original post, in 10 years in the Marines I've never been able to walk in to a fast food joint, or go grocery shopping, or go shopping anywhere. It was my understanding that we could use the drive-through, use an ATM, pump gas, and make stops at daycare or buy necessities such as milk or bread. That's it. I don't have a problem with that.

If Marines were violating those rules they were wrong and their leadership should have taken care of it.

There is a rational application of this. The whole issue comes down to discipline. You tell a Marine to do this or that, regardless if it makes sense or not, because it instills discpline. While today he may ***** about not being able to stop for gas in his uniform, tomorrow you may need to tell him to take a machine gun nest, and just as much as he learns some discipline from it, you also learn who you can count on by how much they obey the rules that don't make any sense.

 

Or until they get the opportunity to play with us, and witness 8 hours of mission planning and 2 hours of briefing for a 1 hour flight followed by a 2 hour debrief (ie, lessons learned). I think the exact quote was "holy ****, I had no idea you guys actually worked this hard..."