Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Off base on Navy Uniforms


The flack is starting to rise in the ranks over the ridiculous uniform regs for when to wear the new NWU off of base. Back in the hazy past, I once heard of a group of students at Subschool in Groton that would sneak off base to a grinder shop near the shipyard in New London.

Since they were all under the rank of Petty Officer, nobody had a crow on their working jackets. We, I mean they just drove out the gate and looked confident and enjoyed a great grinder for lunch.

Man those grinders tasted great! Or so I hear.

Keep up the pressure people! The Navy brass needs to elevate the NWU to the same status as the Air Force and Army. Marines, we'll just have to say a prayer for you guys.

Latest name for the NWU: Aquaflage

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

It will be curious to see how closely the o-gangers and chiefs follow the rules.

Anonymous said...

The Navy Brass really needs to un-fuck themselves about these "new & improved" uniform regs. That's just crazy. As prior USAF, we were able to wear our woodland Camos off base, just so long as they were properly starched, and with no stains or rips on the blouse or pants.

I guess I don't understand the underline or reasoning as to why the Navy brass won't allow their sailors to wear the NWU off base. Now, I can understand that the USN doesn't want sailors wearing the NWU to a sports bar or a nudy bar. The Air Force has always had similar uniform guidelines, so I understand that line of reasoning.

But, for sailors who live off base and who have children to pick up after school should be allowed to make their needed stops. That would include stopping for groceries and gas as well.

How is one expected to follow the rules when the rules are rediculous and baseless?

J.

Anonymous said...

Firstly, what a lot of folks seem to have missed is that after a set amount of time, CPOs from the fleet will be able to provide input to the CNO's office on wether or not the rules should stay in place or if they should be rewritten to more closely match the current rules. That seems fair to me.

Secondly, it's easy for me to understand the CNO's reasoning. When the utility rules came out that stated personnel could make "brief stops of necessity" I quickly started to see sailors in town in place that were obviuously not "necessary" stops, for example, the mall! Additonally many people that were stopping for legitamite reasons were doing so in paint, grease, or dirt covered utilities. Undoubtedly, the same issues will occur with the NWU.

Thirdly, it's easy to see why the CNO keeps a tight reign on rules such as this one, since we can't follow the simple rules we have been given, such as keeping hands out of pockets, wearing or carrying a backpack correctly in uniform etc. Maybe if we paid more attention to the uniform regulations and heeded them more closely, or enforeced them at the Officer, Chief, and senior Petty Officer levels, then the CNO would back off a bit.

Lastly, I am an "O-Ganger" and I will follow and enforce the rules as I always have. If you need to stop on the way home, change into civvies, it's not that hard.

DukeRulZ said...

Anonymous O-ganger,

How much grease do you get on your uniform?

Anonymous said...

Like Anonymous O-Ganger said the CPO's will report to the CNO when and IF the regulations are relaxed.
From the looks of things the full rollout won't be completed until October 2010. This means at least another year after that until it is even considered to relax regulations.
That's a long time for Sailors to have to deal with changing clothes just to pick up kids from day care. Seems like the CNO's office is micro-managing things. The CNO needs to trust Sailors and the CPO mess to keep things in order. I think everyone can agree that the Navy life occupies nearly every hour of the day but is it to much to ask to allow Sailors to save some of their Liberty and not have to change clothes to pick kids up from school or daycare.

I don't think this is too much to ask.