Dress blues details - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Dress blues details

Note: This story was originally published June 25, 2007

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The Army is moving forward with plans to make the dress blues the new Army Service Uniform, but some key details about the uniform are still being worked on as leaders sift through more than 89,000 soldier responses to an online survey about the uniform.

Results gleaned from the survey, officials said, could drive key decisions such as where to place insignia or patches for one’s combat unit and whether to stick with gray as the color of the dress shirt. But the results won’t reverse the decision to go forward with the new dress blues, they said.

Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey “is on board with the plan to change from the green service uniform to the blue service uniform,” Army spokesman Col. Dan Baggio said.

Casey, who became chief of staff April 10, has traveled to Army installations large and small to gather feedback from soldiers on what they think about the uniform, Baggio said.

“The general feeling is the blue service uniform is tied to tradition,” he said.

It has a timeless design, “one that we feel will never go out of style,” Baggio said.

Soldiers will be required to have the new uniform by late 2011 or sometime in 2012, said Lt. Col. John Lemondes, product manager for clothing and individual equipment at Program Executive Office Soldier.

The uniform will be available at Military Clothing Sales stores this fall, and new soldiers will receive the uniform in their clothing bags by winter 2008.

“Generally, it’s an existing uniform,” Baggio said, so soldiers will be able to get their ASU as early as late August or September.

The ASU survey, which was commissioned by senior Army leaders, went online May 31 and was closed at the end of the day June 13. More than 89,000 soldiers participated, and PEO Soldier is using a private company to analyze the data, said Brig. Gen. Mark Brown, commander of PEO Soldier.

Key items still under consideration include how to best represent combat experience, by shoulder patch or chest insignia; and other unit assignment and regimental affiliation on the ASU. Soldiers also were asked whether they liked the color of the new dress gray shirt.

“The biggest issue is what the accoutrements will look like,” Baggio said.

Information from the survey will serve as a single data point for senior Army leaders, Lemondes said. He added that he didn’t know when the data analysis would be completed or whether the information will be released to the public.

“It may be just for senior leader assessment,” he said.

The feedback

At first glance, it looks like the survey garnered positive feedback from soldiers, Brown said.

“What I find is the younger the soldier, the more they like it,” he said. “I think all in all it’s a positive thing.”

Although the demise of the often-criticized green Class A’s becomes more of a certainty, soldiers interviewed by Army Times said they hoped their leaders would reconsider their decision.

“The dress blues is a good uniform for formal occasions ... but not as an everyday office uniform,” said Maj. Sam Wong, a Command and General Staff College/Intermediate Level Education student at Fort Belvoir, Va.

“The uniform is a symbol,” Wong said. “We’re 24-7 representing our country, therefore, we need a uniform that we can go out in the public and feel proud about ourselves, and when people see us they know we’re a U.S. soldier.”

Wong said he and many people he’s talked to prefer the World War II-era “pinks and greens” uniform over the blues.

“It’s something to be proud of because we still look up to our heroes from the second world war,” he said. “These are heroes and leaders we can identify with.”

The blues are mostly reserved for ceremonies and formal occasions, and the dark blue jacket and light blue pants have been a part of Army history since the Revolutionary War.

In summer 2005, then-Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker tasked Sgt. Maj. of the Army Kenneth Preston with looking at the Army’s three dress uniforms — the dress greens, the dress whites and the dress blues — and selecting a single uniform for all occasions at the least cost to soldiers.

The Army is also ditching the white mess dress uniform but has not yet selected a wear-out date for that uniform or for the green Class A’s.

It’s not that soldiers don’t like the dress blues; they just don’t want to see them replace the green Class A uniform, a senior Army official said.

“Personally, I don’t want to get rid of the greens,” the official said. “I don’t see the big deal in maintaining two uniforms.”

Staff Sgt. Jeff Kirschweng, a recruiter based in Michigan, said it doesn’t make sense to have just one dress uniform for all occasions.

“They’re taking something old and putting a different shirt under it,” he said. “It’s not an attractive uniform at all.”

Kirschweng said he likes some of the new additions to the blues, including the stripe on the pants for the noncommissioned officer version of the uniform, but soldiers should have more opportunity to share their ideas about their new uniform.

“The biggest thing is the sense of pride,” he said. “When you put that uniform on, you want to be proud to wear it. From the pictures I’ve seen [of it], I would try to avoid wearing it.”

Army leaders want the new ASU to be traditional, utilitarian, simple and of high quality, Lemondes said.

The entire concept for the uniform was selected from many variants, and soldiers — junior enlisted, NCOs and officers — had input all along the way, Lemondes said.

“It was not done in a vacuum,” he said. “I’d say it’s virtually universally accepted and liked.”

What’s changing

The new uniform will keep most of the overall styling of the current blues, but it will feature changes such as a more tailored fit and a gray shirt for everyday wear.

That shirt will be worn with a necktie; white shirts with a black bow tie will be reserved for formal occasions.

Trousers will be worn with belts rather than suspenders, and female soldiers will have an optional pair of trousers, like the men’s, in addition to the traditional dark blue skirt.

Also, all soldiers — including airborne troops on jump status — will wear the current black dress shoe. Bloused jump boots will not be authorized.

There will be three distinct versions of the new uniform:

• Junior enlisted version. The biggest differences come with this uniform. Soldiers holding the rank of specialist and below will wear the black beret instead of the service cap. Also, they will wear plain blue trousers, without the gold stripe along the legs.

• Noncommissioned officer version. The gold trouser stripes and service cap are restored to the uniform when a soldier becomes an NCO at the rank of corporal and above. The change is meant to represent a rite of passage when a soldier becomes part of the NCO corps, Preston said.

• Officer/warrant officer version. The blues for officers and warrants remain the same, except for the gray shirt and belted trousers.

“We’re really transitioning to a uniform we already have,” said Dave Geringer, assistant product manager for clothing and individual equipment at PEO Soldier. “If we went to a whole new uniform, soldiers would be buying all new items.”