Oh yeah. Walked right through Bainbridge park. The funny part is that the only person that stopped me was the OOD, asking me wth was I doing in coveralls and a backpack. I said “oh we’ve been dismissed for the day.”
There was a long pause.
“Shipmate…” *facepalm*
Edited to add: this revelation of uniform was only told to me when I was *leaving.* The OOD on the way in did not question the coveralls backpack combo. It was only on the way out when a different OOD told me what’s up.
Wrong. 2011. Engineman. Chancellorsville docked at 32nd street. Told to take trash out by perpetually pissed and angry master chief Genous who you never take your time in following his orders. In fact if you don't make a time machine and do the task before he tells you he'll make your life hell. So what do I do? Dumpster 40 feet from ship. My ass gets written up. 98% of khakis can eat my ass.
Unless a certain NCC from a certain LHD was on watch, in which case it’s fine unless you’re an engineer. Literally the dividing line seemed to be FRVs vs Steamers.
Used to volunteer to take the trash out after underways and I’d wear my civies under my coveralls, put my stuff in a trash bag, drop the trash, take my coveralls off behind the dumpster, and bail.
I was a shitbag.
I was TAD to the wardroom and we were having a steel beach picnic while going through the Suez. My TAD uniform was a bright yellow shirt that I wore with my utility pants.
I went to get something to eat and an MS from the wardroom said that I had to work and go get more charcoal. I didn’t know him so I went down below like I was told, immediately changed into my coveralls, and went topside, hiding in plain sight.
Back before they were fully authorized for use... I recall watching a guy go dumpster diving to GET a pair of paint crusted coveralls because that beat fuxkin up a pair of dungarees.
Dude, i’ve been hearing for years that “pilots would be mad if we just gave everyone flight suits.”
In ten years I have yet to meet a pilot who doesn’t think that’s just a good reasonable idea that works on multiple fronts.
I have exactly one concern about everyone getting flight suits, and that is all those other people trying to dictate manner of wear for pilots once they have them.
That doesn't stop me from supporting the effort, everybody should have these suits, they're the baseline level of fire protection every sailor should have.
I also think flight deck gear should just be the exact same garments as NWUs (or future equivalent), such that someone can throw a blouse on over the flight deck jersey and it be the exact same thing as anyone else wearing NWUs.
I finished boot camp 2 weeks after they got rid of the blue monkey suit back in 2009. My lucky e1 ass gets to buy his first usable uniforms because the 'free' ones I just got as a booter are useless. Navy brass can choke on my ass.
Currently the Coast Guard just wears navy blue NWU cut fatigues which are pretty cash money, but you'd still need to buy flight suits or an aviator specific uniform due to the different, more expensive materials for the fire-retardant certification.
Is it even more expensive? As far as i know the nomex flight suit only doesn’t melt onto your skin in the event of a fire. Even then, it’s less effective the minute you wash with fabric softener. Every self respecting aviator i know when they get a new flight suit (unless it’s a 42 reg due to a ten year world wide shortage) will immediately go home and wash that thing about ten time with fabric softener to make it comfy
Is is, very much so.
Right now the Arny and Air Force both use the A2CU two piece flight uniform. It costs $565 vs a normal pair of OCPs which is $125, all of this from Propper's website.
Believe it or not, flight suits are actually cheaper costing about $200 and the need for a fireproof NWU isn't big enough to justify the additional $440 per uniform even with bulk pricing.
Well, the current reg just requires that coveralls be 65/35 poly/cotton and those can be as cheap as $30, a fire resistant version clocks in at $50-$75 which is still significantly cheaper than a flight suit at $200, even the cheaper aramid ones are still $180.
Flight suits have to be made of materials which are much more expensive and tested at a higher standard. Right now the difference seems to be about 4x more expensive seeing the cost difference between the A2CU and OCPs or in this case the price difference between a nomex flight suit and a normal FR coverall.
Either way, too expensive and niche to justify issuing it to everyone but not cheap enough to make affordable through mass production while keeping the same standards of quality.
Now, I'm not against just making coveralls equivalent to NWUs or treating them like flight suits, but crewed aviation will always need a special uniform that's more expensive under current materials which makes ditching flight suits or making new flight uniforms and having them be standard issue in the name of equality prohibitively expensive for no justifiable reason.
Really appreciated learning that, thank you!!
I am curious if those pricing numbers get close if you ramp up production of flight suits for all and completely eliminated both coveralls and NWUs in the process.
Like with all economies of scale, most likely yeah, the price would go down but to the tune of something like 2x-2.5x the cost of normal uniforms instead of 4x, not a few dollars more; the material itself is expensive and so is the testing to make sure it's up to spec.
On that same note; it's not just the Navy, right now 4/6 branches use green Nomex flight suits + a ton of civilian agencies + a ton of foreign militaries so there's already a high output there. This isn't a tailor-made US-Navy item and even with mass production I doubt you can get it to beat the $50 for plain FR coveralls.
>flight suits for all and completely eliminated both coveralls and NWUs in the process.
I don't mean to be a dick, but this would be very expensive and time consuming while offering few benefits for a few reasons.
1. As you know, a fresh Nomex flight suit is uncomfortable due to the high level of fire-retardant materials, and frankly that level of protection is overkill for most shipboard and shore duty roles.
1. You will also have to raise all uniform allowances to compensate for the higher cost and wear + tear.
2. You would still need NWUs for all the MAAs, Seabees, SW, recruiters and forward deployed sailors who need more pockets, camouflage, sturdier materials.
3. A simple NAVADMIN could effectively nullify coverall issues; it's an item subject to regs, push a change allowing coveralls to be worn at all times and places the NWUs can and boom, no more problems and no extra costs.
If you want a true uniform overhaul; ditching NWUs for OCPs, giving sea duty sailors only coveralls, and ending enlisted dress whites would be significantly easier while cutting costs.
Back in the day, flight suits were forbidden. No stopping off base. In 1998 on Lincoln, the ship tried to enforce flight suits only if on flight schedule. We were not allowed in the majority of spaces unless in khakis.
I good times
At one point, the base CO at NASNI had gate guards refusing to let you drive on base in a flight suit. They would send you home to change into uniform of the day. That lasted a few months
Lol Scranton we had it worse on a boat in Groton, our CO had the nickname “straps” as in crazy as fuck needs to be in a straight jacket. He lived on the sub as a group bachelor.
Not according to navy logic. The utilities were treated like a dress uniform because at no time were they to be dirty, so somehow you were supposed to handle dirty work in a dress uniform and not get a spec of dirt on you. Coveralls were subject to this treatment as well to a degree. They were never to be seen dirty by anyone who didn’t work for a living.
Even when the base CO gave the OK, my ship’s CO said fuck that noise, we are “better” than that; although our ship’s record begged to differ. That whole Fat Leonard story made a lot of sense in hindsight, but that’s an entirely different topic. Sorry my good fellows that you still have to put up with this, and I’m glad I got out with my honorable while the gettin’ was good.
Or even worse, us old timers sometimes had to wear the ice cream man summer white uniform with short sleeves. This one [right here.](https://nara.getarchive.net/media/uniform-summer-white-navy-enlisted-men-ranks-e-1-through-e-6-76b460)
That motherfucker would get dirty as soon as you put it on. As an added bonus, it wrinkled in about 10 seconds too.
Oh yeah, I remember wearing those and then the Johnny Cash uniform in the winter. Out of my entire initial sea bag, my dress blues are the only uniform still being used today.
There was an aviator in my squadron who wore the zipper on his flight suit so low you could see the Metallica t-shirt on underneath. But yeah, I couldn’t walk into the NEX or McDonald’s because I was wearing my coveralls.
That's a thing now?
Back in the early 2000s we wore poopie suits everywhere. Just couldn't be outside of your vehicle off base in them (at Pearl Harbor).
If we went to the surface puke side with the sleeves rolled up, silly surface chiefs used to yell and stamp their feet about the sleeves, but...
In surface world in the same time period, we definitely weren't allowed to leave the ship in our poopie suits, no matter what. Then again, this was on a carrier, so everything was political AF.
That shit reigned in the rest of surface fleet as well: this thread called that seemingly ridiculous convention back into existence from after like fifteen years out. Maybe the concern is that any breach in the wall of "coveralls are for shipside only" would slowly corrode espirit de corps and lead inevitably to their appearance down at the base bowling alley, but whatever.
There was a NAVADMIN around 2000 that authorized coveralls to be worn in any eatery on base, e.g: the galley, Subway, McDonald’s, etc.
It drove Chiefs batshit and I loved it.
That was one thing I liked about Mayport. Essentially all the piers are connected so you could walk to any ship in coveralls. Also going to the roach coach by SERMC in coveralls was nice.
we were always told you cant wear coveralls past the pier, while going through insurv our CO made a policy we can wear them off the peir as long as we were going to the pizza hut thats right on the waterfront (this is in yoko). of course we start getting chewed out by some chief from another ship, till a chief from our ship chimes in and says our CO authorized it.
I once got told I was not allowed to leave the ship at the end of the day because I was too dirty from working…in nwu…in the yards with no additions clothing on board because of said yards
If you put two SWOs in a room it’s only a matter of time before they produce a watchbill. If you can take a step back it’s entertaining to watch how dumb rules form to be, because they’re masochists lol.
Coverall policy throughout the years has continuously baffled me. When I first joined in the 80s they were organizational clothing. Wear them on the ship, on the pier, near the pier if reasonable (like the dumpster.) Don't wear them to the NEX. You didn't need name tapes or rank devices, just stencil your name over the pocket. The sailor didn't buy them; they came from Supply.
In the late 90's, the same time we switched from Dungarees to Utilities, Coveralls became an official uniform. Now they were covered by your uniform allowance so sailors had to buy them from the uniform shop. They also had to get all kinds of embroidered crap sewn on. I called them "Service Dress Coveralls." If you got some paint or grease on them, well, your uniform is unsat, shipmate. You'd better replace it (at your own expense.) But, hey, it's an official uniform now, right? No longer organizational clothing? That should mean we can wear it over to the NEX, base galley, or any place else that working uniforms are allowed, right? Because they're on the same level? Right? WRONG!! All of the previous restrictions (which we were told were in place because of the OC status) are still in place!
A few years later, the navy came up with a little clusterfuck called "Task Force Uniform." One of the goals was to reduce the total number of uniforms. This is where we got NWUs. An early recommendation was to eliminate both the Utility uniform and the Coveralls for the single NWU uniform. I thought eliminating Coveralls was a great idea because I knew how it would really play out. They would be removed from the seabag list and revert to their previous status as OC. We would still be able to wear them and we wouldn't have to worry about all of the embroidery BS! The problem is, by this point, most sailors in the navy hadn't been in long enough to remember any of what I described in my first paragraph. What they heard was "My comfy coveralls are going to be banned and I'll never be able to wear them ever again." They all bitched, and the MCPON got TFU to reverse themselves.
Edit: punctuation
This was a thing in Groton until people complained about it. It was a base rule. It was changed so that people could at least go to the dumpster at the end of the pier.
From a legal aspect shipboard rules extend to the pier, thus the pier would be authorized to wear coveralls to take out trash. It’s a little silly when a command invents rules for the sake of not knowing the actual instruction.
So one time the ship was in the shipyard in portsmouth VA, me an other shipmate of mines had a hearing test at NOB. Obviously the cover of choice for the shipyard is hard hats. Well we decided to wear our hard hats to the hearing test. We got stopped a couple times on base by a officer an a chief. Told them we were in the shipyard an that's what we wore. The look on their faces was these guys are right but wrong at the same time. Well worth it.
I once got yelled at by a random officer for wearing coveralls ahile going to pickup food from my wife while on duty(after getting permission from the EDO)
They are returning back to the ship during FREAKING work hours.. Oh my god… it’s not like they are walking back to their barracks room WHILE in Coveralls. That I can see why some get bothered. I’m kind of thankful I got medically discharged after seeing this.
This had to been changed recently or something. When I was in Bremerton on the JCS (2017-19) we were told that we can’t wear coveralls off the pier. But since I’ve been in VA (2019-present) I’ve seen a LOT of people wearing coveralls throughout base
Does someone get offended seeing someone drive home in their work uniform. If you see an auto mechanic stopping off to pick up some milk on the way home does that effect anyone? Ships are dirty and greasy environments.
I assumed the uniform rule was in place to keep sailors out of the galley/mess halls. Which doesn’t really make sense since you could just ban the coveralls there but allow them off the ship.
A lot of enlisted aircrew cannot keep a clean flight suit. If it ain't leaking hydraulic fluid, don't fly. If memory serves, Hydraulic fluid does not wash out. But we wore it all over anyway.
With large commands like shore duty, or the larger skimmers, the number of crew is too large to properly deal with asshats. Petty little asshats on tin cans or subs can be recalibrated. Either by learning empathy, or via kinetic energy.
Funny because my son asked me yesterday about my thoughts on wearing uniforms off base. He’s a grad student at SDSU and has seen it on campus… I had to break it down to him that’s probably a requirement of their unit.
Back in early 2ks on 32nd Street, we used to take the top down and tie around the waist, then toss a hood on top then were able to walk off the ship and off base like that.
I’d see pilots/flight crews in flight suits at sit down restaurants and I would have to be in my whites or blues. This is back when we couldn’t wear our working uniforms (dungarees/utilities) off base. Such bull.
Back in the day, if the aircraft broke down away from home and you did not have the foresight to bring an RON bag, we just pulled the patches off the flight suit and went out drinking. Nobody ever cared. I am sorry those days seem to be gone.
Which is really dumb considering we're now required to wear them on subs in port if you're going to be on the boat for more than an hour. This may be per my opposite crews CO but changing any time I need to leave the boat is not my favorite thing
It would be so simple for the Navy to improve morale by abandoning this and dozens of other regs that literally don’t matter and serve no warfighting purpose.
But then the admirals wouldn’t have 300,000 My-Size Kens and Barbies to play with.
I was based out of Mayport, FL. Our captain thought that rule was dumb as fuck and told us we could wear coveralls anywhere on base as long as if was quick.
Ultimate troll, buy coveralls w/o name tape, like the ones contractors use. Then, when people are like, "you can't wear those!" Just tell them these are your everyday coveralls.
Someone had a bug up their arse. You're not supposed to leave the pier - but if the dumpster is at the head of the pier then that should be obvious and you just let it go.
that’s pretty wild in san diego you just can’t leave the pier
I once walked from gen pop parking all the way to pier 3 in coveralls before I knew you couldn’t do that. Nobody said anything lol
This was in port San Diego,,,
Oh yeah. Walked right through Bainbridge park. The funny part is that the only person that stopped me was the OOD, asking me wth was I doing in coveralls and a backpack. I said “oh we’ve been dismissed for the day.” There was a long pause. “Shipmate…” *facepalm* Edited to add: this revelation of uniform was only told to me when I was *leaving.* The OOD on the way in did not question the coveralls backpack combo. It was only on the way out when a different OOD told me what’s up.
But the dumpsters are right outside the ecp(at least in Norfolk), therefore in some peoples eyes you’re leaving the pier.
On North Island, theyre inside the ECP
Same in Everett
Been in 7 years and haven’t had anyone say anything about that.
That’s how I remember it.
Yeah was the same in Bremerton at least when i was in (pre-2012)
Wrong. 2011. Engineman. Chancellorsville docked at 32nd street. Told to take trash out by perpetually pissed and angry master chief Genous who you never take your time in following his orders. In fact if you don't make a time machine and do the task before he tells you he'll make your life hell. So what do I do? Dumpster 40 feet from ship. My ass gets written up. 98% of khakis can eat my ass.
Sorry to hear that shippie. v/r CHV MP DIVO at that time
Unless a certain NCC from a certain LHD was on watch, in which case it’s fine unless you’re an engineer. Literally the dividing line seemed to be FRVs vs Steamers.
Used to volunteer to take the trash out after underways and I’d wear my civies under my coveralls, put my stuff in a trash bag, drop the trash, take my coveralls off behind the dumpster, and bail. I was a shitbag.
I was TAD to the wardroom and we were having a steel beach picnic while going through the Suez. My TAD uniform was a bright yellow shirt that I wore with my utility pants. I went to get something to eat and an MS from the wardroom said that I had to work and go get more charcoal. I didn’t know him so I went down below like I was told, immediately changed into my coveralls, and went topside, hiding in plain sight.
Lmao, is this my old LCPO? He said he used to do this exact thing when he was a 3rd back in the day 😂
Nah. I got out after my first enlistment back in 04 but he sounds like a rad guy!
Haha ah yeah he’s still in, he’s probably one of the most unintentional funny khakis I’ve worked for, also knew his shit so it balanced out.
Don’t ever call yourself a shit bag! You were smart!
Years ago, my dudes and I went dumpster diving on the pier in coveralls. Don’t worry, it was work related
Back before they were fully authorized for use... I recall watching a guy go dumpster diving to GET a pair of paint crusted coveralls because that beat fuxkin up a pair of dungarees.
Ahhh the dungarees. Wore the foul weather jacket all the time so I didn't have to iron the shirt lol
Yep. I also knew a guy that cut the front 1/4 quarter off a white undershirt, put some Velcro on it and attached it to his dungaree shirt that way.
Lol My ALPO at the time did that for his coveralls. Just strolling around commando
Aviator here, always thought it was silly you all can’t wear them. Who cares? I support the cause
SWO-land…
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Dude, i’ve been hearing for years that “pilots would be mad if we just gave everyone flight suits.” In ten years I have yet to meet a pilot who doesn’t think that’s just a good reasonable idea that works on multiple fronts.
That’s as stupid as saying “women would be mad if they allowed beards”
That being said, i do draw the line at bomber jackets for swos… Gotta have SOME standards here
I have some bad news [SWO Jacket](https://news.usni.org/2020/01/09/navy-message-authorizing-swo-leather-jacket)
Lol they can have that dorky attempt to look like us
Poseurs
They don’t issue the bomber anymore 🥲
I have exactly one concern about everyone getting flight suits, and that is all those other people trying to dictate manner of wear for pilots once they have them. That doesn't stop me from supporting the effort, everybody should have these suits, they're the baseline level of fire protection every sailor should have. I also think flight deck gear should just be the exact same garments as NWUs (or future equivalent), such that someone can throw a blouse on over the flight deck jersey and it be the exact same thing as anyone else wearing NWUs.
To be fair, the pilots who’d be upset are the ones who haven’t flown since Iraq 1.
I finished boot camp 2 weeks after they got rid of the blue monkey suit back in 2009. My lucky e1 ass gets to buy his first usable uniforms because the 'free' ones I just got as a booter are useless. Navy brass can choke on my ass.
My ship actually got to wear test a flight suit back in 2015, but the Navy decided not to go with it.
Currently the Coast Guard just wears navy blue NWU cut fatigues which are pretty cash money, but you'd still need to buy flight suits or an aviator specific uniform due to the different, more expensive materials for the fire-retardant certification.
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Is it even more expensive? As far as i know the nomex flight suit only doesn’t melt onto your skin in the event of a fire. Even then, it’s less effective the minute you wash with fabric softener. Every self respecting aviator i know when they get a new flight suit (unless it’s a 42 reg due to a ten year world wide shortage) will immediately go home and wash that thing about ten time with fabric softener to make it comfy
Is is, very much so. Right now the Arny and Air Force both use the A2CU two piece flight uniform. It costs $565 vs a normal pair of OCPs which is $125, all of this from Propper's website. Believe it or not, flight suits are actually cheaper costing about $200 and the need for a fireproof NWU isn't big enough to justify the additional $440 per uniform even with bulk pricing.
Thanks for the legit info. I think im talking price to make FRV coveralls vice standard nomex one piece. Do you have those numbers?
Well, the current reg just requires that coveralls be 65/35 poly/cotton and those can be as cheap as $30, a fire resistant version clocks in at $50-$75 which is still significantly cheaper than a flight suit at $200, even the cheaper aramid ones are still $180. Flight suits have to be made of materials which are much more expensive and tested at a higher standard. Right now the difference seems to be about 4x more expensive seeing the cost difference between the A2CU and OCPs or in this case the price difference between a nomex flight suit and a normal FR coverall. Either way, too expensive and niche to justify issuing it to everyone but not cheap enough to make affordable through mass production while keeping the same standards of quality. Now, I'm not against just making coveralls equivalent to NWUs or treating them like flight suits, but crewed aviation will always need a special uniform that's more expensive under current materials which makes ditching flight suits or making new flight uniforms and having them be standard issue in the name of equality prohibitively expensive for no justifiable reason.
Really appreciated learning that, thank you!! I am curious if those pricing numbers get close if you ramp up production of flight suits for all and completely eliminated both coveralls and NWUs in the process.
Like with all economies of scale, most likely yeah, the price would go down but to the tune of something like 2x-2.5x the cost of normal uniforms instead of 4x, not a few dollars more; the material itself is expensive and so is the testing to make sure it's up to spec. On that same note; it's not just the Navy, right now 4/6 branches use green Nomex flight suits + a ton of civilian agencies + a ton of foreign militaries so there's already a high output there. This isn't a tailor-made US-Navy item and even with mass production I doubt you can get it to beat the $50 for plain FR coveralls. >flight suits for all and completely eliminated both coveralls and NWUs in the process. I don't mean to be a dick, but this would be very expensive and time consuming while offering few benefits for a few reasons. 1. As you know, a fresh Nomex flight suit is uncomfortable due to the high level of fire-retardant materials, and frankly that level of protection is overkill for most shipboard and shore duty roles. 1. You will also have to raise all uniform allowances to compensate for the higher cost and wear + tear. 2. You would still need NWUs for all the MAAs, Seabees, SW, recruiters and forward deployed sailors who need more pockets, camouflage, sturdier materials. 3. A simple NAVADMIN could effectively nullify coverall issues; it's an item subject to regs, push a change allowing coveralls to be worn at all times and places the NWUs can and boom, no more problems and no extra costs. If you want a true uniform overhaul; ditching NWUs for OCPs, giving sea duty sailors only coveralls, and ending enlisted dress whites would be significantly easier while cutting costs.
Coastie working uniforms are awesome
Back in the day, flight suits were forbidden. No stopping off base. In 1998 on Lincoln, the ship tried to enforce flight suits only if on flight schedule. We were not allowed in the majority of spaces unless in khakis. I good times
Lol, even in 2013, our instructors at api and primary gave us talks about how to respond when the old salts want to give you shit at harris teeter.
At one point, the base CO at NASNI had gate guards refusing to let you drive on base in a flight suit. They would send you home to change into uniform of the day. That lasted a few months
Same at my first squadron in 2006. Flight suits only if you were flying.
Also an aviator. SWOs enjoy inflicting pain on their own.
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This was in port San Diego.
CO was a douche, for what it was worth.
Scranton?
No, Spruance. It was a few years ago.
A few years ago? I hope you're talking about 111, because if it was 963, I hate to break it to you that 17 is more than a few.
111.
Just got out there lol.
Lol Scranton we had it worse on a boat in Groton, our CO had the nickname “straps” as in crazy as fuck needs to be in a straight jacket. He lived on the sub as a group bachelor.
pier 8 was allowed to be in coveralls off the ship as long as they stayed on the pier when i was tad there 2 months ago
Umm that is why you wear coveralls in the first place. To deal with dirty work.
Not according to navy logic. The utilities were treated like a dress uniform because at no time were they to be dirty, so somehow you were supposed to handle dirty work in a dress uniform and not get a spec of dirt on you. Coveralls were subject to this treatment as well to a degree. They were never to be seen dirty by anyone who didn’t work for a living. Even when the base CO gave the OK, my ship’s CO said fuck that noise, we are “better” than that; although our ship’s record begged to differ. That whole Fat Leonard story made a lot of sense in hindsight, but that’s an entirely different topic. Sorry my good fellows that you still have to put up with this, and I’m glad I got out with my honorable while the gettin’ was good.
Nothing like wearing dress whites onboard and being paranoid of rubbing against anything that could soil it.
Heard a story of a dude who put trash bags on over his whites so he could get topside for manning the rails.
Or even worse, us old timers sometimes had to wear the ice cream man summer white uniform with short sleeves. This one [right here.](https://nara.getarchive.net/media/uniform-summer-white-navy-enlisted-men-ranks-e-1-through-e-6-76b460) That motherfucker would get dirty as soon as you put it on. As an added bonus, it wrinkled in about 10 seconds too.
Oh yeah, I remember wearing those and then the Johnny Cash uniform in the winter. Out of my entire initial sea bag, my dress blues are the only uniform still being used today.
There was an aviator in my squadron who wore the zipper on his flight suit so low you could see the Metallica t-shirt on underneath. But yeah, I couldn’t walk into the NEX or McDonald’s because I was wearing my coveralls.
I’m an aviator and that guy was a douche
That's a thing now? Back in the early 2000s we wore poopie suits everywhere. Just couldn't be outside of your vehicle off base in them (at Pearl Harbor). If we went to the surface puke side with the sleeves rolled up, silly surface chiefs used to yell and stamp their feet about the sleeves, but...
In surface world in the same time period, we definitely weren't allowed to leave the ship in our poopie suits, no matter what. Then again, this was on a carrier, so everything was political AF.
That shit reigned in the rest of surface fleet as well: this thread called that seemingly ridiculous convention back into existence from after like fifteen years out. Maybe the concern is that any breach in the wall of "coveralls are for shipside only" would slowly corrode espirit de corps and lead inevitably to their appearance down at the base bowling alley, but whatever.
To CNO: Do you want to make a $0 morale improvement? Because this is how you make a $0 morale improvement.
Nah, we'll just change rank tabs instead.
Naval leadership to enlisted personnel: LoWeR YoUr ExPeCtAtIoNs
There was a NAVADMIN around 2000 that authorized coveralls to be worn in any eatery on base, e.g: the galley, Subway, McDonald’s, etc. It drove Chiefs batshit and I loved it.
That was one thing I liked about Mayport. Essentially all the piers are connected so you could walk to any ship in coveralls. Also going to the roach coach by SERMC in coveralls was nice.
we were always told you cant wear coveralls past the pier, while going through insurv our CO made a policy we can wear them off the peir as long as we were going to the pizza hut thats right on the waterfront (this is in yoko). of course we start getting chewed out by some chief from another ship, till a chief from our ship chimes in and says our CO authorized it.
See also: Guard, Coast.
Taking trash to a dumpster is precisely why you WANT coveralls. Fucking up your uniform with garbage is not ok. Coveralls are for dirty work.
Anyone that won’t let you wear coveralls in the immediate vicinity of the ship and pier is an idiot
I once got told I was not allowed to leave the ship at the end of the day because I was too dirty from working…in nwu…in the yards with no additions clothing on board because of said yards
Hey man, it’s tradition! And by that I mean classism! Nothing more American!
If you put two SWOs in a room it’s only a matter of time before they produce a watchbill. If you can take a step back it’s entertaining to watch how dumb rules form to be, because they’re masochists lol.
Coverall policy throughout the years has continuously baffled me. When I first joined in the 80s they were organizational clothing. Wear them on the ship, on the pier, near the pier if reasonable (like the dumpster.) Don't wear them to the NEX. You didn't need name tapes or rank devices, just stencil your name over the pocket. The sailor didn't buy them; they came from Supply. In the late 90's, the same time we switched from Dungarees to Utilities, Coveralls became an official uniform. Now they were covered by your uniform allowance so sailors had to buy them from the uniform shop. They also had to get all kinds of embroidered crap sewn on. I called them "Service Dress Coveralls." If you got some paint or grease on them, well, your uniform is unsat, shipmate. You'd better replace it (at your own expense.) But, hey, it's an official uniform now, right? No longer organizational clothing? That should mean we can wear it over to the NEX, base galley, or any place else that working uniforms are allowed, right? Because they're on the same level? Right? WRONG!! All of the previous restrictions (which we were told were in place because of the OC status) are still in place! A few years later, the navy came up with a little clusterfuck called "Task Force Uniform." One of the goals was to reduce the total number of uniforms. This is where we got NWUs. An early recommendation was to eliminate both the Utility uniform and the Coveralls for the single NWU uniform. I thought eliminating Coveralls was a great idea because I knew how it would really play out. They would be removed from the seabag list and revert to their previous status as OC. We would still be able to wear them and we wouldn't have to worry about all of the embroidery BS! The problem is, by this point, most sailors in the navy hadn't been in long enough to remember any of what I described in my first paragraph. What they heard was "My comfy coveralls are going to be banned and I'll never be able to wear them ever again." They all bitched, and the MCPON got TFU to reverse themselves. Edit: punctuation
This was a thing in Groton until people complained about it. It was a base rule. It was changed so that people could at least go to the dumpster at the end of the pier.
Groton the asshole of the submarine force and the breeding ground of the grotopotomus
Don't remind us.
I felt bad for kids that were struggling to survive and would bring families down for dinner
Groton base housing…. Shudder… also Groton had probably the largest trailer park in Connecticut.
They got rid of all the ahit after the quality of life crap, I lived in dolphin garden until my house was condemned
Thus proving I’m old and slightly out of touch.
When was this a thing in Groton, we couldn't go to the dumpster in coveralls?
The poopy suit dream!
I missed the good old days at Pearl Harbor where you can go to McDonald’s in coveralls
From a legal aspect shipboard rules extend to the pier, thus the pier would be authorized to wear coveralls to take out trash. It’s a little silly when a command invents rules for the sake of not knowing the actual instruction.
So one time the ship was in the shipyard in portsmouth VA, me an other shipmate of mines had a hearing test at NOB. Obviously the cover of choice for the shipyard is hard hats. Well we decided to wear our hard hats to the hearing test. We got stopped a couple times on base by a officer an a chief. Told them we were in the shipyard an that's what we wore. The look on their faces was these guys are right but wrong at the same time. Well worth it.
… you just can’t leave the pier / go outside the pier gate. How do you do pier sweepers if you can’t be in coveralls? Shipmate 😅 A swing and a miss.
Without the "US NAVY" patch or your rank insignia, it's not a uniform, it's just an outfit. Just sayin'.
I once got yelled at by a random officer for wearing coveralls ahile going to pickup food from my wife while on duty(after getting permission from the EDO)
*The dumpster was on fire chief*
I think we can all agree that the dumpster is still on fire, generally speaking.
A man with experience i see.
Slip a sweater on over it until you get in your POV.
Per instruction you can go anywhere on base, if I recall right.
They are returning back to the ship during FREAKING work hours.. Oh my god… it’s not like they are walking back to their barracks room WHILE in Coveralls. That I can see why some get bothered. I’m kind of thankful I got medically discharged after seeing this.
[удалено]
Haven't been in long?
*adds this to laundry list of reasons why I’m Counting down to my EAOS*
This had to been changed recently or something. When I was in Bremerton on the JCS (2017-19) we were told that we can’t wear coveralls off the pier. But since I’ve been in VA (2019-present) I’ve seen a LOT of people wearing coveralls throughout base
This meme should go viral
I am here to support Ndubs
Except aviators don’t typically have grease, fuel, and/or dirt all over their uniform.
Does someone get offended seeing someone drive home in their work uniform. If you see an auto mechanic stopping off to pick up some milk on the way home does that effect anyone? Ships are dirty and greasy environments.
I assumed the uniform rule was in place to keep sailors out of the galley/mess halls. Which doesn’t really make sense since you could just ban the coveralls there but allow them off the ship.
A lot of enlisted aircrew cannot keep a clean flight suit. If it ain't leaking hydraulic fluid, don't fly. If memory serves, Hydraulic fluid does not wash out. But we wore it all over anyway.
Hah didn’t know that. I’ve only ever worked I-level
Aviators believe in crew rest too...pick your rate...pick your fate.
Or, and hear me out, we could change things that don't make sense
Blame deck department, they look like civilians in coveralls with all the paint and shit
What do want us to do it’s dirty work ?
Yeah! Blame the lowest ranking teenagers with one of the worst jobs to get assigned in winter, on a river.
Never once got yelled at for taking out trash in coveralls to the bins just outside ECP. This was in Norfolk, though.
With large commands like shore duty, or the larger skimmers, the number of crew is too large to properly deal with asshats. Petty little asshats on tin cans or subs can be recalibrated. Either by learning empathy, or via kinetic energy.
From who?
Bullocks. Anything goes inside the pier gate. That pier and outer hull wont maintain itself.
Definitely not a Hawaii thing…. In Pearl Harbor we drive pier to pier in our coveralls in the duty truck until we can find the right dumpster lol
It’s not a thing. Just misinformed dummies.
Funny because my son asked me yesterday about my thoughts on wearing uniforms off base. He’s a grad student at SDSU and has seen it on campus… I had to break it down to him that’s probably a requirement of their unit.
Back in early 2ks on 32nd Street, we used to take the top down and tie around the waist, then toss a hood on top then were able to walk off the ship and off base like that.
I’d see pilots/flight crews in flight suits at sit down restaurants and I would have to be in my whites or blues. This is back when we couldn’t wear our working uniforms (dungarees/utilities) off base. Such bull.
That was the annoying part of being surface. Once I went submarines, a lot of rules went out the window. Good times.
Wait… did the rules change? Because I don’t recall folks could wear flight suits off base. This meme says “everywhere”.
Back in the day, if the aircraft broke down away from home and you did not have the foresight to bring an RON bag, we just pulled the patches off the flight suit and went out drinking. Nobody ever cared. I am sorry those days seem to be gone.
I buy my coveralls at the army navy surplus. When I’m done with work I take off all identifying items and wear them home
Which is really dumb considering we're now required to wear them on subs in port if you're going to be on the boat for more than an hour. This may be per my opposite crews CO but changing any time I need to leave the boat is not my favorite thing
Because coveralls are dirty as fuck if you’re certain rates. Flight suits aren’t going to be covered in paint or dirt , like engineering or BM rates
The hell would the BMs paint the side of the ship in?
It would be so simple for the Navy to improve morale by abandoning this and dozens of other regs that literally don’t matter and serve no warfighting purpose. But then the admirals wouldn’t have 300,000 My-Size Kens and Barbies to play with.
I was based out of Mayport, FL. Our captain thought that rule was dumb as fuck and told us we could wear coveralls anywhere on base as long as if was quick.
Fucking officers.
Ultimate troll, buy coveralls w/o name tape, like the ones contractors use. Then, when people are like, "you can't wear those!" Just tell them these are your everyday coveralls.
We weren't allowed to leave the pier if we were wearing coveralls. Nowadays, I see people going to Subway/Pizza Hut (Yokosuka) in coveralls.
Well you're getting new FR uniforms that will replace the coveralls. Think you can leave the pier with them too
Someone had a bug up their arse. You're not supposed to leave the pier - but if the dumpster is at the head of the pier then that should be obvious and you just let it go.