Universal military uniforms for each branch
Making a consistency move into the 21st century
Why does the U.S. military have so many different uniforms?
It's understandable that each branch would have its own dress outfit. And it makes sense to tailor battlefield clothing to the fighting environment-brown for desert, green for woodlands, white for mountain climes. But over the past 70 years, the Pentagon has built up quite the sartorial stockpile, with various uniforms for base and battlefield, ships and planes, working and working out, and pretty much everywhere in between.
Now this sprawling empire of martial clothing is getting taken in a bit.
The Air Force decided a few months ago to adopt the new combat uniform of the Army, accelerating a broader effort to slim down the wardrobe of military personnel and better unify forces that increasingly operate together. The price tag? The Air Force said it will spend $237 million on the transformation, scheduled to be complete by April 2021.
The design, replacing an 11-year-old camouflage uniform, is borrowed from the Army's Operational Camouflage Pattern, or OCP, a jumble of brown, green and beige introduced by that branch three years ago. (The Army hasn't finished getting it to everyone, including reserves and national guard members.)
The goal is for the U.S. armed forces to look more unified. The military often combines personnel from its various branches in operations, making similar uniforms practical. They can also foster camaraderie between services, officials said – a sore point with some traditionalists, though, given that distinct uniforms were intended to instill pride in one's particular branch.
The Pentagon is more interested in practicality than pride these days. Air Force Major General Robert Labrutta, who is leading the transition effort, noted that in the various theaters where the Air Force is active, “We're not only in the air, we are on the ground in combat situations on a day-to-day basis.”
Having grown out of the Army after World War II, the Air Force has often borrowed Army innovations, including uniform design. Following the Vietnam War, the military moved to make camouflage uniforms standard on and off the battlefield. That's when technology was brought to bear in an effort to perfect designs using multiple colors-and later, mottled ones-to hide soldiers from the enemy.
But different services meant different uniforms for airmen, soldiers, sailors and Marines. Army Command Sgt. Major John Wayne Troxell, senior enlisted adviser to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was cool at first to the idea of uniform unification. While he conceded that in some theaters of operation, such as Afghanistan and Iraq, it makes sense for members of all branches to wear the same kind of uniform, he told the Air Force Times in 2015 that “distinct uniforms also affect a service's culture.”
Switching to a joint pattern Marine, Army and Air Force uniforms seen on military leaders in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 12, 2017. At center, Gen. Robert Neller, commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, adjusts the uniform of Gen. Mark Milley, chief of staff with the U.S. Army.
would “lose that kind of identity that brings espirit de corps,” Troxell told the newspaper. “We got to make sure, first and foremost, that the men and women are proud to be what they are.”
Three years later, Troxell has modulated his views, telling Bloomberg that while service personnel should be proud of their individual branch, the growing emphasis on joint operations-and making sure enlisted personnel can operate in different environments-has become a critical focus of the military.
“If you look at the operational environment, so many violent extremists like ISIS are a global threat. Russia is not just in Europe and Asia. China is not just in Asia. Warfare is going to be multi-domain and multi-function,” Troxell said. “We need to
have men and women that can cross service boundaries.”
Toward this end, in 2015 the Army began phasing out an earlier camouflage pattern in favor of the OCP. Not to be outdone, the Navy last year decided to streamline its uniforms, issuing a new pattern similar to OCPS in place of its blue camouflage. The new green, tan and blackpatterned uniform will answer sailors’ petitions for something more comfortable, lightweight and breathable. Such complaints, along with almost two decades of fighting, during which new designs and innovations were battle-tested, played a role in this military-wide aesthetic shift.
Military uniforms have come a long way since America’s infancy. For a century or more after
the Revolutionary War, uniforms reflected civilian wear, said Michael Mcafee, curator of history at the West Point Museum. Typical regimental coats “were basically just a distinctly trimmed version of what a civilian might wear.”
As with 19th century street fashion, barracks-wear changed with the times. In the 1820s, uniforms became highly decorative but by the next decade, adornments were discarded in favor of a more conservative look-though high collars and tall caps survived. By the time of the Civil War, the U.S. Army was wearing sack coat-inspired blue uniforms with a looser fit, critically adaptive for wide-ranging battles against secessionists across the South.