This morning I read an interesting post by a student at Command and General Staff College discussing the Army Combat Uniform’s (ACU’s) daily wear among Soldiers and Officers of the United States Army.  The post titled “ACU’s and Professional Attire” raises an issue that has long remained dormant is the Army Culture.
The author of the post,MAJ Derek Thomson, make a strong statement that in my opinion isn’t strong enough. He writes;
The Class B uniform should be the standard dress for any officer in a schoolhouse or garrison-based environment. By “garrison,†I do not mean field units who may be in garrison for the day or week, but rather units whose primary duty is in garrison (Pentagon, CGSC, War College, etc).
The Class B uniform is the shirt and tie uniform that is worn for more formal occasions. Typically, however, I see this version worn more on TV than I do anywhere else–which brings me to understand that TV show producers understand more what “professional” looks like than the Army itself.
I would extend this standard of wearing the Class-B unifrom to all officers not in the field or combat environment. Once upon a time, there was a concept known as “duty uniform”. This governed the wear of the proper uniform for the proper work to take place. For example, if you are going to work at the motor pool–wear the coveralls. If you are going to the range–wear the ACUs. If you are going to the office–wear the Class-B. It is quite simple really.
Officers have no business looking like a rag bag on any Army Post. I agree with MAJ Thompson’s assessment;
Generally speaking, when we are in ACUs among a group of civilians, the Army guy or gal is the worst-dressed person in the room…We are wearing the equivalent of hunting clothes, compared to the universally-accepted business attire.
I make a similar comparison when looking at the sister services in the US military. If you turn on the Pentagon Channel (or in my case AFN) and see the news spots from the individual services, the Army, by far, looks the worst. The Air Force, Marines, and the Navy are all in their version of the Class-B. The Army chooses to look disheveled in the ACU uniform.
I disagree with Sergeant Major of the Army (SMA) Preston’s point that “we wear ACUs because we are a nation at war”, simply because I know better. Being around the Army since the early 90s, I understand that prior to 9-11, the push was to “train as we fight.” That is why we started wearing the Battle Dress Uniform (BDU) on a regular basis–not because we were “an Army at war.” After being down range twice, I have come to see that the “train as you fight” concept is flawed because there will always be an element of “garrison” living. Soldiers know how to live in the field and we should continue to train the field environment. However, the new fight is from a garrison type environment pushing out to the fight and then returning. The Army is lacking in its training of “the garrison environment.” Anybody can learn to live in “the suck”, but it takes discipline to live in garrison–discipline that needs to be trained and emphasized.
While many may brush MAJ Thompson’s article and discussion aside, I appreciate his desire to bring this to our attention.
Chaplain Andrews says
I couldn’t agree more with the institutional inertia, one officer told me yesterday: “I didn’t join the Army to wear a suit…” I think, however, that the type of uniform that is worn has a big impact on the respect we receive from others, the professionalism that we portray, and the confidence that we have. It is interesting that the administrations of many public schools are considering uniforms for this very reason.
MAJ Derek K. Thomson says
Chaplain – Thanks for reading my article and the comments/feedback you’ve made. As you can tell from some of the other comments on the CGSC site, there’s a lot of institutional inertia against this! You’ve given me encouragement, though, that others are out there who share my opinions. Thanks for doing the Lord’s work out there, and best of luck on the rest of your tour.
Monica says
Great post Keith!!!