It has been a few weeks since I have written anything, mainly because I’ve been on PCS leave and haven’t had much Navy interaction in the last few weeks. Well now I do have something to write about and I am pissed about the latest change in the Navy.
Command ballcaps have been around for the last four decades and now with the NWU replacing the utilities, there really is no need to have them anymore.
From the Navy Times:
In early December, when the Navy released its rules for wear of the new Navy Working Uniform, it barred ball caps from being worn with the blue-and-gray camouflage ensemble. Instead, sailors must wear the Marine-style eight-point cover.
Since the NWU mainly replaces two uniforms — utilities for sailors and wash khakis for chiefs and officers — that featured the ball cap, the new rules severely limit the circumstances in which a sailor can wear his ball cap with an official uniform.
The last official uniform that can be worn with a ball cap, the coveralls, is still authorized for shipboard use if the commander decides to use those in place of the NWUs. The new rules effectively limit the wearing of a ball cap to inside the skin of some ships. That’s a far cry from today, in which ball caps are as common on the waterfront as boots and rank insignia.
Commanding officers can still allow the wearing of the caps with the NWU — but only while onboard the ship. If you step off the ship wearing the ball cap, you are out of uniform.
It’s sad to see another uniform item that has been a distinctive part of the Navy go away with the changing of uniforms. And again, another reason why I voice my outrage with the NWU and what it is doing to our Navy. I was really pissed off at the SK2 who commented with:
“It’s a good thing that the Navy is finally fading out the command ball cap,” said Storekeeper 2nd Class (SW) Tom Murphy, with Navy Provisional Detainee Battalion 5 at Camp Bucca, Iraq.
“I don’t need to be an advertising billboard for whatever command I am assigned with and think about how much money the Navy spends on individual command ball caps.”
He said, for example, a carrier has 2,500 sailors in its ship’s company. At $8 per hat, the command is spending $20,000. “Then add up how many sailors are checking in every month to new commands that need a new command cover. It is a tremendous waste of money; keep command pride in our spirits NOT on our covers.”
The last time I checked, it was not up to the SKs to decide what command items are purchased and sold. In fact, I believe that is an SH job, and with the money that is made selling the ball caps, it is put back into the ship for MWR purposes to help build crew morale, in theory. The only thing the SKs do is making sure that the stuff is purchased, which is why I can see that he is glad, one less thing he has to do an open purchase for. Way to prove how lazy the SK rate is bro, but I digress.
At least command patches are approved with the NWU so that something can be used to identify which command a sailor is at, but nothing could ever replace what the command ballcap represented. As miserable as I was on my last ship, I was proud to walk around base wearing my command ballcap showing everyone that I was on the toughest FDNF ship on the waterfront.