Dress Blues vs Cracker Jacks

Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniforms_of_the_United_States_Navy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBYWClzuPTk

Prior to 1970, all Junior Enlisted Naval personnel (E-6 and below) wore Dress Blues or Undress Blues from mid Fall to Mid Spring.

DRESS BLUES

The original Jr Enlisted uniform was made of a Melton wool material and was Navy Blue in color.
It consisted of a pullover blouse with a back neck flap and straight legged trousers with a 13 button broad fall. There were laces in the back of the trousers for custom fitting.
To fully clean required dry cleaning, but the uniform did not hold or show dirt. It was easily hand washed in a bucket of cold water and could be ironed with a steaming cloth.
The uniform wore well and was comfortable.
When folded and stored correctly, it always looked smart.

Up until the '70s, Dress Blues was the only authorized liberty uniform for Jr Enlisted. Civilian cloths were not allowed aboard ships Most sailors at the time, belonged to a civilian locker club ashore where they could store their uniforms and change to civilian clothes. (My locker club was in the Armed Forces YMCA on lower Broadway in San Diego, which also had full shower facilities and other amenities.)

Undress Blues:

Similar to Dress Blues, but with a lighter weight blouse without white piping on the collar or cuffs. Undress Blues was reserved as a casual or watch standing uniform. Normally worn without neckerchief. (Unless one was actually on watch.)

After 1600 on Weekdays and Saturday and all day on Sunday, no one was allowed topside or in the crews mess unless they were wearing the uniform of the day, which was either dress or undress blues.

Working uniforms were never allowed off the ship, except for a specific short tasks. Ball caps and foul weather jackets were worn only when underway and were never permitted when in port or ashore.

Then came the change;

"In 1973 the most sweeping change in the history of enlisted dress occurred. Based on a survey conducted in 1970¹ it appeared that there was some fleet desire, principally among the more senior petty officers, for a different, more distinguished garb. Based on these findings, the sailor was removed from his traditional uniform and placed in a suit and tie which corresponded to the officer/CPO uniform. The intention was to create a single uniform appearance and present enlisted men in a uniform which was thought to reflect the increasing complexity of the modern Navy."²

"This meant that all sailors wore a black double breasted coat and tie dress uniform with combination cap. The undress uniform became a black long sleeve shirt and tie. During the summer it became "Salt and Pepper" - Black slacks with the tropical white shirt."

The working uniform was either traditional dungarees or Utilities. Utilities was synthetic trousers and a pull over blouse. (few people wore utilities)

"The break with tradition, when coupled with unforeseen inconveniences of the suit and tie uniform, were unacceptable. Therefore, in 1980, the Navy again began to issue a jumper style uniform as a dress uniform to recruits."

After 1980 the Navy switched back to a jumper style uniform which were nicknamed "Crackerjacks."

CRACKER JACKS

Younger sailors rejoiced that we were "going back to Crackerjacks." Older sailors (like me) were annoyed because we never wore "Crackerjacks." We wore "Dress Blues."

The modern jumper uniform is made of a serge wool material and is black in color.
The serge wool does not shed water or wind and does not breath as well as Melton Wool.
The serge wool is hotter in warm weather, cooler in cold weather. It wrinkled easily and is dry clean only.

The modern Crackerjack uniform and is nothing like and, in my opinion, no where as good as our old Dress Blues.

A hold over from the suit and tie era was the long sleeve black shirt with tie. Often called the "Nazi uniform" by many sailors, this was mostly worn on shore duty in place of the old undress blues.

^{The new NWU (Navy

Working Uniform)

So, what does this Ol' Salt think of the new Navy
Camo replacing the dungaree and wash khaki
uniform? Well, it is logical and makes sense to
me.

Many CPOs don't like it because it makes them look similar
to the Jr enlisted and believe it will lead to a break down
in authority, but they forget that until the end of the
Korean War, the CPO working uniform was dungarees,
just like Jr enlisted.

All other branches of the Armed Forces wear some form of
BDUs and there has been no break down of authority.
Only the Surface Navy, especially the CPOs are resisting.}^{I have also read of "Ol' Timers" complaining of the new
undress uniform. In my opinion The khaki shirt is
better than the 'Nazi" all black uniform that I had to wear.

This ol' sailor also believes that economics will eventually
force a unification of the Armed Services (like Canada,)
which, in my option, is not a bad thing and using BDUs as a
working uniform just makes makes sense to me.}

^Footnotes¹ I have never been able to find anyone who took part in or even heard of this "survey."

² The uniform change also included a jumper style working uniform which no one liked. In 1980 the Jr Enlisted working uniform also was changed back to a chambray shirt and dungarees.