It's about time the naval clothing authorities make a recommendation to the CMS to adopt coveralls as the standard shipboard dress for all ranks. It seems to work for the Aussies, our heldets, the firefighters and the occasional seagoing Physician Assistant who has some difficulty following dress instructions, so why not the rest of the Fleet...
The old arguments in regards to dirty, basement dwellers needing to "clean into night clothing" while dragging around a jacket which constitutes a second layer of clothing just don't cut it in today's reality of real world deployments with real world emergencies, read fires.
Don't get me started with requirement to carry "war bags", that is quite possibly the stupidest thing that I've even seen! For those of you not in the know, the Navy uses an old mess tin pouch to carry anti flash gear / shell dressing / triangular bandage strung on a belt along with an inflatable life vest and a C3 mask for PPE during action stations.
Why not store the anti flash gear / FA supplies in the large pockets on the legs of a the new coveralls? Makes sense to me but, when I was in position to say my piece, while wearing coveralls, the adults of the time thought I was a heretic. Then again, one of those adults thought that steel toed sandals for shipboard wear in the tropics would be popular with the troops while meeting all OSHA regulations
I'm also sure that something could be done about carrying the C3 mask, is there a need while inside a pressurized citadel on a highly mobile platform? What's gonna slime you?
Same can be said for the life vest, I'd probably have to get to the uppers in order to use it, so why not keep them there?
Ain't in fun to work in a risk averse organization.
