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The blue 'Army Service Uniform' will be the "newest" service uniform to be adopted Army-wide after Fall of 2011, replacing two uniforms already in use – the "Army Green" uniform and the "Army White" uniform. The "new" uniform was announced in 2006 by then Army Chief of Staff General Peter Schoomaker, and will serve as the U.S. Army's dress, garrison, and ceremonial uniform. Once the new Army uniform is phased in, the only green uniform remaining in the U.S. Armed Forces will be the "Marine Green" uniform (a slightly darker shade of olive drab) worn for service/garrison duty by members of the U.S. Marine Corps, along with U.S. Navy personnel (hospital corpsmen, doctors, nurses, and chaplains) attached to the Fleet Marine Force.
The new Army service dress made its "debut" at the 2007 State of the Union Address when General Schoomaker wore his Army Blue "B" uniform at the otherwise non-ceremonial event (his fellow members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff wore their "Class A" service/garrison uniforms).

Contents

Description of New Uniform

NCOs & Enlisted Personnel

Commissioned & Warrant Officers

General Officers

Female Personnel

See Also

Notes

External links

Description of New Uniform

As of 2006, it is expected that the new uniform will use the current "Army Blue" uniform as a model. Accordingly in terms of color the uniform will resemble the campaign uniforms worn by Army personnel during the American Civil War, Indian Wars, and the Spanish-American War prior to the introduction of khaki uniforms in the 1890's (phased out in 1985) and olive drab (OD) uniforms in 1902 (phased out and replaced with "Army Green" in 1955-57), making the blue uniform a dress uniform. Dress uniforms of dark blue tunics and light blue trousers were worn by all ranks until 1917 and reintroduced in a modernized form (with open collar and tie) for officers and warrant officers in 1937.
In order to distinguish enlisted personnel and NCOs from officers, the new service uniform will require some adaptations to reflect their status.

NCOs & Enlisted Personnel

The new "Army Service Uniform" for NCOs and Enlisted personnel will most likely consist of the current regulation "Army Blue" coat, which is a four-button open-front coat similar in cut to the current "Army Green" uniform, but the sleeve cuffs and shoulder epaulets ("loops") are trimmed with ⅛-inch golden piping. A white dress shirt and black necktie is worn with the uniform coat.
The trousers are a lighter blue than the coat. Officers and NCOs (sergeants of all ranks and corporals) will continue to wear a gold 1½-inch stripe down each leg; trousers of privates and specialists, however, will now be stripeless. While this corresponds to the U.S. Marine Corps wear of scarlet trouser stripes by officers and NCOs, it actually revives earlier Army practice. Army officers and NCOs wore trouser stripes beginning in 1832, in branch colors after 1851. Gold replaced branch colors by 1953, and male junior enlisted Army blue uniforms gained stripes after 1955.
The black beret and ribbon bars will most likely be worn for most garrison situations, with the enlisted "Army Blue" service cap will be authorized for wear by NCOs. The blue cap has a black leather visor and chinstrap. The mohair hatband has a ½-inch gold stripe o the top edge. The cap badge is the U.S. Army seal (the Seal of the United States) on a round metal disk. Full-sized medals and a belt may be optional or prescribable in certain circumstances, a black bowtie and miniature medals for evening wear. Rank chevrons will be worn on both sleeves, as well as diagonal service stripes indicating 3 years of service at the bottom of each sleeve.

Commissioned & Warrant Officers

Commissioned & Warrant Officers will wear the same coat as the NCO/Enlisted, with the following differences. The sleeve piping is replaced by a ¾-inch gold braid on each sleeve, with a ¼-inch stripe of the officer's branch color in the middle. The branch colors include red for artillery, light blue for infantry, yellow for cavalry, etc. These color distinctions date back to the nineteenth century and appeared as trouser stripes, tunic piping, hat bands, cords and tassels in the blue dress uniforms worn until 1917.
In place of the shoulder epaulets (or "loops"), officers will wear their rank on short rectangular shoulder straps with a gold border and branch-colored background. Like the branch colors these shoulder straps are an historic feature of the U.S. Army's blue uniforms, dating back to before the Civil War. The trousers are identical to those of the NCO uniform, with 1½-inch trouser stripes.
For garrison wear, it is anticipated that the beret and ribbons will be worn, with the officer's version of the peaked or service cap, large medals, and saber belt optional or prescribable in certain circumstances.
The officer's service cap, while similiar in appearance to the enlisted service cap, differs in certain respects. The cap badge is the Seal of the United States, but larger than the enlisted version and without a round metal backing. The chinstrap is gold instead of black leather. The 1¾-inch hatband is grosgrain instead of mohair, with a ½-inch gold stripe at the top and bottom edge, and branch color (or colors) between. Field-grade officers (majors to colonels) wear two arcs of golden oak leaves on the visor. For evening wear, a black bowtie may be worn with the coat or mess jacket.

General Officers

General Officer uniforms will be identical in appearance to the Commissioned/Warrant Officer uniforms, except for the following changes:

★ The sky blue trousers will be replaced with trousers in the same color as the coat and bearing two 1-inch gold stripes down each leg.

★ The sleeve cuffs will have a 1½-inch gold braid in place of the two-colored branch-of-service stripes worn by other commissioned officers. This reflects the fact that most General Officers do not belong to a particular branch. For this same reason, most general officers do not wear branch insignia on their lapels. They may, however, wear branch insignia at their option. If they choose this option, general officers wear the branch insignia for the position to which they are appointed, or for their duty assignment.^[1] Typically, for example, the Judge Advocate General, the Surgeon General, the Chief of Engineers, and all Chaplains wear their lapel insignia of branch.

★ The visored service cap worn for formal occasions will have a hatband of oak leaves on blue-black velvet in place of the grosgrain hatband of other officers.

★ The shoulder strap background for general officers is blue-black velvet.^[2]

Female Personnel

'Female personnel', from Private up to General Officers, will have female versions of their respective uniforms. Currently, the female "Army Blue" uniforms are worn with a skirt, unlike their female Marine counterparts who have access to slacks for formation wear. The new Army Service Uniform will have either a dark blue skirt or sky blue slacks available for female personnel to wear, depending upon the situation of the nature that requires either item to be worn.

See Also

Army Combat Uniform

Notes

1. Army Regulation 670-1 (February 3, 2005), paragraph 28-9a(2).
2. Army Regulation 670-1 (February 3, 2005), paragraph 28-8b(2).

External links

★ Army page

★ Public Affairs announcement

★ Army Clothing History articles from the Quartermaster Foundation