The Navy on Friday changed course to announce that sailors wearing the new Navy working uniform — the gray, blue and black camouflage — can make routine stops between base and home.
Sailors had complained that the original rules too strictly governed where sailors ashore could go in the uniform, which is still being introduced worldwide.
Now, personnel may stop at day care, dry cleaners, gas stations or convenience stores, among other similar errands. Longer stops remain off limits, and a Navy personnel message specifically prohibits cruising a shopping mall or “entertainment complex”.
The Navy’s Master Chief Petty Officer Rick D. West wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday: “This is a big win for our Sailors and for our Navy. The American public is going to be introduced to this new uniform and our men and women have been eager to get out there and show it off.”
Across military blogs, participants have blasted the uniforms for too closely resembling the combat uniforms of the Army and Marines that have become ubiquitous military symbols in media coverage of the land wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Others questioned the purpose of wearing a woodland camouflage pattern while aboard a ship.
