Uniforms. Those things people put on every day to go to work. So precise, so military, often so handsome, and so very expensive.
When the Navy introduced their Navy Working Uniforms, also known as Blueberries, also known as Aquaflage, I hated them. My husband joked that these new uniforms would force him to retire. General consensus was that the uniforms were awful. And then, people got used to them. They do have many benefits, such as not needing to be ironed, and the ability to make everyone look like a weeble-wobble, not just the people who are naturally shaped that way.
As my husband got dressed yesterday, I mentioned that I had grown accustomed to the NWU. My husband replied, "They are thinking about changing it again." Ah, what? In the last three years, our family has spent about close to $1000 replacing my husband's old uniforms with the new NWU. These things are super-expensive. Heck, the parka alone is almost $200. And someone wants to replace them? What are they thinking?
Well, I know what they are thinking. They are highly flammable, they are super-expensive, they fade, and they generally haven't been as awesome as expected. I understand that is a problem, but it should have been figured out long before the Navy forced every sailor to shell out big bucks for these uniforms.
Please don't think I'm picking on the Navy. All the military services have been on a carousel of uniform changes that have cost military families a LOT of money, and most of the services have admitted to being in the process of reconsidering their current choices. For goodness sake, Big Navy, Big Army, Big Marine Corps and Big Air Force: STOP the madness. Pick a good uniform, quite possibly one you've already used, and stick with it.
