Cammie confusion: Fix odd wear rules for new NWUs - Navy Community - discussions, photos, video - Navy Times

Cammie confusion: Fix odd wear rules for new NWUs

Common sense would tell you that the new digital woodland Navy working uniform should replace the legacy woodland combat utility uniform, while the desert NWU should replace the desert combat uniform.

But common sense is, as the old saw goes, not so common.

While it’s true that 71,000 sailors will get new woodlands to replace their old ones starting this month, the new desert uniform will be issued only to SEALs and sailors in SEAL-support roles.

Other expeditionary sailors — Seabees, explosive ordnance disposal technicians and just about everyone else under Navy Expeditionary Combat Command — will be getting the new woodland uniform — even if they’re serving in the desert.

Say what?

The Navy says commands can request a waiver to wear the desert cammies, but must first prove they need the tactical advantage the desert uniforms provide. So if you work inside the wire, you’re likely stuck with the woodlands.

The hang-up, the Navy says, is that the new desert cammies contain “special features” that are classified and give them a tactical advantage — and which must be kept from falling into enemy hands.

The explanation doesn’t pass the sniff test. Doesn’t granting waivers widen the distribution of the uniform, and therefore risk more uniforms making their way to the enemy? Doesn’t giving SEALs a SEAL-only uniform identify them as such to the enemy? Can’t the Navy manufacture an unclassified version of the desert cammies for sailors in desert locales? And what happens when SEALs have to operate in a forest? Do they wear desert tan or give up the classified uniform for the unclassified woodland outfit?

The real point is this: The Navy doesn’t think you need to wear camouflage that blends into your surroundings unless you operate outside the wire, so wearing woodlands on a desert base is perfectly appropriate. Using that same logic, why are those sailors wearing camouflage in the first place?

The Navy already has one camouflage uniform, the blue-and-gray NWU, that isn’t camouflage at all. The pattern is designed to hide stains, rather than sailors. Now, evidently, sailors can have two camouflage uniforms that are camouflage for no apparent reason.

This isn’t just silly. It’s dumb.

Either give sailors camouflage appropriate to the environment in which they operate, or ditch the camouflage uniforms for everyone but those who do, in fact, need them outside the wire.