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Biggest clothing allowance ever

Starting Nov. 30, some sailors’ paychecks became fatter than normal. But don’t go spending that extra cash on beer — you’ll need the money when it comes time to buy your new uniforms.

The Navy is months away from rolling out the largest collective uniform overhaul in its history as the service keelhauls dungarees and working khakis in favor of a single battle dress uniform-style Navy Working Uniform for all.

As that happens, first class petty officers and below will have to buy the new khaki shirts and black pants that make up the new service uniform. That means no more summer whites and winter blues.

But wait, there’s more. In a third major rollout, sailors also will be required to buy the Navy’s new physical training uniform.

So stow that extra cash if you don’t want to pay for your uniforms out of pocket.

“This year, it’s approximately a $300 increase on average,” said Robert Carroll, head of the Navy Uniform Matters Office in Arlington, Va. “This is being provided so they can begin to meet the requirements of the new uniform items they’ll be required to have at the end of the two-year phase-in period.”

There’s no set date for when the phase-in will begin, though Carroll said the clock will start ticking for everyone once the first Navy exchange starts selling the new items.

They’re expected to appear in the next six months in major fleet concentration areas and gradually work their way out to the smaller Navy bases in what officials are calling “waves.”

Reservists will be issued the new uniforms by their individual operational support centers. If they want, they can buy the uniforms out of pocket beforehand, but the Navy will not reimburse them if they do.

Officials are saying the working and service uniforms should start hitting the shelves next summer — but even that could change if the contracting and manufacturing process gets off track.

It’s a similar situation for the PT uniforms, which will be phased in over a seven-month period that officials expect to begin this spring.

This means, for some, the annual lump-sum uniform allowance will hit their bank accounts long before the uniforms are on the racks.

That’s because each year, clothing replacement allowances are paid at the end of a sailor’s anniversary month of entering active duty.

“Sailors who receive this allowance prior to the availability of the uniforms in the exchange need to look at this as an advance towards the purchase of those new items they’ll be required to have down the line,” Carroll said. “This isn’t a gift to get them caught up on their car payments, and they need to plan accordingly.”

Clothing replacement allowances apply only to active-duty sailors. Officers pay for their uniforms out of pocket.

Changes to all three tiers

All sailors receive separate kinds of clothing allowances based on where they are in their careers: initial, basic and standard.

Initial allowance pays for all the uniforms issued at boot camp and is the only replacement allowance sailors get in their first six months of active duty.

After six months, sailors become eligible for the basic allowance, which they receive annually for three years.

After three years, sailors are eligible for the standard allowance, which is used to gradually replace uniforms for the remainder of their enlisted careers.

The changes this year:

* Basic allowance. Male sailors E-6 and below will get $464.40 this year, an increase of $190.80 over last fiscal year. Women will get $475.20, a jump of $194.40.

* Standard allowance. Men E-6 and below will get $662.40 this year, an increase of $270. Women will get $680.40, $277.20 more than last year.

* Standard for chiefs. The allowance for male chief petty officers will be $871.20, a jump of $226.80. Female CPOs will get $939.60, $269.92 more than last year.

The increases are to be put toward the new items, Carroll said, while the remaining dollars are to replace other seabag items as they wear out.

“We are basically providing one half of the required dollars needed to purchase one half of the items those individuals will be expected to have at the end of the 24-month phase-in period,” Carroll said. “They’ll get the other half in fiscal year 2009.”

After that, clothing allowances will be adjusted again to allow for the periodic replacement of seabag items, based on the total cost at the time.

Because the federal government operated under a continuing budget resolution for October, sailors who received their allowances in October were paid at the fiscal 2007 levels. Navy officials said in a Nov. 21 Naval Administrative message that those sailors will get an additional payment to make up the difference between the old and new allowances “shortly after the calendar year begins.”

During the phase-in, Carroll said, sailors will be required to maintain five sets of working uniforms. Until the two-year period is done, those can be a combination of the Navy Working Uniform and dungarees. If sailors so desire, they can buy it all at the beginning, but Carroll reminds them they’ll not get the rest of the money from the Navy until their anniversary date in fiscal 2009.

The money in this year’s allowance will be enough to cover two sets of PT shirts and shorts as well as half of the required items for the NWU — one cover, two each of the trousers and shirts, three pairs of socks and one set of blousing straps.

But sailors will have decisions to make when it comes to items such as the boots, the Gore-Tex parka and the liner.

“Obviously, you can’t buy just one boot or half of a parka or liner,” Carroll said. “So sailors will have to decide on their own when to purchase those because they’ll get half the required amount each year.”

First classes and below will get money to purchase one of the two required sets of the new service uniform — one shirt, one pair of pants and one of the new garrison caps.

Carroll said the new — and now required — garrison cap is identical to the optional item already available.

“It looks the same, but the new one is not only made better, it’s going to be cheaper now because as a required uniform item, it will be purchased by the government in bulk,” Carroll said. “Since they’re getting paid for it, they might want to purchase the new one anyway.”

Keeping the changes simple

Carroll said the new uniforms will be fairly straightforward and easy to learn, but he expects a wide variety of educational materials to come out before next summer to help with the transition.

These could include online training modules and possible general military training topics. He also expects the Navy exchange to offer training and educational materials.

“If anything, the hardest thing about the transition will be learning the sizing differences, transitioning from standard numbered sizing in the NWU to small, medium, large and extra large sizes with short, medium and long lengths,” he said. “That will take some learning from those who’ve never worn a BDU-style uniform.”

But in the end, he said, it will be up to the deck-plate leaders who must manage the huge seabag transition on a unit level.

“There’s a lot of anticipation out there about the uniform rollout,” Carroll said. “But the success of the transition will happen on an individual command level.”

“It will be easiest for those in major fleet concentration areas,” Carroll said. “For those in smaller areas who won’t get the uniforms until waves six or seven, it’s a different story.”

Periodic seabag inspections are one way deck-plate leaders can monitor their sailors’ progress

But even then, leaders must monitor the local exchanges to know what expectations to have for their sailors during the transition.

“Because availability will vary from time to time and location to location, we can’t put intermediate requirements on commanders as to when their sailors must have these items,” he said. “We are only concerned that everyone have a complete new seabag once the 24-month deadline passes.”

Coveralls — once put on the endangered species list — are here to stay.

Under the original plan, the blue uniforms were to be replaced by the new Navy Working Uniform, a camouflage outfit that was supposed to spell the end of coveralls, dungarees, working khakis and blues, aviation working greens, and tropical utilities and khakis.

But officials are heeding a 2004 survey conducted by Task Force Uniform. Although 60 percent of respondents said that — of all the uniforms in the Defense Department — they wanted something similar to the battle dress uniform, 15 percent said their favorite uniform was the coveralls.

When asked which was their favorite Navy uniform, 67 percent listed coveralls. And now the uniform has been saved from the scrapheap.

“Sailors like that uniform,” said Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (SW/FMF) Joe Campa in a July 13 Navy Times interview.

So even after the NWUs start hitting the shelves next summer, you can expect to see plenty of sailors still wearing their coveralls. However, officials say, since the NWU will be the Navy’s primary working uniform, the list of authorized places where coveralls can be worn is expected to change.