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Strict NWU wear rules confound sailors

Sailors are lashing out at Navy leadership over the service’s restrictive new wear policy for the Navy Working Uniform, the blue-and-gray camouflage that will begin hitting Navy exchanges later this month.

Under the new rules, sailors and officers driving to and from work will not be allowed to get out of their cars wearing the uniform except for a road or medical emergency. Sailors cannot wear the new uniform during any other stops, such as pumping gas, picking up items at a convenience store or dropping off children at day care.

That represents a significant tightening of the regs beyond the current rules for the uniforms being replaced — utilities for sailors and wash khakis for chiefs and officers. Those kinds of “brief stops” are allowed under the current regs.

Discuss: What do you think of the wear rules?

Navy Times received more than 150 e-mails from enlisted sailors and officers complaining about the new policy after posting details online. Many called the policy “ridiculous” and wondered why sailors won’t be allowed to wear the highly touted uniform — especially since previous Navy leaders had said the rules for wear would be looser, not stricter, than those for current uniforms.

“This is beyond ridiculous,” wrote Fire Controlman 2nd Class (SW/AW) Jason McKeever, aboard the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln. “The fact that every other service [except the Marine Corps] authorizes their service members to wear their working uniforms to places like grocery stores or the mall just shows how out of touch the Navy officials are.”

The answer from the chief of naval operations probably won’t make them any happier. That’s because it will now be up to chiefs to decide whether sailors have done a good enough job wearing the uniform properly before any rules are relaxed.

“CNO has directed [Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (SS/SW) Rick] West to work with the chiefs’ leadership mess to ensure success of the rollout to the fleet,” Cmdr. Pamela Kunze, spokeswoman for Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead, told Navy Times on Dec. 19.

“When the chiefs’ mess is confident proper standards of wear are understood and practiced, MCPON will provide their recommendations to the Uniform Board and CNO for modifications to the occasion of wear policy.”

It’s a far cry from previous statements by Navy leadership, who told sailors that rules for the NWU would be more relaxed.

“We have designed and tested a uniform that enables us to have a more relaxed occasion for wear policy,” then-Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (SS/AW) Terry Scott told Navy Times in a February 2006 interview. “In the end, we are hoping to give sailors what they’ve told us they want — a more practical and less confusing set of rules when it comes to off-base wear that allows them to do more while traveling to and from work.”

But Scott said the intent wasn’t to mimic the Army and Air Force, either. “I want to emphasize this is not intended to be a travel uniform,” he said.

But rather than rules being easier to understand, they’ll likely become more confusing during the NWU’s two-year rollout, which starts this month.

That’s because there will be two rules in place for the new and existing uniforms during the transition. So if you have two sailors in a car — one wearing utilities and the other wearing the NWU — only one will be allowed to get out of the car if they’re driving off base.

Anger from the fleet

In e-mails to and follow-up interviews with Navy Times, sailors expressed outrage over a variety of issues, from the rules’ lack of clarity to the extra work this creates for people who need to change clothes so they can comply. Others say they feel robbed after being promised a more relaxed policy and receiving the opposite.

“It is truly a hindrance and a royal pain in the rear,” said Master at Arms 2nd Class (SW/AW) Jessica Bickford, stationed onboard the carrier George Washington.

And junior sailors and petty officers aren’t the only ones complaining.

“For years, I’ve repeatedly shook my head while observing the inconveniences we’ve put on our sailors by requiring them to change into civilian attire simply to make a run to the bank, to get lunch or run an errand off base,” said Chief Warrant Officer 5 Roger Lovern, in Jacksonville, Fla.

Lovern says the rule change will likely cause problems for deck-plate leaders who need to enforce them.

“To make the new NWU ‘more restrictive’ is definitely counter to good morale, does nothing to instill pride in its wear, and most likely will bring an increase in uniform-related disciplinary issues,” he said.

And the confusion will make sailors want to wear the uniform even less, one master chief said.

“I personally cannot understand why we are going so high and right, because it will cause more confusion ... and I feel this will only drive the desire to wear the NWU to be even less,” said Command Master Chief (SW/AW) Michael Napier, senior enlisted sailor at Strike Fighter Squadron 27 at Naval Air Facility Atsugi, Japan.

Napier said uniform regs are already tough enough for him and other chiefs to enforce, and having two standards — one for the current uniforms and another for the NWU — will only make that tougher to enforce.

“I already face it working on a naval air station with air crews wanting to wear flight suits to everything short of the Navy Ball. As a black-shoe snipe, it drives me nuts — so I see the NWU being nothing but an uphill battle.”

Napier said sailors will most likely work to find a way around the regulations — making it even tougher for leaders to deal with.

“Knowing sailors, I am sure in the beginning they will all play the stupid card as though they did not know the rules for proper wear,” he said.

Still other sailors say the rules that are being delivered aren’t the ones they were promised when discussion of the NWU began in 2003.

Another master chief said the rules will be hard to justify to his sailors.

“I too am perplexed by the more stringent rules governing the wear of the NWU,” said Command Master Chief (EXW/SW/AW/PJ) David B. Carter, senior enlisted sailor at the Expeditionary Combat Readiness Center in Little Creek, Va.

“When this uniform was in the testing phase, the hope was that the rules regarding the wear off base would be relaxed to mirror those of the Army and Air Force.”

The Navy is missing out on a great opportunity by keeping the NWU as an “on base” uniform, others say.

“This completely makes no sense to me — are they ashamed of the uniform — why would they issue us a uniform that they do not want people to see us in?” asked Personnel Specialist Seaman Joseph Ortiz, who works in the admin department at VFA-213.

“I was looking forward to the change, but now it completely changes my whole outlook on it.”

Others were hoping that seeing the new cammies off base would enhance the Navy’s public image.

“I would like to see our sailors proudly wear their new uniform in the civilian establishments, and set the standard for representing our Navy with their new uniform,” said Master Chief Navy Diver (MDV) Doug Heater, with Navy Expeditionary Combat Command in Little Creek.

“It will draw attention to the Navy and is free advertising to the young people that we want to recruit for our future.”

Though he realized that in the short term, the NWU rollout is shaping up to be a leadership challenge, Carter said he remains optimistic that Navy leadership will eventually see the light and listen to those on the deck plates.

“Hopefully, common sense will eventually prevail,” he said. “And those who have forgotten what it’s like to walk the deck plates will rescind the off-base restrictions of the NWU.”

What it’s cost the Navy

The Navy Working Uniform’s total cost to date is $226 million. Of that, $2 million was for survey testing, focus groups, developing the four test uniforms and conducting the wear test.

The other $224 million has covered the costs of producing prototypes, making the uniforms, getting them to the exchanges, and increasing enlisted uniform allowances.