The Navy is once again re-evaluating the size and shape of its force.
But before you start worrying about another round of downsizing, it's not end strength this time, but the size and shape of those in the force that's under scrutiny — information that will help the service improve uniform fit.
The Navy intends to measure roughly 4,000 sailors — split equally between men and women — in the Hampton Roads, Virginia, fleet concentration area, according to an Oct. 24 release by the Navy Exchange Service Command.
The plan is being called a "correlation study to gather data to get an up-to-date snapshot of the size and shape of today's sailors," according to the release.
The move was prompted by a recent Army study into the physical size and shape of soldiers and how that has changed over the past 20 years according to Capt. Robert Gantt, the exchange's deputy commander for uniform programs, who was quoted in the release.
"U.S. Navy body dimensions were last measured in 1997 for males and 1988 for females," Gantt said in the news release. "So, updating sizing data in U. S. Navy patterns for uniforms and organizational clothing would help improve fit and comfort for sailors."
The measuring is being done by the uniform experts from the Navy Clothing and Textile Research Facility in Natick, Massachusetts, and is being done between October and March 15. Though sailors will be culled from all over Hampton Roads, the measuring — which involves taking "30 noninvasive body dimensions" of 4,000 sailors — will be done on Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia.
Based on the results of this study, Navy uniform officials will determine if the size and shape of the force is similar enough that the Navy can use the new Army data — or if the service needs to do it's own full-scale scientific sizing study.
Mark D. Faram is a former reporter for Navy Times. He was a senior writer covering personnel, cultural and historical issues. A nine-year active duty Navy veteran, Faram served from 1978 to 1987 as a Navy Diver and photographer.
