I am not sure if I have said this on the blog, but I know I have said this out loud before, whoever made the executive decision as to how many uniforms the Army wheres and what the uniforms consisted of definitely did not do his own laundry. And for that matter did not consult his wife. And I know it was a man because no woman would have made such poor decisions. Anyways, here is how I come to my conclusion. Starting with PT (physical training) in the morning Nathan wears at the minimum a pair of white socks, his running shorts and a short sleeve t-shirt. But being Baumholder and the not so great weather here most mornings you can add his running pants over the shorts, a long sleeve t-shirt over the short sleeve one and then his running jacket, and sometimes a hat and gloves. Mind you these are not every day clothes that anyone can buy, they are Army specific. So then after PT Nathan comes home quick to shower and change, next outfit his is ACUs. Another pair of socks (olive green knee highs), a light olive green (not the best description of the color but the best one I could come up with) under shirt, pants, jacket, and beret. And then if the weather is crappy his fleece or gortex jacket. I know that except for the undershirt which has to be the wonderful Army light olive green color and socks that not everything has to be washed everyday, but they still have to be washed occasionally. Then when he gets home from work another pair of socks, a white undershirt, a pair of jeans or shorts, a shirt, and most of the time a sweatshirt or fleece. I have for the most part convinced Nathan that he only wears his after work clothes for a few hours so he can wear them for two days, cuts back a little bit on the laundry. So as you can see I have a huge load of laundry without even adding my laundry or towels or sheets, etc. But then you get into how to wash everything. Dress blues (thankfully are only worn once every couple of months) can only be dry cleaned. ACUs you can only wash turned inside out and zipped up to save the velcro, with a special soap and then hang dried. Then when everything is clean you have to put all of the name tags and awards back on everything. As I said at the beginning whoever decided on all of this did not do his own laundry nor did he talk with his wife beforehand.
I think when they decided on the uniforms they had privates doing the work. OR it is another example of big business getting government contracts. Think of how much money we could save the taxpayers if it was limited to one formal uniform. Speaking of the uniforms and reading your earlier posts. You should write an "onboarding manual" for those new to the army (especially for their spouses).
ReplyDeletei have to agree with you on this one!! the army uniform mantage is crazy!! i preferred the BDU myself, when we both wore them, they may have been heavy, but this durrent uniform sticks to everything!!
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