Grandpa's "Navy Blues"

These are Grandpa's Navy "Blues", worn in cold weather or as a dress uniform. I found this and 2 other identical outfits in a metal pretzel can. I'm keeping one of them, Andrea is keeping one, and the third is being donated to the Pearl Harbor Museum later this year.

They are made of very dark, almost black wool, about the same weight as my Civil War outfit, and they look HOT (as in uncomfortably warm). We can see the small white dolphin patch on the right (your left) forearm which designates him as a submariner. On the uniform's left sleeve (your right) we see his arm patch that indicates he was a Radio Operator, third class. The lightning bolts are the symbol for ship's radioman.

The US Navy has (or rather had) a library of symbols to represent each and every man's role on a boat. In the next post I will post a Scribd link with a PDF chart illustrating all of these symbols.

Also interesting to note are his Navy "bell bottom" trousers. This was a Navy thing a very long time before it became in vogue in the 70's of the twentieth century. See how the crotch panel opens up with all those buttons?


The exact reasons for this are unclear. It would make more sense to me to have that flap in the back of your pants on an old sailing ship, so when men leaned over the edge to "drop some depth charges" (use your imagination) they wouldn't need to pull down their pants. Really, I have no idea why the flap is in the front. It would make more sense to just have a zipper, all those buttons take time to undo when you need to "Hose down the deck", ie take a pee. Not visible in this photo, but just above this "flap" are two small narrow pockets that have zipper closures for tiny personal items. So it's not like zippers weren't on military uniforms of this period.

Just another tradition, I guess.

The United States military has always upheld tradition and retains certain practices which may seem antiquated or obsolete. Like ceremonial swords as part of an officer's uniform, for example. Or General Patton's ivory-handled revolvers on a Civil War leather waist belt. Or maybe the fact that he wore horse-riding breeches in a tank. {George Patton was an exception to the norm though. He was just an exceptionally badass guy who totally had an excuse to wear whatever he damn wanted as long as it made him look tougher ;) }

As a general military historian, I also noticed that today's dress uniform for any branch of the military is typically the combat uniform of several generations ago.

For example the dark blue uniform my grandfather wore in the 1940's looks strikingly like this photo of a young crewman from the Spanish-American war.

(photo comparison below)

my Grandpa - 1941




Unidentified Sailor - 1898




I can't find any good image examples, but the bright red US Marine Corps marching band uniform of 1942 really uncannily resembles some red British uniforms of the turn of the century (Napoleonic era). Also the dress uniform of the US Marines in 1861 looked a lot like the Crimean War infantry of the British Army 1855-1859.

It's all deeply entrenched in centuries of tradition. The military is all about tradition.