As to the Marine Corps and the Army–well they have been at it for years. Because the Army has more “muscle” (read that to mean money”, they quite often win the battles. Years ago (more than I care to tell you) I was a section head in the Marine Corps Development Center–yep, as a Navy officer–but that is a whole long story of its own. This was at the time that the new flexible Kevlar armored vest came out. The Army had touted this new vest as being “bullet proof”. One of the Marine officers in my section decided test out the vest. So off to the range he went and hung the vest up and fired off some rounds at it from the M1911A1 .45 caliber pistol at various ranges considered effective for this standard military sidearm. The results–holes all the way through the vest!

He took the results to our division head who said it needed to be officially reported to the Army folks at the Natick Test Lab.

Talk about a furor! We were accused of cooking the data and the test. It was considered “unscientific” and bogus. We took a lot of heat but stuck to our story. Eventually changes were made to improve the vest.

There was much tug and haul between the Army and Marine Corps over the early camouflage uniforms–sometimes as simple as pocket placement. And apparently nothing has changed in that regard. And what should be the standard combat boot was another contest that cost the taxpayer many dollars.

But lest we go to far, I would caution–remember the McNamara belt buckle. The Services were unable to settle on a design for a standard brass belt buckle, so then Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara made a decision for them. The protest was unbelievable and for the most part the Services ignored him.

It does seem that it should be possible to reach an agreement on the best camouflage–the ones most effective, but human vanity, even among the Service chiefs, is difficult to overcome. And as to that, the new Navy Service Uniform is a joke–are they Sailors, Soldiers or Marines? You tell me…