Should Soldiers wear the Class B/Tropical uniform for daily duties?

Is the idea to imitate a 'corporate' look? Come on. We are SOLDIERS...

If common sense is applied, maybe.

I remember in 2011 the Army started to wear the Class B uniform more often, about 4x a week at the Pentagon and around DC and I was told that it didn't last too long. Maybe it went back to 4x a week but I can tell you the Air Force loved the idea, implemented it and went way overboard in some ways.

Example: The back gate at my base once this change was implemented, the Security Forces (MP) member at the gate was wearing blues (Class B) 4 times a week and was not in anyway safe or armed, as they had no weapon or body armor. When they were wearing ABU's though, they were carrying a weapon and had body armor. Not to mention the change happened around this time of the year and the weather started to get cold and wet.

I PCS'ed to FL in June 2012, and USAF members in DC stopped wearing blues 4x a week and would only wear them if a ceremony was going on. No idea if it has changed since.

Formal Fridays is a silly idea, unless you make the civilians dress up too. It always looked odd wearing Class B on Friday because the service members have to dress up while the civilians are wearing jeans or other casual clothing.

That's how we used to do it, back in the days when khakis (or TWs) were the uniform de jour for most of the Army.

I understand this is an Army discussion but i feel the need to comment. NO! a professional look? are we not in the business of warfighting either as the ground troops or supporting them? Is every person in the Army required to know how to shoot a rifle in case they need to use it? Im sorry but Cami's are the professional uniform because that is your profession. And it doesnt matter if your a ground pounding grunt or have an admin job are you not all Soldiers? The Marines do Charlie fridays where every friday we wear our "professional" uniforms. But to require that everyday is just unheard of. Im infantry when i go off to deploy i dont have my briefcase with me and make sure i have plenty of neck ties, i wear the uniform of the job that i have been trained to do my profession. We are military not wallstreet. Camis are our professional uniform.

No! It would derail the ability to perform movement intensive hip pocket training.

It's basically the equivalent of business casual, it makes sense whenever your not in an environment where your going to get dirty. That said, it would be more expensive to maintain this uniform if someone is wearing it on a daily basis. You would need to raise the clothing allowance enough so that someone could maintain a few extra sets of Class B's.

If the Army decided to go this route then they must provide/issue 3-5 sets of ASUs with all of the accoutrements that come along with it. There is no way the Army would be willing to spend $1500-$3000 or more on each Soldier with current budget cuts and it wouldn't be fair to expect Soldiers to shell out all of that money either.

I am voting no. There are many reasons for my answer. The Class B uniform takes significantly more money and time to maintain. You would either have to spend hours washing and ironing the uniform or paying for dry-cleaning on a consistent basis. A cost that many junior soldiers, especially those with families cannot afford. This is the same reason the ACUs were so welcome over the BCUs. I still have a pair of BCUs and I know from experience they take a lot more time to look sharp. If we wore Class B's everyday we would also have to endure the cost of buying multiples of this uniform. The Class B's are also not as forgiving when it comes to fit. Gain 5lbs at your back at alterations, lose 5lbs same thing. My other personal reasoning is that we look like clown's in the B uniform. Black shoes, blue pants, yellow stripe, white shirt, black beret, who thought this color palette made sense? Not to mention our jacket is a completely different shade of blue. You get to throw even more colors into the mix for Airborne, Ranger, and SF units. Civilians look at the uniform and they do not see the United States Army, if anything we look more like a marching band then a military service.

This is impractical and not functionally or fiscally sound for our soldiers on a daily bases.

I am on both sides of the fence on this one. I can see this working on a unit that works at a battalion or brigade or something official and only once a week. The Marines apparently do it weekly and it works for them. I definitely do not see this happening on a daily basis.

I say no because I hate wearing dress outfits, uniform or civilian.