What happened to looking professional?

SSG Thomas, I understand your argument.  I was the last person in my SQDN to change from BDUs to ACUs.  I thoroughly enjoyed shining my boots and pressing my uniform everyday.  With that being said, let me offer you another perspective.  The instilling of pride in your uniform or your Soldiers begins with you.  You can still conduct in-ranks inspections of your Soldiers.  You can still ensure that they are wearing the uniform correctly, that their haircut is within regulations, and check ID cards and ID tags.  Conduct a Class A or B inspection on a regular basis.  Maybe make the Class B uniform the uniform of the day a few times a month.   If you show that it is important to you and the Army, that degree of importance will be adopted by your Soldiers. 

I miss the old days when you had to starch your BDU's and spit shine your boots it was such an art form. Then on Mondays doing an in ranks inspection and seeing the pride on joes face when he knows he looks good. Them where the good old days!!! ATW!!!

I'm ready to go back to the BDU's myself. I have a couple pair of highly shined boots in my closet just begging to be brought out of retirement!!

Iam from the BDU era I do find the new uniforms Different With the Velcro   patches  and all, not judging just a different era but it is hard for me to get use to the absence od spit shinned boots, another thing I find odd is seeing soldiers at airports in the camo uniform, in my day that wasn't allowed it was class A uniform or civilian clothes.

We are not required by USAREC to wear our ASU's but I have all of my recruiters wearing the B's (because it freaking hot in Cali) every Monday and Thursday. The ACU's are "fine" but not for recruiting.

I came in the Army just as they changed to the ACUs; in fact my basic was one of the first cycles to get ACUs. I never got to experience shining of boots and pressing and starching your uniforms. I do want to comment on the military looking professional. Every time someone writes a post on how we look as professionals a lot of people argue about how it doesn't compare to civilian jobs, how CEOs have longer hair why cant I, and things of that nature. I just have to say so what. You are not a member of a civilian company, you are not working in a fortune 500 company, you are not a CEO in a civilian office. For those people who want to compare yourselves to your civilian counterparts. Get out and go get a civilian job. When someone questions your professionalism and you counter by comparing yourself to a completely different field all you are really doing is helping their argument. You can not uphold the standards of a service member and look professional. Pretty soon people in the military are going to start arguing about why they have to do things compared to others jobs. Cooks complaining they have to wear hats in the kitchen but mechanics don't have to wear hats, S shops complaining that aviation gets to wear flights suits and look professional why cant I, and non airborne complaining that airborne gets to wear boots in ASUs and I wanna to.  Looking professional has to do with the job you currently have and the position you currently hold. I have seen a lot of dirty looking guys that look perfectly professional behind the register at a gas station should we start letting our forces emulate them or should we continue to be the standard.

I wore BDU's when I was in the Marines back in the nineties. The BDU/ACU is a working uniform, the kind of uniform that you should be able to wear in the field, or working under a truck, or for any other sort of situations that the service uniforms just aren't appropriate.&nbsp;<div><br></div><div>That being said, I can't tell you the amount of time that I had to spend pressing and starching BDU's, spitshining boots, applying M-NU to insignias, etc.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>The garrison creep really became ridiculous. If you had a small, tiny rip that you repaired or a small stain on a field uniform, regardless of what the regs said they became unserviceable.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>I never want to go back to that again. I understand the concept of looking good in uniform and being "squared away", but anybody that has had to deal with zero defect mentality that ran rampant back then will understand that I have no desire to go back to the days of buying a new set of BDU's every month or so because the ones I had "didn't look new enough", or had a minor oil spot that didn't cut the mustard.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>If we were to make a change to wearing class B or C uniforms in garrison it would just end up the same place it did back then- with Soldiers having to buy a new belt tip/buckle monthly and new shirts on a regular basis way outside of the clothing replacement allowance because of the leadership insisting on the zero defect mentality.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>I absolutely think that payday activity uniform inspections are important- it lets the leadership ensure that dress uniforms are kept squared away for when they are needed, and establishes a bit of esprit de corps- but I don't want to see that every day.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>Regardless of what we say to each other that it wouldn't end up that way we can look back at history and see that's exactly the cycle we will end back up on.&nbsp;</div>

Professionalism can be exhibited externally by the uniform, but in battle it also comes from something more within us. I polished boots&nbsp;from my days as a ROTC cadet&nbsp;in 1971 up to when I was issued ACUs in 2006 for deployment. Quite frankly, I don't miss the spit shining one bit. I thought the first ACU uniform I was issued did seem somewhat pajama like, but practicable (if a little less durable than the BDUs). There is a move on for more wearing of the Class A and B uniforms in garrison / office environments as a counter to the very casual attitude we developed with the comfortable ACUs. Knowing the military as I do up to my retirement in 2011, I expect the Army to go too far in the other direction with much more emphasis on a "dressier" look. Who knows,&nbsp;some General or CSM of the Army trying to make a name for themselves&nbsp;may decide to return to their early days in the Army with the need for high shine boots and direct everyone be immersed in the tradition again. It won't be first time, nor the last.

no you are not the only one, as they all say " Its the new digital army" , uniforms are bad, we got no money for anything, but hey we drive on. lol