What's a tasteful military ball gown?

Here's the deal, your civilian girlfriends and wives might not be aware of our more conservative culture, but that's where is is your job to let her know. If you're supposed to tactful correct someone of any rank for being in the wrong, you should be able to correct this.

Ask to see the dress WELL in advance, if you are unsure of your date's idea of class. This way if it's not appropriate, she has time to pick out different one. (Some of us ladies take weeks or months to find and have the right dress tailored, as some places require you to place your order 6-8 weeks in advance)

How do you tell her without hurting her feelings... Yeah, very few of you guys can pull this one off, I know I've worked with enough military men, and I'm married to one too (bless his heart), and what sounds honest and harmless in your head, not always the case when you say it out loud... All you say is, "Wow that's a (insert positive adjective here... beautiful, stunning, sexy, phenomenal, fun, etc.) dress!!! I love it! But can we save this for another occasion? The military is very conservative, and as much as I would love to see you in that dress, I wouldn't want you to feel out of place." Now one of two things could happen... She says, okay and asks your opinion on something else, or she's still slightly crushed because that was the only one she liked and now she has no idea what you mean by "conservative." Show her that picture of Audrey Hepburn, use adjectives like, traditional, classy, floor or near floor length, and she should know what to do.

If you still need more help or have questions, ask a military female! Believe it or not, we're always happy to help with girl things!

Perhaps she thought rather than an invitation to the Military Ball, that she was being offered Military's Balls, and she was just getting ready to receive what was promised to her?

As far as tasteful, all she needed was a google image search for cocktail gown, and she would have had thousands of appropriate samples right before her eyes.

A Military Ball is kind of like a Prom. The men pretty much all wear the same thing, and the focal point is the ladies. The same rules apply. *Simply put if you wouldn't allow your daughter to go to the prom with a hormone raging teenage boy in a dress like the one being considered, then it probably is not appropriate for the Military Ball either.

*Disclaimer: I want my daughter's prom dress to be a full suit of medieval armor just to make sure the hormone thing doesn't apply so my opinion is heavily biased.

Somewhere in the crowd is a very senior officer thinking or actually saying aloud "Can you say HOOKER!" That is totally inappropriate dress for a formal function. But these are only the thoughts of one man.

I would be embarassed if that was my wife. For that matter, I would be embarassed if that was the wife of anyone in my unit!

My beautiful wife and me.

I think my SgtMaj would have said something to this affect;

"Excuse me Captain, I know you think this is either a High School reunion or Frat party... But I assure you it is neither... Please take that "escort", pay her whatever it is she charges for the evening and send her on her way..."

And then my CO would probably have him on "special" duty, like Bareacks Inspection Officer or some other BS of that nature...

It's funny how this picture keeps popping up. It's tacky, yes but a lot of spouses treat military balls like the prom. A tasteful cocktail dress would suffice but I would hazard a guess that a lot of people want to get all dolled up and lack the ability to discern "tasteful" and "tasteless". I would really like to see a more current and relevant example as opposed to one that has been lingering for more than 10 years.

I would say these are appropriate.