Unisex dress blue coat is less popular with senior female Marines
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    Exclamation Unisex dress blue coat is less popular with senior female Marines

    While three out of five female Marines surveyed supported the Corps' move to adopt a unisex-style dress blue coat, one group was less enthusiastic about the gender-neutral look: women serving as field grade or staff noncommissioned officers.

    A new female dress blue coat was one of the biggest changes that came out of the Marine Corps' most recent uniform board survey. About 3,650 Marines weighed in on the proposed change to the service's iconic dress uniform, which proved more popular with younger Marines, according to survey results provided to Marine Corps Times.


    The majority of male and female respondents — about 55 percent — favored replacing women's classic dress blue coat with a unisex prototype tested over the past 18 months. Enlisted women in particular supported the move, with roughly 60 percent of those respondents hoping to get the new coat.

    But the move wasn't quite as popular with majors, lieutenant colonels, colonels or staff NCOs. About half of Marine women in those ranks who completed the survey voted to keep the existing female-style dress coat — with the option of adoptingthe unisex-style prototype as a special assignment item to be issued at unit expense.

    That compared to just 28 percent of more junior Marines who voted for that same option.

    The new coat was adopted after more than two years of tests and experiments that coincided with the Pentagon’s push for gender-neutral physical standards and job opportunities. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus last summer said his goal is a collection of uniforms that “don’t divide us as male or female, but rather unite us as sailors or Marines.”

    While it was one of the most notable uniform changes Marines will face as a result of the survey, it also got the lowest amount of votes. Nearly three times the number of Marines chimed in on four other possible uniform changes.

    Commandant Gen. Robert Neller sided with the majority opinion each time, and made the changes official Jan. 8. In addition to the switch to the unisex-style dress coat, the new rules allow commanders to set seasonal uniform policies based on location and mission. Marines voted against a recommendation requiring leathernecks to wear their service uniforms year-round and the idea to eliminate desert Marine pattern camouflage.

    Nearly 10,000 Marines weighed in on these changes. Here are the results::


    •84 percent of Marines wanted force-level commanders to have the authority to adjust seasonal uniform periods based on climate and mission.

    •63 percent of Marines wanted to allow more flexibility with theseasonal uniform policy set in 2008. Though it was meant to bring uniformity to the Corps' look worldwide (everyone wore desert camouflage utilities in the spring and summer, and woodland cammies in the fall and winter), Marines soon questioned the wisdom of wearing desert cammies in Okinawa, Japan, or woodland cammies at Twentynine Palms, California.

    •84 percent of Marines were opposed to a recommendation that would require all Marines wear the service uniform unless they were in the field, training or deployed.

    •65 percent of Marines were opposed to the elimination of desert MARPAT combat utility uniform, an idea uniform officials presented as a cost-saving measure.

    The new uniform guidance is detailed in Marine administrative message 011/16.

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  2. #2
    Marine Free Member m14ed's Avatar
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    When I was a kid, I saw that sailors had a coat
    where they could control which side to flap over
    and avoid wind blowing away the heat.
    As I grew older, I was told the Mens shirt, vs: Female
    shirts buttoned on opposite sides.

    Maybe the New Military will find a way for a
    Button to work "Both ways" or "Either-way"

    I still wanna see a woman use the sink in
    the gas-station on a weekend swoop when
    the crapper and urnal are all occupied.


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    Marine Platinum Member Zulu 36's Avatar
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    Being a bit of an Anglophile, I watch a lot of vids of British military band music, etc. I noted that the Brits have had females in their male-type version of high collar dress uniforms for quite sometime, covers and/or bearskins and all. Of course the Brits still do not allow females into infantry positions, but regimental bands do have women in them (including the Royal Marines).

    Unlike US Marine bands, which in the field usually provide division/wing HQ security teams, British military regimental bands usually provide medics, ambulance drivers, and NBC specialists.

    However, the Brits also have battalion corps of drums, or in the case of Irish and Scottish units, pipes and drums. Those musical units are composed of infantrymen sidelining as musicians and they too provide HQ security teams when in combat. As a result, you don't see women in those musical units.


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