Wear and Appearance of the Army Uniform
In the army there are many uniforms a soldier has to wear. This is for the different activities a soldier does. For everything from their daily Physical Training (PT), their regular working uniform Army Combat Uniform (ACU), or their dress uniform either the Army Service Uniform (ASU), or the Army Green Service Uniform (Class A). Each uniform is design to fit a specific task and to be worn a in certain way. A great resource for either the ASU or the Class A is the “U. S. ARMY UNIFORM GUIDE. I found this little book a great resource because it shows every form of the ASU for both males and females soldiers, for officers and enlisted. I found this to be great because it shows where everything goes, and how to measure everything, and for a new soldier like me it is important to have the little things right. Over time the uniform of a soldier has change. Since the days of the Revolutionary War to today modern wars in Afghanistan and Iraq the uniform has change but the guide lines has not. As the uniform evolved, so has the regulation that covers it has also.
The regulation that covers this is Army Regulation 670-1, the covers everything from how to cut and maintain your hair to how to wear jewelry, eyeglasses and sunglasses. This regulation is something every soldier should read, even the ones who have been in for over ten years. Because from what I have learned is that this regulation is constantly changing. How to wear the army uniform is important because when we put on the uniform we don’t just represent ourselves but the army as a whole as well. One thing I have learned in my short 20 years of life is how important the clothes you wear impact you as person.
Because they can be tell tell sings of what type of person you are. As in the book “APPERANCES” witch talks about how the clothes you wear can say a lot of what type of person you are, or how do you live your lifestyle. When I was a little boy I would always watch how a few of my neighbors, which were in the National Guard, would be dress and how I notice that each of their uniforms would be. All of them looking good, with their boots clean and polish, uniforms clean, looking how a soldier should be.
When I was is the Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (NJROTC) I learned how to wear the uniform, even more when I came into the army. In basic training I learned how correct looks like. My drill sergeants would always be looking professional at all times and I would always say this to myself (there nothing ever wrong with any of their uniform). But they would always say “if you see something wrong with any of our uniforms tell us, and the same goes for your battle buddy. ” That’s when I really learned to start to look for the little things most people would not notice.
That when I started to pay more attention to my own uniform. I would always taking one last quick peck before formation, always trying to look for the things that other people would not see but would notice. As a military police soldier I think we should be held to a higher standard. In everything from the physical training we do, to how our uniform should be. All of our pockets should be lie down flat. All of our buttons and zippers should be button and zipped. Our boots should always be clean, rid of any and all dirt and mud. The uniform as a whole should be cleaned at all times.
Because we are the first ones who people see on the gates. Because first impressions are everything, I would never see my dad going to work looking like garbage, he would always look professional. This applies to us even more because when we are patrolling we are the ones who people see giving tickets. We are the ones who respond to when people have any type of an emergency, we are the ones who will show up at the scene of an accident. The general population expect more of us because we are not only police officers we are military polices soldiers.
Which many people would assume since we are in the military we should have more discipline. When you see that soldier who uniform is all messed up, you would assume either him or one of his leaders don’t have the discipline to maintain the uniform. That’s something we as military police soldiers can’t be. Whenever you pull over that first sergeant, or that captain that are not only going to look at your rank but your uniform as well, because they are most likely going to think “his uniform look like shit, how do I know if he is doing his job correctly when he can’t even maintain his uniform looking as it should. That where I believe our leaders come into play, they are not only there to help us, but also to fix us when we are wrong. So when I keep blowing off the fact my uniform did look like shit, I should have gone to one of them to see if they could help me fix the mistake. It’s important to wear to army uniform correctly because the habits you do while you are home in a safe environment will continue when you deploy. Whenever you go on a mission you should always double and triple check yourself to make sure you have the right equipment.
To make sure you are not missing the little things like you camel bag, or even the big things like you weapon. That’s why it’s important to always check yourself in the mirror before you leave. Not only to check you have the right things but also to make sure everything is in the right place, looking how it should. The same goes for whenever you go out, you always want to be looking good at all times, where ever you go. That’s the same type of thinking you need to have every time you put on the army uniform.
Because for me every time I put that uniform on I fell a since of pride, knowing I am a soldier, knowing I am one of the few people of this nation that is willing to and able to. As soldiers we are required to do certain things, some of these include doing physical training daily, keeping our leaders notified, keeping our uniforms squared away at all times. Because you will never know when your first sergeant or sergeant major decides to do a surprise inspection on you, we have to be ready at all time.
One bad soldier can have a huge negative impact on the rest of the team, because that one bad soldier can influence the good soldiers around him, to make him do the bad and wrong things. Every time when we wear the uniform we are not only representing ourselves but the army, our country, and the ideas of a free country. Therefore the uniform should always be neat; there should never be any excess for why our uniforms are ever out of order. The army is a team, on that team ever one wears the same uniform. If you teammate on basketball, football, soccer, or volleyball you would go over a correct them.
The same has to apply to the army. When we are in that uniform people are going to be looking at us not just because we are in the military but sometimes because the people who are looking at us are old retires who want to see the next generation of soldiers keeping the same traditions alive. Or they could be a person in a different branch of the military looking to see how the other branches wear their uniforms. When we wear the army uniform in public we should not bring bad attention to ourselves. One the type of attention that would make that little boy says “I want to be like them some day. That how first got interested in military. The proper wear of the army uniform is important for many reasons. One of these reasons is to have a strong discipline soldier at all times. Because when you wear the army uniform correctly it does show you have discipline. But it also reflects how your leaders are, either the ones who really don’t care about their soldiers or the type of leader who takes the time to get to know his soldiers. Another reason why it’s important to wear the army uniform correctly is because it instill a since of pride that only those who have earned the right to called themselves United States Soldiers.
