Why did the Army switch uniform shirts with the green uniform?

[101CH47]

That's a valid point. It explains why certain items can be hard to come by, for example, Army chino pants, USN slate grey pants, USAF silver tan pants etc., all of which would have been perfectly acceptable for civilian wear with a sports coat or sweater. Also, it explains why so many WW2 items...HBT coveralls, field jackets etc., are often paint or oil-splattered. Surplus stuff made great civilian work-wear... but not so good for we collectors!

 

Sabrejet :crying:

 

In my case, cut off jungle fatigue pants made dandy shorts. A number of other items were cut up and used for gun rags.

[J_Andrews]

In 1966, my older brother (4-23rd Inf, 25th ID) sent me a set of US ISSUE (so marked, with DLA- b l a n k ) tiger stripe fatigues.

 

Though I later passed the unsullied shirt on to the QM Museum, I wore out the trousers -- as pajamas and boating wear.

 

SHAME and REGRET.

 

I also wore out my own sleep shirt, CISO poncho and patrol slippers...

[patches]

Here's the Pale Green Shirt being trialed in 1975, note that the wear of the Unit Crest was apparently authorized for wear on this proposed item at this early date as the Black NCO and or Officer Slip on Shoulder Boards have not been developed, but the wear of the Gold Colored EM rank pins and presumably the Officers Metal Rank and BOS was.

[Martinjmpr]

I had just enlisted and was going through Infantry OSUT at Fort Benning when these changes were made.  The tan poplin long sleeve shirt (always worn under the dress green jacket) was dropped in favor of the light green shirt when the khaki summer uniform was discontinued, since the new summer "class B" uniform was the green trousers with the light green shirt vs. the old short sleeve khaki shirt with khaki trousers. 

 

I received my Class A uniform issue in November and since it was Winter, we only got the winter dress green uniform with the poplin shirt.  We were not issued the light green shirt at that time but we were not issued khaki's either, which meant that for a period I actually had no Summer class B uniform.  By the time Summer arrived, I already had a light green class B shirt that I purchased myself since I was working in an office following my knee surgery at Martin Army Hospital. 
 

I think this was a budget-cutting measure and designed to reduce the number of uniform items each soldier was required to maintain (which I believe was a very good idea - I get sad when I think of the Navy and how many different uniforms they have to maintain!) 

 

The picture Patches shows above illustrates how the green shirt was originally worn by enlisted personnel:  With "shiny" rank insignia on the collar, while officers had "shoulder marks" (AKA shoulder boards) that were slipped through the shoulder loops.  Some time between 1985 and 87, I think, the Army decided that NCO's needed to look more "professional" and so starting then, NCO's in the grade of Corporal or above would wear shoulder marks too. 

 

They were different from the Officer shoulder marks though.  Officer shoulder marks were green and had a gold stripe at the base.  Enlisted shoulder marks were black and had an embroidered gold rank insignia. 

 

Lower enlisted, non-NCO soldiers in the rank of Specialist (SPC or SP/4) and below continued to wear pin-on gold insignia on the collar points. 

[patches]

On 6/1/2020 at 7:35 PM, patches said:

Here's the Pale Green Shirt being trialed in 1975, note that the wear of the Unit Crest was apparently authorized for wear on this proposed item at this early date as the Black NCO and or Officer Slip on Shoulder Boards have not been developed, but the wear of the Gold Colored EM rank pins and presumably the Officers Metal Rank and BOS was.

Hey  II was just thinking, thr E-8 or E-9 Ranks pins he wearing in this photo have to be the Subdued ones and not Gold Colored one, because this being 1975 the Gold Colored types weren't around yet, not for aonther two years. He wears them it seems with out the White Plastic Backings that were used when wearing these on those times they were worn on, probably because of the very light color of the shirt.