Uniforms of the 'Blue Water' Navy 1960's-1980's Cold War - Vietnam Era

[sigsaye]

1 hour ago, Salvage Sailor said:

"Head on down to the Bo'suns locker and ask the BMC for 30 feet of waterline...."

BT punch was always a good time too!

[sigsaye]

Mine Sweeper Sailors, 1960s, coast of Vietnam 

[sigsaye]

Not me, stolen from a fb page I’m on. Note the White Hat. “Stylin’ “. I wore mine like this. 

[Salvage Sailor]

Some Signalman and his mates...

Round, Square, Wings

 

Round, Wings, Square

 

I wore mine square and kept it rolled thus to shape it.

Top rolled

Inside

Rolled open

 

Front

 

Side

 

[sigsaye]

11 minutes ago, Salvage Sailor said:

Some Signalman and his mates...

Round, Square, Wings

 

Round, Wings, Square

 

I wore mine square and kept it rolled thus to shape it.

Top rolled

Inside

Rolled open

 

Front

 

Side

 

Yep!  Exactly!

[sigsaye]

My son and I.  Son in blues. I shaped his hat. He kind of freaked out, I guess that is not only NOT a thing anymore, but FORBIDDEN!  Hat perfectly round. How boring. 

[sigsaye]

This photo dated 1969. Ship and Sailor are unknown. I didn’t have a locker like this. We did in boot camp, but had coffin lockers in the fleet. 

[Salvage Sailor]

Same, same Steve, my ships were built in WWII and we had no lockers. 

 

Later, we were fortunate to have the "new" coffin lockers which replaced the WWII pipe and canvas racks.

 

Luxurious eh?  Had the same setup on my 1950's built Destroyers, Haze Grey and Underway

 

[sigsaye]

4 hours ago, Salvage Sailor said:

Same, same Steve, my ships were built in WWII and we had no lockers. 

 

Later, we were fortunate to have the "new" coffin lockers which replaced the WWII pipe and canvas racks.

 

Luxurious eh?  Had the same setup on my 1950's built Destroyers, Haze Grey and Underway

 

Yep, HOME!  My dad had the old pipe & canvas racks. He came aboard the FF I was on and when I took him to my berthing, he thought it was Chiefs Berthing. 

[sigsaye]

1960s, early 1970s, undress whites and dungarees, wool ball cap. QM Gang. 

[Salvage Sailor]

6 minutes ago, sigsaye said:

1960s, early 1970s, undress whites and dungarees, wool ball cap. QM Gang. 

 

Nice photo Sigs, That's "Our Navy" - but these slackers haven't been cleaning the seafoam green bulkheads and overheads on field day.

 

[sigsaye]

Damage control team, late 1970s-1980s. The short sleeved shirts were “Frowned On”, and not allowed by the mid ‘80s, any thing covering your skin is better than nothing. We also got flash hoods and everyone had long gloves, ( that were never washed and got seriously nasty).  This is obviously a posed Cruise Book photo, so that explains the lack of correct gear. 

[sigsaye]

50 minutes ago, Salvage Sailor said:

 

Nice photo Sigs, That's "Our Navy" - but these slackers haven't been cleaning the seafoam green bulkheads and overheads on field day.

 

LOL, the QMs I knew rarely cleaned their bridge. They would get Extra Duty guys to do it. They, always had “Charts to Correct” 🤣👍🏻⚓️

[sigsaye]

Another great Cruise Book photo from the early 1970s. I’m thinking an HT/DC shop. Expand the pic for great details. The welding apron and goggles. Several men are wearing the old Zumwalt Utilities. One towards the middle, has the very short lived “Iron On” Crows for that uniform. You can see older “Issue” dungarees, Seafarer dungarees and the assorted ball caps. 

 

This is early 1970s. You will note that there is a mix of “Issue” dungarees, which are wrinkled, Seafarers and the Zumwalt Utilities. The utilities are the pull over jumper style. Of interest is the center standing Sailor in utilities. He has his “Jumper” tucked in. Very common. Especially for Engineers. He also has the very rare and short lived color iron on stencil for utilities. I’m thinking these guys are HT/DC, due to the welder apron and goggles. This was the Navy I joined, after having grown up in the Navy of the 1950-60s. 🤣👍🏻⚓️

 

[Salvage Sailor]

That's also an A-1 Extreme Cold Weather jacket (USMF topic) worn by the Snipe standing at photo right

 

[Zack Miller]

I guess BDUs are not blue water, but I am on the beach at Camp Pendleton. 

 

[sigsaye]

“The Man” himself. Admiral Elmo Zumwalt when he was CNO. 

[sigsaye]

Sailors between 1980-1984, (beards were abolished in January or February of ‘84). Clowning for the camera during a “Beer on the Pier” break. Probably somewhere in the Middle East, as that was as close to Liberty as you could get in some ports. At that time, White Hats with dungarees was the standard, ( ball caps were for ship board wear only). Issue dungarees we’re long sleeved, so these short sleeves are Seafarer shirts. Also, the name stencil has shifted to the right pocket, where it previously was over the left pocket. This was the first step that the Navy took to getting uniform with the other services. Next, came the embroidered name, US Navy tapes and embroidered sew on rating badges. Then front crease trousers and finally, the cammies. 

[sigsaye]

This photo shows the original dungaree ball cap. Adopted in the 1950s, it continued in use into the early 1970s, to be replaced by the stiff front “SWAT Cap”.   This cap was only to be worn aboard ship. The color matched the dungaree working jackets. 

[sigsaye]

Sailors in their natural habitat, broom in hand, cleaning something. Another photo from the 1980s  Seafarer dungarees with ships ball caps  Seafarers had a snap in the waist band, while issue dungarees were buttoned  the short sleeve shirts are also Seafarers 

[Salvage Sailor]

1 hour ago, sigsaye said:

Sailors in their natural habitat, broom in hand, cleaning something. Another photo from the 1980s  Seafarer dungarees with ships ball caps  Seafarers had a snap in the waist band, while issue dungarees were buttoned  the short sleeve shirts are also Seafarers 

 

Also of note, the watch (possibly a Timex), face turned to the inside of the wrist.  This way he can see the time to the second when writing in the log books (deck logs, QM log, CIC, radio net monitoring, engineering logs, etc., etc.)

 

Below:  1976 Seafarer dungarees, Zippo belt buckle, 1976 Timex red dot luminous dial (glows in the dark, red dot on the sweep second hand) diving watch with rubber (non-metallic) wrist band, sold at the Navy Exchanges and ships' stores.

 

Same watch but with chrome case, the NEX version was all black

[sigsaye]

2 hours ago, Salvage Sailor said:

 

Also of note, the watch (possibly a Timex), face turned to the inside of the wrist.  This way he can see the time to the second when writing in the log books (deck logs, QM log, CIC, radio net monitoring, engineering logs, etc., etc.)

 

Below:  1976 Seafarer dungarees, Zippo belt buckle, 1976 Timex red dot luminous dial (glows in the dark, red dot on the sweep second hand) diving watch with rubber (non-metallic) wrist band, sold at the Navy Exchanges and ships' stores.

 

Same watch but with chrome case, the NEX version was all black

Yep, Zippo belt buckle, sometimes, my SM buckle from Subic. Always wore the cheapest Timex in the ships store, but on a Subic SM stainless steel wrist band. The watches got beat all to Hexx, so tossed them over the side and got another one. 

[sigsaye]

Looks like we’re getting ready for a steel beach picnic, 1980s, early ‘90s. 

[sigsaye]

Bridge watch, early 1980s, shirt stencil is over left pocket

[sigsaye]

Shore Patrol, Subic Bay( Olongopo City), Philippines, 1980s