The Navy's ramp up to putting every sailor in the green Navy Working Uniform Type III is on track, officials announced today.
This means that boot camp issue is still slated to begin on Oct. 1 and soon after, the uniform parts and pieces should all be on shelves in Navy Exchanges. They are already officially authorized for wear — if you have them.
"The NWU Type III is on schedule for introduction at Recruit Training Command Great Lakes beginning 1 October 2017," Vice Adm. Robert Burke, the Navy's chief of personnel said in a uniform update NAVADMIN released Jan. 26.
No firm dates for the exchange roll-out have been set, officials say, but updated schedules will be announced once they're available.
It's the first update to a roll-out plan that was introduced in August 2016, when the Navy announced that they'd shift away from the "aquaflage" NWU Type I's and put everyone in green digital instead.
At the time, Navy officials told Navy Times that it would take the better part of a year to ramp up production of the uniform, previously only worn by about 50,000 sailors at officially authorized commands.
As of Oct. 1, the uniform became the Navy's official working uniform and the phase-out of Type I's began.
Sailors who already have them through command organizational clothing issue can wear them even if they transfer away from that command, as long as those uniforms are serviceable. But issue Type III's must be turned in to the Navy once they are damaged or worn out, officials told Navy Times in August.
Officials say it will be at least a year until green-and-tan cammies go on sale at uniform stores.
Photo Credit: Navy
Once the uniforms show up on exchange shelves, there will be a two-year lead time until the stated mandatory wear date of Oct. 1, 2019. After that date, Type I's are no longer authorized and sailors will be required to have a minimum of three sets in their seabag.
Officials could change that required number in the future, but that all depends on whether the service develops a two-piece fire retardant "at-sea" uniform in the next couple years and whether the service adopts that into the seabag.
Fleet officials announced earlier this month that such a two-piece variant of the new fire resistant coveralls will be developed and tested in the fleet.
With the fleet in green, the Navy has said the traditional blue command ball caps will remain authorized, but the message now authorizes the coyote brown ball caps to work fleet-wide with the NWU Type III. The cap also remains authorized for those wearing the desert NWU Type II's.
The Navy initially authorized the brown caps last March and this approval expands that wear fleet-wide, should commands choose to.
The Navy continues to wrestle with the issue of boots and research and development continues to try and make boots more comfortable for sailors, while still meeting shipboard safety requirement. The message reiterated that the boots used with the Type I's are also the primary boots for sailors to use as they shift to the Type III's.
The seabag nine-inch black safety boots will remain the shipboard boot for now.
Ashore, there are both the nine-inch black smooth leather Navy Working Uniform boot as well as the 9-inch black rough-side-out leather NWU boot. These rules apply to both the outgoing Type I's as well as the Type III's.
But as the Type III's become available, there will now be more boot options, the message said.
Brown safety boots issued for flying duty and Seabee duty can be worn.
In addition, the Navy certified desert tan or coyote brown rough-side-out leather non-safety boots are an option if your CO authorizes them when for when safety boot aren't required. Normally, sailors are issued these boots by commands, but they can also be procured by sailors out of their own pocket.
Mark D. Faram is a former reporter for Navy Times. He was a senior writer covering personnel, cultural and historical issues. A nine-year active duty Navy veteran, Faram served from 1978 to 1987 as a Navy Diver and photographer.
