Peter - Are you sorry that you asked your question? g

This uniform was also worn during the Veracruz affair of 1914 and is the
beginnings of khaki use in the USN.

FADM Halsey's autobiography speaks of his ship's company boiling their
whites in coffee to supplement the Vera Cruz landing force with gobs in
uniforms appropriate to the task. (Halsey was a blackshoe destroyerman at
the time, and his ship was a part of the Vera Cruz operation.)

During the war Fleet Admiral EJ King designed a grey uniform that he
proposed to be all purpose, eliminating khaki and the service dress blues
(which he felt, reportedly, were too much like the Royal Navy).

An additional reason posited for the grey uniform - somewhat hokey IMHO -
was that personnel would blend in with grey-painted hull and not stand out
as they would in blues, khakis or whites.

--
Mike Kanze

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650-726-7890

"When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading."

- Henny Youngman


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