#105 Naval Academy Uniform Explanation - On the Yard (003)

Ever wondered about the intricacies of Naval Academy uniforms? As a former midshipman, I'm excited to pull back the curtain on this iconic aspect of life at Annapolis. From working blues to summer whites, we're diving deep into the world of midshipman attire.

The Uniform Breakdown

• Working blues: The most common uniform and why they're called "blues" when they're actually black
• NWUs (Navy Working Uniforms): When and how they're worn
• Summer whites: The iconic "Top Gun" uniform and why it's both loved and loathed
• Service Dress Blues (SDBs): The formal winter uniform and its unique features

Decoding Midshipman Rank

• How to identify a midshipman's class year and leadership position
• The subtle differences between midshipman and officer insignia

Uniform Maintenance and Costs

• The importance of dry cleaning, tailoring, and cobbler services
• How midshipmen pay for their uniforms through the ACE advance

Life After Graduation

• Which uniforms become obsolete and which carry over to active duty
• How uniforms change for different career paths (Navy, Marine Corps, Aviation)

Whether you're a proud parent, a curious civilian, or a future midshipman, this episode offers a comprehensive look at the uniforms that define the Naval Academy experience. Join me as we unravel the stories and significance behind each carefully pressed piece of clothing.

"We feel like zoo animals," I joke, reflecting on the constant public scrutiny of our appearance. It's a unique aspect of midshipman life that shapes our daily routines and challenges.

From the controversial p-coat to summer whites, I'm sharing insider perspectives and personal anecdotes that bring these uniforms to life. 

For any real estate questions, please text me at 650-282-1964

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The mission of Academy Insider is to guide, serve, and support Midshipmen, future Midshipmen, and their families.

This podcast is independently produced and reflects the views and opinions of its creators. It is not officially affiliated with, endorsed by, or representative of the United States Naval Academy or its affiliates.

Grant Vermeer your host is the person who started it all.  He is the founder of Academy Insider and the host of The Academy Insider podcast. He was a recruited athlete which brought him to Annapolis where he was a four year member of the varsity basketball team. He was a cyber operations major and commissioned into the Cryptologic Warfare Community. He was stationed at Fort Meade and supported the Subsurface Direct Support mission.

He separated from the Navy in 2023 and now owns The Vermeer Group, a residential real estate company that matches service academy families with trusted real estate teams all across the country.  Text (650) 282-1964 with any real estate questions.

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Transcript

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Sponsor Update & Episode Setup

Grant Vermeer 0:00

Welcome back to the Academy Insider Podcast and for another episode of this on the art series, sponsored and powered by the Naval Academy Alumni Association and Foundation. And again, Academy Insider is now being wrapped into the overall fleet of podcasts by the Naval Academy Alumni Association, which I'm so excited about. Make sure to check out all the resources coming from the Alumni Association about this media push and including everything, including Academy Insider. Today's episode, all about uniforms. I got some questions actually from a civilian faculty staff member, which I thought was so cool that they reached out to ask this. Maybe this is something my mom cared about a lot, trying to figure out like, what are these uniforms? What do they mean? Why, why are you wearing that? How do I tell what you are or what's going on? That's what this whole episode's gonna be about. Right? If you want to learn about all the episodes, the working blues, the NWUs, the SDBs, the summer whites, like everything that a midshipmen may wear, how to tell what their rank is, what's going on, why they're wearing it, how many they get, how do they keep things clean, what are they paying for, etc. This is what the episode's all about. So looking forward to it. I hope you enjoyed the episode. If there's any questions, please let me know. Otherwise, I don't think you're listening. Thanks. All right, well, let's jump

Why Uniforms Confuse People

Speaker 1:10

into it. I'm so excited about today. Again, I had a faculty member from the Naval Academy of Civilian, someone who has come in to teach and coach and mentor midship, ask all about uniforms, right? Like, I don't really understand what's going on. And so this is such a fun opportunity because I'm sure there are a bunch of parents out there, grandparents, friends, aunts, uncles, whatever, who like see all the uniforms and they love it, but they don't fully understand it, nor do they understand the terminology. And so that's what we're gonna be talking about today. Again, we're gonna go over things like how these are issued, how many of them are they're comfortable? What about footwear, tips and tricks for keeping them looking sharp and tidy? What about when you graduate? Do you take the uniforms with you? These are all questions that I've gotten with me. How much do they cost? Are they hot? And so, um, you know, we're gonna move it. And, you know, one of the questions that was probably my favorite was why are working blues called working blues when they're actually black? And so uh so that's that's what we're gonna jump into today, right? And we're gonna start with a whole uniform breakdown. So we're literally gonna go through all the different uniforms that a midshipman could and may wear, things that you'll see, um, and talk a little bit about them and hopefully answer some questions, and we'll do a little more deep dive later in the episode, uh, again, about what happens in the future and some of the money related stuff. But for a uniform breakdown. So the first uniform that's probably the most um utilized, the thing that you're gonna see the most, the thing that's probably most associated with being a midshipman is this idea of the working

What This Guide Will Cover

Speaker 2:30

blues. And so this isn't the uniform that you see during the academic year, right? We're gonna avoid pleep summer uniforms. The white works, again, I'll put stuff out during pleep summer about that. This is all about the academic year uniforms, the uniforms you're gonna see the midshipmen wearing for four years. And the first is the working blues uniform. So back when I was a midshipman, there was actually two forms. There was what we called the summer working blues and then the the winter working blues. And the summer working blues was kind of the button-down short sleeve collared shirt, almost like what I'm wearing here right now, but again, it was kind of the all black. And um, again, these were uniforms along with the the summer working blues, the winter working blues that we would refer to as like the Johnny Cashes, right? Like it's kind of the all-back slick uniform with the white combination cover. And so these are the working blues. Now, um, yes, they are definitely black. Uh, from like a pure color perspective, the working blues are absolutely a black uniform. I really have no idea why they're called blues, um, if we're being honest. I, you know, I did a quick Google search, about you know, 90 seconds. So it's not in-depth research here. It would appear that this is likely a reference to a historical uniform when Navy officers would wear, you know, blue uniforms, right? Like you would have your working blue uniforms or your service dress blues that we'll talk about in the f in the future, kind of our dress uniform, the service dress blue, which is the you know actual suit and tie looking uniform. Why do they call it blue when the you know the blazer and the plants are black? Again, probably a reference to more old school Navy uniforms. Um, but you know, that's all semantics. And so um, again, a piece about the working blue. So you're gonna have those black trousers, you're gonna have the black um, you know, shirt, button-down short sleeve. Again, now in today's time as midshipmen, there is no such thing as a winter working blue. So, again, when I was a midshipman, you know, at the uniform changeover, which happened on October 1st, just this previous week, um, you would switch to the winter working blues. And the winter working blues was actually a long sleeve. It's the exact same material, exact same look of what you see, but it was long sleeve, it would button all the way up, and you wore a tie. Um, and so you would take that into again, like the fall and winter semesters, again, from basically October through

Working Blues Explained

Speaker 4:40

about, you know, like I don't know, I think spring break more or less, you would wear these quote unquote winter working blues. Now you just have working blues. And again, the summer, uh, summer working blues are now kind of what is worn year-round at the Naval Academy. Um, and again, when it comes to uh this uniform, again, you're generally gonna get issued three of everything. You're gonna get three of the shirts that are issued, you're gonna get three of the pants, um, and then usually two pairs of the dress shoes, the black shoes. Now, these dress shoes, um again, I don't I don't mean to like call it the brand, I just mean in general dress shoes. We're just talking dress shoes in general. They suck, right? Like it's not comfortable to wear. And this is the uniform that you're wearing every single day to class. And look, the walk to and from campus, if you have a class in Rickover and they have to get all the way back to eighth wing for formation. I mean, we're talking that's like it's like close to a mile-long walk. So you're like walking miles every single day in these dress shoes, which kind of suck, and it wears them down really fast, right? And so these are things that we're gonna talk about in the episode that are really interesting because you're wearing these dress shoes, they're meant to be nice, kind of utilized in a uh, you know, a more formal environment, but you're walking miles in these shoes every single day, right? And so, you know, with that is since you usually get two pairs, a lot of what midshipmen normally do, again, what I did when I was a midshipmen, I'm sure it continues today, is you'll have a pair of dress shoes that you'll wear, again, a pair of shoes that you'll wear as your everyday pair, right? Like, yeah, you may buff them a little bit once in a while to make sure that they look okay. You may polish them once in a while to make sure they look okay. Um, but you know they're gonna get beat up, right? Like these are your pair of shoes that are gonna get beat up, and then you keep one pair that are like inspection ready, no creases, the shine is perfect, it's glossy, it looks incredible. And you would wear those normally in your formal uniform, your dress uniform, the SDBs. Um, and in most times, actually, because we wear those dress uniforms so frequently at the Naval Academy, um, you'll normally wear them just for inspections. All right, you have a pair ready to go for inspections all the time, so you make sure you're kind of in a good, good stuff there. Because again, the shoes that you're wearing every day, they get scuffed up all the time. All the time. Like again, you're you're bumping into stuff, you're walking fast, you're moving, you're, you know, you're sitting down at your desk in chairs and you're crossing your feet and you're you know, you're rubbing the shoes together on the toe, you're you're bumping it into the desks, like all of the above. The shoes get scuffed up all the time. When we talk about the fact that you're walking so many miles in them as well, the heels start to wear down. Quite literally, the the sole of the shoe, the heel of the shoe like wears down, especially if your feet aren't like perfectly symmetrical or you put a lot of pressure on the outside or the back of your foot. Like there were midshipmen that I would see again where the heel of the shoe was like almost completely disintegrated. It was like pretty wild, like on the outside, it would like slant from you know, slant diagonally from how much the shoe had been worn down based on kind of like where you were putting pressure on your foot all the time. And so, you know, one of the interesting things about the Naval Academy, in my opinion, it's one of the most underutilized things that midshipmen, whether they realize it or not, are paying for every single month, is the cobbler shop. Like we have a cobbler shop in in Bancroft Hall. In Bancroft Hall, there's a cobbler shop. You can go bring your shoes, get them repaired, get them fixed, right? Like have the heels uh kind of replaced on the shoe and taken care of. Um and again, I think that's a really good thing that midshipmen should be taking advantage of as much as possible to make sure that their shoes are actually like being taken care of. But again, from a parent's perspective, just so you know, like, yeah, that it's quote unquote um free, right? Again, I uh in my family we use this term Castilea free. Um, you know, it was funny. My sister, when she was growing up, she uh she went to the school Castellet. It was a private school um in California, and she would always be like she would always tell uh my parents, right? She'd go up to my parents, she'd be like, oh my gosh, Castellet is the best. It's so exciting. We get all these delicious free lunches, like the lunches free. And my parents would always be like, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, they may be free for you. Like, but we're we're paying for them, right? We're paying for them in the tuition of this school. Like you are absolutely uh paying uh for those lunches. Um, but we use this term again in our family now, Castilea free, which is like you paid for it up front. So even though you don't have to like give money for it, like if you go down to the cobbler shop, you're not gonna have to pay for them to fix your shoes. But whether or not you believe it, you're actually paying the midshipmen are paying like a monthly uh fee towards the cobbler shop that comes out of their pay that they're being issued, right? And we'll do a full breakdown on midshipmen pay in the future because it's actually a wildly fascinating uh topic of you know what midshipmen are making, what's being pulled out, what they're contributing to, what uh services they're being provided, whether or not they know it or not. Um and so again, all that's really interesting. Long way to say the cobbler shop is Castilea free. You can go down there and get your shoes fixed anytime uh and just make that happen. So those are the working blues. Again, they're gonna wear those. That's gonna be the primary uniform for the academic year, right? They're gonna wear those all of the time. Now, in today's day and age, which is really exciting because we're gonna jump into NWUs next, but midshipmen will now wear the working blue uniform as the default. It'll be the uniform of the day on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday. Um, again, when I was a midshipman, it was Monday through Friday. All five days of the week were working blues. We would wear them every single day, kind of without exception. Um, you know, we'll kind of talk about some of the things that are actually exceptions when you would wear different uniforms. Um, but it was it was the consistency, five days a week working blues. You would

Shoes, Wear, And The Cobbler

Speaker 10:15

only wear your working blues. Now they're wearing working blues three days a week and wearing the NWUs, the camouflage uniforms that you see uh two times a week. And so uh that's again, that's kind of the breakdown of the working blues. That's what we have. It is not a fleet uniform. Uh something interesting about the working blues is like that is not anything no, and no one wears them when you graduate. Like if you go and you graduate in commission and you're in the Navy, like working blues are not a thing. Like they are very specific to the Naval Academy. They're a unique Naval Academy uniform, which is iconic and cool. Um, but it's also one of those things that's like interesting because it's like, why are we wearing them? If we're again, why are we paying for them? Why are we using them when we're never gonna use them ever again? Um, but I also think they're like iconic and they're like really cool. So again, I'm just you know kind of pointing out both both sides there. But uh an interesting factor, again, Monday, Tuesday, Friday, you'll be in the working blue uniforms. Wednesday, Thursday, you'll be in the NWU uniforms, uh, which we're gonna get to here. So the NWUs, um this stands for the Navy Working Uniform. NWU, November Whiskey Uniform, NWU Navy Working Uniform. Now, as a parent, right, or as a family member, a loved one, whatever, you may hear the term. You may hear someone say NWUs. That is very possible. It's something they could say. There's also a lot of ways this uniform can be spoken. You may hear it as NWUs, you may hear it as NWBs, oh, we gotta wear our N dubs, right? Again, NWs, right? Like our N dubs. Or you might hear someone say, oh, we have to wear our type threes. Because this specific NWU, this Navy working uniform, is the NWU type three, right? Because there have been different types of Navy working uniforms, different types of camouflage uniforms throughout the ages, right? Like our, when I was a midshipman, we wore the blues, like the blue camouflage. We call them blueberries, right? Like you would have a different version. I don't even remember what type of NWU they were, but they weren't the type threes. They were a different version, a different variant, a different type of NWU. And the NWU type threes are that like kind of green woodland camouflage color that you see the midshipmen wearing nowadays. Again, it used to be the blue camos. Type threes, again, we're talking, you know, eight, nine, ten years ago now, because I'm getting old. The type threes were designated specifically for expeditionary warfare. You would see it with the riverine squadrons, you would see it uh with the Seabees, you would see it with the Special Forces and the SEALs. Um, it was kind of very specific to a certain component of the Navy. Now everyone wears them, right? And so again, all that to say, you may hear them as Ndubs, you may hear them as NWUs, or you may hear them as type threes, you may hear them as camos, like our camouflage uniforms, um, whatever it is, but all of those would reference that kind of green woodland colored NW uniform, camouflage uniform that you see the Matshipmen wearing. Now, in terms of like how they are, um I always thought the type threes were like less comfortable than the blueberries for whatever reason, like however they made them. Um the type threes are a little bit more like uh starched, or a little bit more starchy. Um, and so as a result, they can be a bit heavy, they can be a bit hot during the summers, right? And so um, you know, I would say they're not necessarily, even though they're probably still more comfortable than the working blues, they're not necessarily like the most comfortable things in the world. Um, but what I love about them and why I'm so it's so cool, honestly, in my opinion, to see like the Naval Academy shift to wearing them a little bit more is two factors. One, that's the uniform you're gonna wear every single day in the fleet. Like when you graduate and commission to become a Navy officer, like you're gonna be wearing your NWUs a lot. Again, certain communities will do it a little differently, and we'll talk about that a little bit later in the episode. But you'll you'll wear your NWUs a lot. So you get used to wearing them, it's cool. Again, it's a direct translation. You're using now at the Naval Academy, you'll use them again in the fleet, which is awesome. But the second thing is you can wear boots, right? And like again, in uh just objectively, maybe you know, your boots aren't the most comfortable thing in the world. But when you use a comparison of walking two miles in like combat boots or two miles in dress shoes, the combat combat boots feel pretty good, right? Like those are those are pretty great. And so um that's a that's a cool piece. Now, again, we're talking about the working blues. In the past, you know, you would have a summer working blue, you have a winter working blue, uh, and you would shift. Again, now it's all one, you wear the same working blue all year round. Um, same thing with the MWs. This is a year-round uniform. You can wear it anytime during the year. Again, it's kind of that way. Um, during the summer months, you're allowed to roll up your sleeves, right? Like you can roll up your sleeves during the winter months. Normally, again, the sleeves are are rolled down and worn down. Um, so that would kind of be the main differential. Now, again, as we talk about the fact that midship are now wearing them Wednesdays and Thursdays, that's part of this like double initiative that has kind of been brought out, which is one, this idea of Warrior Wednesday. And so Warrior Wednesday has been a tradition that's kind of been uh brought out in again, one, the midshipmen get to wear the type threes on Wednesday as like their uniform of the day, they're wearing its class, et cetera. But also, usually the staff, like the Naval Academy staff, wears their uniforms, their tactical, their fleet uniforms that they would wear in the fleet as well, right? And so, again, normally the staff is wearing khaki uniforms all the time. Like if you're a military personnel, like you're a Navy officer, you'll you'll see them in their khaki uniforms. Again, on that Warrior Wednesday, a lot of times they can wear their uniforms

NWUs, Type IIIs, And Boots

Speaker 15:40

that they would prefer, whether that be the flight suit, the coverall for the submariners, um, you know, whatever the case is, you can kind of wear that tactical uniform. For the Marine Corps officers, they'll wear their their camouflage uniforms, their Marine Corps camouflage uniforms on Wednesdays. And so that's your Warrior Wednesday. Kind of the newer addition, as of very recently, is now also the so you have the Warrior Wednesday and then you have the tactical Thursday. And that tactical Thursday again allows the midshipmen to wear their type threes to class. That is the uniform of the day moving through. So again, Monday, Tuesday, Friday is working blues, Wednesday, Thursday are your end ups. And um, again, it's a huge shift um compared to my time as a midshipman where we wore them five days a week, right? And so um that kind of runs down everything there on um on the uniforms. Um, oh, I guess for the uh I guess one thing that I haven't talked about with these uniforms specifically is how do you tell what the rank is of a midshipman when they're wearing these uniforms? So the working blue uniforms, the way you would tell a midshipman's rank is actually based on their collar, right? And so midshipmen will wear their ranking insignia on their collar and their working blue uniforms. And for the midshipman, right, as a plebe, you would wear nothing. You would have nothing on your collar. Uh, there's nothing to put there. That's how you identify, again, you're kind of recognized and identified as a plebe, is the fact that you have zero rankings insignia on your uniforms as a plebe. Uh, as you become a youngster, you put one anchor on your right collar. As a second class, you put um, you know, two anchors, um, one on your left, one on your right, and that's how you would recognize a second class or a junior midshipman. Um, also, as we're talking about this, we're we're listening to this right now because I use the term second class, and I think this is important in keeping all of my Academy insider listeners super hip to what's going on, right? Like, you see a lot written the abbreviation like 2C or 2 slash C for a second class. Don't say 2C. Um, again, you can say whatever you want. It's not the end of the world. Uh, you just never hear a midshipman, you never hear a midshipman say, like, oh, I'm a midshipman 2C. No, it's just not a thing. It's in a it's a written abbreviation. It is spoken second class, right? Or spoken midshipman fourth class or third class or first class, right? And so um just as you're listening to that again, in rank insignia, both collars, that that indicates a midshipman second class, which again written you may see as 2C, um, but it's spoken second class, right? So midshipmen second class, both uh ranking insignia left collar, right collar. The first class midshipmen, the firstties, the seniors, um, they're gonna have a little bit different. So usually as firsties, there are a couple of different um billets that you can hold. And this term billet just means like a job, a role, a responsibility, an obligation that you hold. Um, and so again, if you're uh like a squad leader, that'll be a midshipman ensign rank. Um if you're a platoon commander, that's a midshipman uh lieutenant, like junior grade rank or two, you know, like kind of the midshipman O2. It works in the same way the officer ranks would kind of progress moving up. And so that would be kind of two bars. Um, the midshipman lieutenant, you know, usually like a company commander during the academic year would have three stripes, a battalion commander, four stripes, the regimental commander, five stripes, and the brigade commander, six stripes, right? And so you can generally tell what job a midshipman holds, like as a first-class midshipman, by kind of the rank on their collar, right? And you're gonna see that on their collar. And again, the more you get up when you start becoming like a reg commander or the brigade commander, I mean it's like a lot, you know, six bars running down your collar. We we joke, we used to call them like railroad tracks, like they literally look like railroad tracks on your collar just because there's so many of them. Um and so that's how you're gonna start to be able to tell and distinguish and kind of see what's going on on the uniform perspective. Um, and then there's also a cool um thing called the midshipman in ranks, right? So, as a first-class midshipman, if you don't hold one of those billets, you're just a just a midshipman who's kind of handling their stuff. And this is usually designated for midshipmen who are like a part of the iJEP program um and they're kind of going to graduate school, so they're off campus a bunch, you know, they're commuting to their graduate school. Um, usually those kind of billets are are, you know, or I guess those folks are midshipmen in ranks a lot of times. And that midshipmen in ranks means again, you don't have that additional military billet. Um, you're kind of just responsible for yourself, um, and that's and that's it. And they'll wear these like big kind of eagle-looking um collar devices for that, for that midshipman as well. So that's what you're looking at when you're looking at the working blues. For the NWUs, it's a rank tab, kind of right on the middle of their chest, right in the sternum area. Um, and that's gonna kind of distinguish um what they what they look like. Again, plebe, nothing. Um, a first class, or excuse me, a third class midshipman is gonna have like kind of one diagonal stripe going down underneath it, second class, two diagonal, and then the the first E's will kind of have again their rank uh on that tab as well. So that's what we're looking at there for uh the midshipmen and how you would tell the rank as well when they're wearing um their uniforms. All right. It was a good rundown. I think I think that was I think that was uh I think that was alright. I think we like that. Um now we're gonna shift to this next uniform that is known as blue and golds. Uh so the blue and golds are like the sweatsuits that you see, right? Like they kind of got the jogging suit, the blue pants with like the kind of the gold striping down the side, excuse me, gold striping down the side. Um they have the the blue jacket with the Naval Academy crest on one breast

Warrior Wednesday & Tactical Thursday

Speaker 22:53

pocket, and then usually their name and their classier on the other. Um, you would wear the blue and gold uniform with uh your blue rim, like your Naval Academy issued blue rim shirt underneath it, and athletic shoes. And that kind of completes the entire blue and gold outfit. Um the blue and golds are usually saved. Again, midshipmen are now allowed to wear them after 1730. So after 5:30 p.m. on any given weekday, you're allowed to wear your blue and golds. Um usually you'll see midshipmen wearing blue and golds to evening meal, right? Like when they go to evening meal at the rolling tray, which we talked about in the previous episode, um they'll wear their blue and golds. If they go to an academic building and later in the evening, they can wear their blue and golds, or basically anywhere across campus you can wear blue and golds. Um, and especially for the plebs, right? Like the plebs are gonna wear them. We're gonna talk about this term uh spirit gear a little bit later in the episode. Again, a lot of the upper class midshipmen can just kind of wear spirit gear around campus into the evenings, but definitely for evening meal, you can't wear spirit gear into King Hall, like to eat in King Hall. So again, for that evening meal, you're gonna see midshipmen wearing the blue and gold uniforms all the time. Um let's see. Yeah, no, I think that's um pretty good rundown on the blue and golds. Again, blue and golds are an interesting uh component worn a lot on campus. You'll likely see them. A lot of times, if there's a midshipment, also we call on chit, right? I I know you've probably heard that term, maybe on some previous episodes. Uh, again, being on chit is basically being on a medical excusal, like from a uh prescribed from a doctor. A lot of times, if you have a foot injury, an ankle injury, a knee injury, a hip injury, um, where the type of shoe that you wear matters in your recovery, right? A lot of times, in order to allow the midshipmen to wear, again, kind of like well-supporting shoes, a lot of times they'll be allowed to go to class in blue and gold as well. And that would be something specifically prescribed by a medical professional. Um, and so those are the things you may see midshipmen wear blue and golds to class once in a while as well. All right. This term spirit gear. So spirit gear is basically just Navy, uh, Navy what you would consider maybe civilian clothes. It looks like civilian clothes, but again, it's shorts, t-shirts, sweats, sweatshirts, stuff that has that has Naval Academy or Navy branding on it, right? And for example, kind of the best way to put this is like um if you can buy it in the mid-store or it's issued to you as a varsity athlete, like that's kind of what we're talking about as spirit gear, right? Like all the stuff that's got the don't tread on me, Naval Academy Athletics, Navy, Naval Academy, all that is what we consider spirit gear. Spirit gear, again, like to me that's the best, because again, I again, my perspective is one as a varsity athlete. I played basketball all four years. We would get clothes issued to us to like work out in, right? Like we would get Naval Academy basketball shorts and Naval Academy basketball t-shirts and like all this different stuff and sweats and sweatshirts that was kind of provided by Under Armour as like, again, this like the sponsor of Naval Academy Athletics, like we would get all our stuff. So those like Navy athletics and Navy basketball t-shirts and stuff, I could wear in the evening, right? I could wear in Bancroft Hall. We used to not, I'm trying to remember. Actually, I'm just getting old at this point. I don't think we used to be able to wear those in the academic buildings in the evening. We would have to put on blue and golds if we were going to the academic building. Now, again, what's going on now at the Naval Academy for sure is that um the upper class midshipmen, right? Again, if you're not a plebe, the upper class midshipmen can wear spirit gear in the academic buildings in the library after 1730 p.m., right? Like after evening meal, if you're going to the academic buildings to study, you

Reading Rank On Different Uniforms

Speaker 26:33

can wear spirit gear. Um, and that's what spirit gear is, right? And again, plebs, plebs don't rate spirit gear normally. So if you're a plebe, right, like in Bancroft Hall, you're not allowed to wear your spirit gear unless, again, you're going in transit to your like varsity practice, right? Like you can wear your spirit gear as you're walking to practice and back from practice. You can wear it as you're walking to games, back from games, but the moment you're back on deck, you need to get showered or whatever, and then put on um like the actual navy, uh like your your blue rim and uh oosnas or blue and golds, right? And so um that's kind of the the differential there uh when it comes to spirit gear. Now we're gonna get to the fun stuff. The iconic uniform, the summer whites, right? Like the summer whites is again, everyone loves the summer whites. Like summer whites are the iconic, they're the Tom Cruise, they're the you know, they're the top gun uniform. Everyone loves the summer whites. Summer whites are the bane of my existence. I literally, after again, they're cool for like the first time you wear them, you're like, wow, look at me, like I'm in my summer whites. Then they just become the biggest nuisance in the entire world. I literally, I despise the summer white uniform. It's just they get dirty all the time, they're impossible to keep clean, uh, they're they're generally uncomfortable, right? Like, I'm just not a fan. I'm just not a fan. They're like from an actual lifestyle perspective and having to like actually be the person who is wearing them frequently, uh, they're the worst. They're the worst. Now, again, you're gonna get issued three sets, right? Uh three three shirts, three, three white pants, um, a belt, right? All this different stuff. The white uniforms they get dirty so easy, right? And like they can become extremely difficult. And then on top of that, as a midshipman, again, you're not allowed to, when you're in your dress uniform, when you're in that summer white uniform, you can't wear a backpack. You're not allowed to wear a backpack. So if you have a bag with you, you have to carry it in your hand. And this is one of these interesting things because as you become a midshipman, you know, there's a couple of different factors. Like if you're a first class or second-class midshipman and you're on duty that day, you're on watch, you're the CDO, you're the company duty officer, you have to be in your dress uniform. So now you're walking a class and you're whites, but you're not allowed to wear a backpack. So now you're holding a backpack with 30 pounds of books in it all the way to class and back. It's like, again, everything about the summer white uniform is just a hassle. It's just a hassle, it is, right? Do you look good? For sure. I ain't trying to argue that. I love our dress uniform from that perspective, but like when you have to wear them all the time, it's so frustrating. In the Naval Academy, you wear your summer white uniforms all of the freaking time. Like, literally all of the freaking time. And so, again, the beautiful thing, again, we'll talk a little bit more later in the episode, but like the beautiful thing is you have dry cleaning service, and guess what? You're gonna utilize the heck out of that thing, or at least you need to be, because otherwise it's nearly impossible to like actually keep everything clean. Right? And so um, those are the summer white uniforms. Again, you got the white shoes, white socks, white pants, white belt, the white shirt, um, you know, name tag, ribbons on one side. And then again, as it comes to um the rank, now we're looking at shoulder boards, right? And those shoulder boards are almost directly comparison to what we were talking about about the almost like the velcro tabs that you can put on your sternum piece with the NWUs. Um, so again, shoulder boards, plebes are just gonna have um the fouled anchor, um, but no stripes. Second class or excuse me, excuse me, third class midshipmen, um, the sophomores, wow my gosh, third class midshipmen, the sophomores of the Naval Academy will have one diagonal stripe, second class midship, two diagonal stripes, and then the first class midshipmen will be um, you know, respective to the rank that they hold. Um, and so again, a first class midship who holds that midshipman in ranks um, you know, spot will have just the fouled anchor, again, that fouled anchor, but a single um horizontal stripe instead of diagonal. Um, and then midshipmen, midshipman officers, again, people who hold a billet, who hold the military role, again, midshipmen ensign, midshipment lieutenant junior grade, midshipman lieutenant, uh, exact making your way up. Um, instead of the fouled anchor, they're gonna have a star. So it's gonna be a small star on their shoulder board. Um, and then the

Blue & Golds And Spirit Gear

Speaker 30:58

amount of stripes is relevant to their rank, right? If you're a midshipman ensign, you'll have a star and one stripe, midshipman, lieutenant junior grade, a star, two stripes, and as you make your way up, three stripes, four, five, five stripes, and then the brigade commander has six, right? And so um, that's how you're generally telling it again. These are really thin stripes, like really, really thin stripes. Um, you know, compared, you'll be able to tell which ones are the actual officers, the commissioned officers, uh, two ways. Um, one, because their star is gonna be uh significantly larger, and same with a stripe, it's gonna be a full, uh again, I forget the actual. Um, you know, width of it. I think it's like a half inch or maybe an inch, um, you know, gold stripe. It looks significantly different than the midshipman stripe. And then the second thing is the cover. So as you're looking at the combination cover, again, the difference between like a midshipman and an actual officer, uh the midshipmen have that fouled anchor. Um, again, that's kind of like at the center of their cover, um, whereas the officers have the giant like eagle and crest. Um, and so again, they look significantly different. I promise you, if you like key in and notice and you look at one midshipman cover and then one officer cover, you're gonna be able to distinguish the two and kind of what they look like. So that's how you'd be telling the difference between like a midshipman and an officer. That's how you tell the difference in the rank between the midshipmen uh as it comes to the uniforms as well. All right. Um, oh yeah. Uh and then again, I think uh something interesting on this like perspective and topic as well, is like, again, um, as I'm talking about, uh, wearing whites is like not easy, not fun, not good. Uh we actually we don't like it, right? Like we don't like it. And so uh a common punishment that you may see on the yard is a lot of times, again, upper class midshipmen, especially with this tailoring away from physical punishments and having to find other way to kind of provide remediation for the pleas. Uh, you may see things like what we call 24-hour whites, which is like you have to wear your white uniform all day. If you are going anywhere, you have to be in your white uniform, right? You have to be in your summer whites. Going to class, summer whites. Even if the uniform of the day is NWUs or working blues, you're going in your summer whites. Uh King Hall at night, you can be in your blue and golds, psych, you're gonna be in your summer whites, right? And as we're talking about, that's a huge inconvenience because now you're having to carry everything in your in your hand. There's no backpacks, your uniform's getting dirty all the time. So you wear it on Monday, it gets dirty. Now on Tuesday, you're wearing a dirty uniform and you're getting yelled at for having a duty uniform, and you only have three pairs and they only do laundry once a week. So now you're like in this like perpetual losing cycle, which again is the point. Again, I think we get a lot of times like, oh, well, how are they supposed to be able to do it? Like, honestly, you're not, right? Like, again, you're meant to, you're meant to be put in this like adversity, struggle, stress, all this different stuff to kind of like figure it out, right? And work how work through how you do it. Um, and so anyway, that's a big thing when it comes to the summer white uniform. The next uniform that you'll see, and again, this one's relevant because the uniform changeover literally just happened on October 1st. So on October 1st, um you switch from wearing summer whites as your formal uniform to the SDBs. So, again, these are seasonal uniforms. Um, and so the SDBs, technically you can wear your SDBs year-round, but they're the prescribed formal uniform um during the winter, right? And so, again, October 1st, changeover happens from the summer whites to the SDBs. So, again, during the march on in the football game yesterday, you may have noticed that the midshipmen were not in the summer whites, they were in their SDBs, and that's because the formal uniform changeover happened on October 1st. So now, any time a midshipman would have been wearing summer whites a week ago, now they will be wearing their SDBs. Again, it's a change in the seasonal uniform, um, and it is now the formal, again, the formal stuff. So SDBs, black pants, same black shoes as the working blues, um, black belt, the kind of white dress shirt that you'll see, black tie, black blazer. Um, and then again, kind of some interesting distinctions. Again, as we talked about the midshipman uniform, how to tell midshipmen rank and kind of the differences between the officer uniform, um, is that the midshipmen are gonna wear these anchors on the collar of their blazer, right? And so those anchors kind of distinguish them specifically as a midshipman because as an officer, you don't wear the anchors anymore. The anchors go away, not a not important, not a part of the uniform, they completely go away. So midshipmen are gonna wear the anchors on their SDBs right around their collar. Um and then you tell their rank it's on the sleeve for the SDBs. At the bottom of the sleeves near your wrist area is where you're gonna tell a midshipman rank, right? And so again, as a plebe, nothing. As a youngster, diagonal, one diagonal. As a second class, two diagonals, and then as a midshipman, as we were talking about, star plus the horizontal stripes making their way up, right? And so uh a lot of these things will have very similar crossovers, just where they are located is a little bit different. The officers, the actual commissioned officers, the staff, everyone, you know, actual Navy officers who are wearing their SDBs, again, no anchors on their collar. They're again because you wear the white combination cover with the SDBs, that's part of the uniform as well. Again, as we talked about the differential there. Um, and then again, same thing on the wrists, they're gonna be kind of the thicker gold stripe, the thicker gold star, um, which again you're gonna distinguish as officer versus midshipman. SDBs still can't wear with with the jacket specifically. This is gonna be an interesting with the jacket specifically, like the actual blazer, can't wear a backpack, so you gotta hold it. Um, go hold the backpack or whatever

Summer Whites: Iconic And Annoying

Speaker 36:38

the case is. So those are big things going on when it comes to the uniforms again. Um, again, the service dress. Oh, yeah, I keep saying this term SDBs without explaining to you guys. This is the whole point of academy inside her. SDB Sierra Delta Bravo, SDB. The SDBs stands for the service dress blue, right? The service dress blue, again, obviously we talked about earlier, they are black, but the service dress blues is the uniform. Again, you will hear them most commonly, very infrequently will someone use the entire spoken-out acronym of a service dress blue, right? Like you will hear, like, hey, uniform of the day or hey, uniform for this event is SDBs, right? So SDBs is a is a very common acronym and term that you'll hear utilized over and over and over again when it comes to uniforms. But shipment are generally um issued two two jackets, uh like two blazers, um, and they do get tailored, right? And if you want them further tailored, you can absolutely go down to the tailor shop and kind of get them um tailored and fit extremely well, especially as you either gain weight, lose weight, whatever the case is, you know, based on what's going on, you can just go down to the tailor shop and get them adjusted. Um, but you always, you know, always see the midshipmen uh in SDBs. Summer whites in SDBs. Now that we've kind of talked about the formal uniforms, uh you will wear them a thousand percent more as a midshipman than you do in the fleet. When I I would wear summer whites or SDBs freaking four times a week. Four times a week. I mean, we're talking like 200 times a year, probably as a midshipman. An insane amount. When I got to the fleet, when I commissioned in my six years as a Navy officer, I probably wore them six times. Maybe literally like once a year. Like you just, you just the formal uniform is so much less frequent in the fleet. And so, like, that was always hilarious to me. And it kind of comes back to this is a fun segue into like the common sentiment among midshipmen a lot of the times, with the amount of tourism that comes through, with the amount of people that come onto campus, with the amount of people that are taking pictures and watching midshipmen as they walk up and down, and the football games where we have to be in our dress uniform because there's you know cameras there all the time, and you know, the games nationally televised, and so we need to look good and presentable and all this different stuff. Like, midshipmen joke all the time. Like, we we feel like zoo animals, right? Like we are just being witnessed, watched, observed all the time. We're a fun spectacle. People can talk about oh my gosh, look at how amazing these midshipmen are, look how sharp they are, look at all this amazing stuff, dude. It's the worst. It is the worst. And like wearing it is is so tough. It's so difficult. It's one of the like ridiculous parts of being a midshipman because you really do feel like a zoo animal. You have to wear your formal uniforms all the time. Every single thing is like a big event, every single thing is formal. You have to put on these uniforms which are extremely uncomfortable, inconvenient, all of the above, all of the time. Um and it's a really unique part of the Naval Academy midshipman experience, right? Because you are in those suckers freaking all the time. And so um, so that's a funny, funny perspective. All right. We're gonna kind of um uh this is, I mean, I think this is fun. I think this is going well, which I'm gr like I love, but we're gonna kind of try and move quickly through the rest here. The khaki uniforms. The khaki uniform, you're really only gonna see during the summers, right? It's a very inconvenient, or not inconvenient, it's a very uncommon uniform for the midshipmen during the academic year. Um, again, you'll see the staff wear it a lot. A lot of the officers who are teachers at the Naval Academy are gonna wear their khaki uniforms a lot. Um, but the midshipmen are basically gonna wear them as plebe summer detailers and and sometimes like out on summer training. When I went and I did my internship at the Naval Postgraduate School between my second class and first year, my uniform of the day was khaki uniforms, right? And so again, you wear khakis a lot during the summer, um, not a lot during the academic year. Khakis are what you wear in the fleet, right? Like you wear khakis all the time. Instead of having to wear your whites or your SDBs, when there's something that's like a little bit more formal, you're going um and uh you know there's an important meeting, someone in in quote unquote important is coming to visit, whatever the case is. Normally you just wear your khakis, right? A lot of time your your working uniform uh is the end dubs, you're in your type threes, that's like your normal working uniform, or in what we call coveralls, which kind of look like the pajamas when you're on a ship, you're on a submarine, whatever the case is, a lot of time you're wearing your coveralls. Um, but again, the kind of the step up, the little more intermediate uniform choice is khakis, and you'll see khakis worn a lot. Um, all right. The next is the O coat. So we have a uh we call it the O coat, it's the overcoat. Uh that's the long one that goes like all the way down. It's really warm, it's nice, it goes all the way down basically to your ankles. You're basically only ever gonna see a midshipman wear it during the Army Navy game. Um, if so if a midshipman's wearing it outside of that, um very infrequent, very infrequent. Again, the overcoat is basically like an Army Navy game uh uniform. It's basically about it. I don't know what else to tell you. You're as a midshipman, you're gonna buy like a $600 jacket to wear it once a year. And then when you get to the fleet, probably never, right? And so uh again, the O coat is like very specific to that. It does look nice, it's great, it's iconic. You see it all the time during the Army Navy game, otherwise it goes away. The peacoat, um, or what is more commonly known as the reefer um was something that I loved. Okay. This is where I'm gonna take my stand. This is where I'm gonna take my stand all the time, midshipmen during the winters, when it's when it is cold out. Cold. Okay, Annapolis gets cold. It does. I don't know what else to tell you. Annapolis gets cold. Um, it starts to snow, especially again. I grew up in California, dude. I like sunshine. I want to wear my rainbow flip-flops all day, every day. I live in San Diego now. Like, this is what I want. I want to wear shorts, I want to wear flip-flops, I want to

SDBs And Seasonal Changeover

Speaker 42:48

be comfortable, I want to be low-key. I like it. That's who I am. So when I got to Annapolis and it started snowing for the first time, right? And it's zero degrees out and there's a massive wind chill going on. I want it to be warm. So I would wear the peacoat. The peacoat was incredible. It kept you incredibly warm. You wear your gloves with it, it's great. You are asking to get bullied. You're asking to get bullied. I don't look, I don't know what I don't know what else to tell you. I don't know what else to tell you. Like, for whatever reason, it is like socially taboo uh to wear your reefer. And I don't get it. I get it, it's not cool. I get I guess, sure, whatever, right? But like it keeps you warm and like midshipmen would never wear it. Like people would look at me like I was crazy. Again, of the 4,400 midshipmen on campus, I was one of maybe like three people who would wear the reefer. And I did everything in my power to try and make it cool again. I reached out to a couple of the midshipmen. I was like, does anyone wear a reefer? Or is it still like people look at you crazy and they're like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah no, no. If someone wore a reefer, I'd totally bully them. And I was like, gosh darn it, dude. Like I, you know, I tried, I tried to make a movement. I tried to get the peacoat, you know, really part of the whole movement here. Um and it's not. And again, this peacoat is again, it's like the it's like the O coat, it's like the overcoat, it's a nice big warm winter jacket. Um, but it basically goes down to your like just above the knee, really, versus like all the way down to your ankle. Um but here's my thing. Here's my look, if there's any midshipmen who listen to this, first of all, why do you have an hour in your day to listen to this? I like I love you, I appreciate it. It's very cool of you, but you know, whatever. Um wear the reefer. Wear the reefer. I'm telling you, wear the reefer. Like, I'm uh I this is this is a hard stance. Like, this is my hot take. If I were to go on subway takes, like this is what I would say, which is like the the the peacoat is the best thing in the Navy uniform. It's the best thing in the Navy uniform. It keeps you clean, it keeps you cold or keeps you warm during the winter. It's great in class. You can just like sit and sink into your chair and you got that big warm peacoat on you, dude. Elite. Elite. I'm telling you, people just don't want to wear it because it's not cool. Ugh. Destroyed me. This is something me and Commander Mernain talked about all the time. He was like, Grant, I'm so proud. Like, I'm I'm so glad that you've chosen to get bullied for the sake of staying warm. Like, good on you. Like, that's what it's all about. And I was like, thanks, sir. I'm telling you, like, this is what it, that's what this is what we do. Instead of wearing the peacoat, a lot of midshipmen choose um to instead utilize what we call the Ike jacket, the Eisenhower jacket or the Ike jacket. The Ike jacket is really like um, it's almost like a windbreaker. Um, and so it's not that warm. It's not that warm, but again, it is it is a jacket, it's an overlayer, I guess. Um, but the ike jacket uh is worn all the time. So you're allowed to wear the ike jacket with your working blues. So a lot again, a lot of time during the winter, midshipmen will wear um, you know, their working blues and then they'll put the ike jacket over it. And for a lot of the times it's sufficient, um, but sometimes it gets really cold. In my opinion, the ike jacket just doesn't do enough. But hey, look to each their own. What you will also see a lot, right? And I think this is a really interesting um perspective, which is um, as we were talking about, in the SDB uniform, the service dress blue uniform, again, you're not allowed to wear a backpack when you have the actual blazer on. But what about if you wear your Ike jacket? So there's something that we call service dress Ike, right? Instead of service dress blues, we call it service dress Ike. So instead of wearing the blazer, basically you have the white t-shirt, the tie, and then you put your ike jacket over instead of the blazer. And so for a lot of the midshipmen who are on watch on duty as the CDO, et cetera, like what they'll do is they'll wear the blazer for like morning formation, et cetera, anytime there's kind of a more formal event. And then for the academic day, they'll put on their ike jacket so they're allowed to wear their backpack and go like to and from class in their backpack and kind of operate in what is more informally known as service dress Ike, which is you're in your SDBs, but instead of the actual blazer, you take the blazer off and put on your Ike jacket instead. Um, and so um again, it's just better if you're on watch. And so that's a cool one. All right. I think there are a couple more. Uh too many, too much. Those are the those are the main uniforms you're gonna see. If you have any questions about all of that, let me know. Now we're gonna run through some like pretty serious, um, kind of uh seriously quick uh stuff here, which is keeping them clean. Again, weekly dry cleaning service, use it. Tailor shop, use it. Incredible resources again between the the cobbler shop, the tailor shop, and dry cleaning, these are things that midshipmen pay for. Whether you believe it or not, like every single month out of your paycheck before like the paycheck hits your account, you are paying for those three services. And so they should just be utilized. And again, it's super convenient because you just drop your dry cleaning off in your company spaces. It's not like you have to go somewhere, you don't have to go to laundry because laundry is actually off campus. Um uh you just you just drop it off and then it gets delivered back and you get fresh dry cleaning every week, right? Like huge. Like that thing's incredible. So take advantage of the dry cleaning, like that's awesome. Clobber shop, tailor shop. How do midshipmen pay for these uniforms? Because, yes, all of these all of these uniforms are issued to the midshipmen, but also, yes, you pay for them. And that comes from what is more commonly known as the ACE loan. Uh, it's not technically a loan, it's more of an advance. So, again, the ACE is uh is it's actually, I'm just gonna read the definition here. It's an interest-free government pay advance established by Congress to provide funding for mandatory clothing and equipment costs incurred by midshipmen. So at the start of every again, you you come into the Naval Academy, you get issued a bunch of stuff, you know, during pleep summer. That is paid for by your ACE advance or your ACE loan, right? And so basically every midshipman, whether or not they know it, is basically signing to, again, basically take like a

Feeling Like Zoo Animals

Speaker 48:38

$15,000 more less. I think it's like $13,500 or something like that, um, uh, of an advance to pay for all your clothing and equipment costs as part of being a midshipman. I'm gonna do a full money episode again, we talked about it. I'm gonna do a full money episode at some point. But these are one of these interesting things because if you're listening to this, you're someone who's coming in the future. Again, you're a parent of a midshipman or of a future midshipman, someone who may be coming in a future class. You can help pay down that ACE advance through 529 plans, grants, scholarships, et cetera. So you can pay it off faster than you would through a normal payment plan, right? And again, technically, the Naval Academy doesn't accept 529 plan. So you can't like pay via the 529 plan, but if you dispersed the 529 plan to the individual, like the person who's gonna be a midshipman, and then they use that money to pay the midshipman pays the Naval Academy, that's allowed, right? So it's a little bit of a semantics thing, but we kind of work through how that works or like how that actually functions logistically. But that's a really interesting one because again, midshipmen, because we're talking about the fact that you're paying for dry cleaning, you're paying for copper shop, you're paying for the tailor shop, every month you're paying back that advance, you're paying back the ace loan. But if you are able to pay that off the bat, then that's money the midshipmen get to keep every single month when it comes in their paycheck and in what we call held pay. So again, all that stuff we'll describe in the future. We don't have time today. Um, but again, you are paying for those uniforms, and there are ways to kind of like pay it off with grant scholarship, $529 money, et cetera, um, in a way that allows midshipmen to keep more money out of their monthly paycheck and in their held pay that comes uh basically twice a year. All right, to close it out, what happens when you graduate? So, what happens when you graduate is um the blue and golds go in the trash. The working blues, they go in the trash. These are two things you will never ever ever wear again, unless, again, usually I kept one set. One, the the blue and gold jacket, because again, it's cool to have the Naval Academy crest and your name, your last name and your year on it. It's a cool keepsake. I've never worn it once since I graduated. Your working blue shirt, um, never gonna wear it ever again. Goes away, uh, just disappears. You're done with it. Again, I kept one. A lot of people keep one, and you'll see a lot of grads come back to like football games and wear their working blue shirt. Sweet. Again, do do what you want to do. I love it. Um, and so again, those two things completely gone. The spirit gear, it's still to this day the only thing I wear. Again, like I was given a lot of free athletic workout clothes nine or 10 years ago as a part of the Navy basketball program. Guess what? They still work. I love repping Navy basketball. Um, why would I ever spend money on workout athletic clothes when um the ones that I have still work and they were given to me

Khakis, Overcoat, And Peacoat

Speaker 51:18

for free? So what's funny is the spirit gear, the stuff that I purchased the spirit gear is still the stuff that I wear most frequent. Again, after graduation, like we talked about, your SDBs and your summer whites, you basically once a year. I mean, I mean I mean that so genuinely. You're basically wearing them like once a year, very infrequent. Do you ever see people in in their dress uniforms? The NWUs, the end dubs, the type threes, all the time. You like those are gonna be your most common uniform for a lot of communities. Again, if you're on a ship or on a submarine, instead of the end dubs, you'll usually wear your coveralls, which kind of again, like um, I don't even know how to describe it, but they're they look like um uh almost like a like a dude. I don't know. I don't know how to describe it. Like we call them poopy suits, right? Like we call them poopy suits. They're like they're meant to kind of get torn up, dirty, etc. Like they're like a blue-collar plumbing looking uniform, right? And so um a lot of times you wear those. We don't have those at the Naval Academy, they don't get issued to us. That would be something that you would get when you get to the fleet. Um, and then khakis, you'll wear the khakis all the time in the fleet. So you keep those, you take those from being a midshipman and you wear those in the fleet. Again, no alterations need to be made. You just change your collar insignia to represent the fact that you're an officer. Um, so those go well. Same with the NWUs. Again, you don't have to change the NWU uniform, they're the exact same. You just change the tab that goes on your sternum. So um, those are great when it comes to all that stuff. Again, when you graduate as an officer, again, the white uniforms stay the exact same. You just change out the shoulder boards and you change your cover. Um, in the SDBs, you'll have to take to the tailor shop to kind of get um a new uh new stuff sewn on to your sleeves. So um, all that stuff happens. Now, if you graduate and you go Marine Corps, then you just throw everything away and buy a whole new set of uniforms for everything in the Marine Corps. Uh if you go naval aviation, you basically throw everything away too. Because again, I've been with my wife for over three years now, and I have a lot of friends who are naval aviators. Um, I haven't seen her wear anything but her flight suit for three straight years. I've I've literally never seen her wear anything else. She wears her flight suit every single day. So uh so yeah. So again, they'll get issued flight suits as soon as they they get to the fleet, when they get to their squadron, they'll get flight suits. Um, but that's it. So um, wow. What a recap. Um, a big thank you to people who had questions about uniforms. I hope this was like a fun recap and like it just gives you something to pay attention now. Again, my mom, super OCD, lover to death. She was always trying to figure out like what do all these things mean? Like, why, where, how do I tell, what should I be looking for? I hope this episode kind of gave the full rundown on that. So um looking forward to it. If anyone has any questions, let me know. Otherwise, this wraps up another incredible on the yard episode. Super excited about it. Um, thank y'all so much. And uh, you know, a big shout out to the Naval Academy Alumni Association of Foundation for including me in their fleet of podcasts and uh in supporting Academy Insider. So love it. Thank you, and I hope you all have a great day. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Academy Insider Podcast. I really hope you liked it, enjoyed it, and learned something during this time. If you did, please feel free to like and subscribe or leave a comment about the episode. We really appreciate to hear your feedback about everything and continue to make Academy Insider an amazing service that guides, serves, and supports midshipmen, future midshipmen, and their families. Thank you.