...I just hate the new Navy Service Uniform.
I'm short, and when I sit down at the USO reception desk, I can just barely see over the counter. Thus, I often don't see much of the person standing in front of me below mid-chest height. Since my distance vision isn't completely correctable, I usually cannot rely on a perusal of pins and service ribbons to recognize his service branch, especially when most of the Sailors and Marines coming through are headed to their first duty station and so are almost completely unadorned anyway.
Thus, when they're indoors and covers (hats) are off and a dozen different things are vying for my attention at the same time, here's what I see from behind the counter:
I don't even want to tell you how many Sailors I've addressed as Marine in the last three months...
@#$*^&$@#&! Navy Service Uniform.
I think my USO director likes it though. He's a former career Marine and the first time the new uniform appeared on the cover of Navy Times, he triumphantly slapped the newspaper on the desk and asked, "What does that look like? A Marine! Always knew the sailors were jealous of us."
[For those not familiar, that's a Marine on the left and a Sailor on the right. Click through to see their full uniforms.]
