Why would somebody on active duty not wear their dressiest of dress uniforms to any ball let alone the Marine ball? Is this attitude prevalent in the Chair Force? I thought they were all about being fancy.
As former USAF: purchase of mess dress is not required. Standard service dress is "dressed up" by replacing the standard blue tie with a bow tie. This is . . . not impressive. A civilian tux looks better than service+bow tie. USAF mess dress also bears considerable resemblance to a civilian tux, with decorative additions.
Time to work on spiffing up USAF dress, then. Meanwhile, the Army changes uniforms approximately every six months and hands out berets like party favors.
Why would somebody on active duty not wear their dressiest of dress uniforms to any ball let alone the Marine ball? Is this attitude prevalent in the Chair Force? I thought they were all about being fancy.
I blame it on the Mail Room culture.
As former USAF: purchase of mess dress is not required. Standard service dress is "dressed up" by replacing the standard blue tie with a bow tie. This is . . . not impressive. A civilian tux looks better than service+bow tie. USAF mess dress also bears considerable resemblance to a civilian tux, with decorative additions.
Time to work on spiffing up USAF dress, then. Meanwhile, the Army changes uniforms approximately every six months and hands out berets like party favors.
Marine dress is exemplary. Our Army dress…a distant third…reminds me of a feeble attempt at copying the good bits everyone else has.
Huzzah!
I was always surprised to discover that the Marines had balls. (The only good marine is a submarine.)
We serve them up regularly, so enjoy.
What can you expect from the branch that reserves the fighting to their officers? ;-)