07 January 2019
Ahoy, Dogs of War!
This year, Your Favorite Brigade is going to try something new for us, and maybe new for the entire STARFLEET Marine Corps: We’re going to try to get as many people as we can into the same uniform for the Dress Mess!
(No, not everyone wearing the same articles of clothing at the same time – that would be silly, and fairly inappropriate for a family-friendly organization!)
We’re looking at the “new” Dress Blouse Black uniform, found in your Marine Force Manual 2015 on page 43 (Section 7.2.1.4). We’ll be using the updated guidelines for this uniform, as described in the “Uniform Wear Guidelines CH 1 201810.15” PDF, distributed by COFORCECOM to the Brigade OICs and published on the SFMC Facebook Group, under “Files,” by the ‘DANT. These guidelines have been incorporated into the new Brigade Uniform Guidebook, which will soon be available for download from the Third Brigade website (at 3bde.org) under the “Docs” tab.
When you look at this uniform, you will find that many of the pieces of it are used in other uniforms: the black trousers with bloodstripe, the footwear, the belt; common accessories also include the shoulder cord, combadge, and items purchased from the SFMC Quartermaster like rank insignia, collar brass, and various other pins. The ribbon rack worn with this uniform is the same one that you’d wear with most of the other Class A uniforms, too.
So, let’s look at some of these common uniform items. Black trousers are fairly easy to get. The MFM says they are “low waist, straight legged, without cuffs, and with side hip pockets.” (The Uniform Wear Guidelines agrees.) They both then say that a “1-inch wide red blood stripe will be worn on the outside seam of both trouser legs, running from the seam of the waistband to the bottom hem of the trouser leg.” So, how do you get that to happen?
When I joined the SFMC back in 2009, I bought a pair of black Dickey’s trousers, and some 7/8-inch grosgrain ribbon and took both of them to a dry cleaner’s/tailor’s shop. For about $35, they sewed the stripes on for me. (No one has noticed the 1/8-inch difference, or said anything if they did… I couldn’t find 1-inch ribbon.) If you are handy at sewing – or know someone, or some business that is — this is a great option.
If you’re one of the less stout Marines, I found a place that sells tuxedo pants with the red stripe, starting at $29.95. Visit https://www.solidcolorpants.com/mens-tuxedo-pants-flat-front-with-red-satin-band-black-concitor/?gclid=CjwKCAiAlvnfBRA1EiwAVOEgfKZlnEO4usz7i-ikEAdZM0wJjtyqwchT6DVvJ_ZjNXOsC2RH-NB3vhoC380QAvD_BwE.
Sportsman’s Guide (sportsmansguide.com) had some Italian police uniform trousers last year, that were black wool with a red stripe. They didn’t have them the last time I looked, but you never know. There are other places online that sell military and police surplus from around the world.
Regardless, a pair of black, low-waisted, straight-legged trousers without cuffs are fairly inexpensive (I bought a pair at Wal-Mart recently for about $22) and ribbon is pretty cheap. Finding a tailor is as easy as opening up your local Yellow Pages or your favorite internet search engine, and it cost me about $35 or so a few years ago – I doubt it’s gone up much – to have him sew on the ‘bloodstripe.’
If you don’t have a pair already, now would also be a good time to invest in a pair of black dress shoes, without any ornamentation.
That’s it for this time around. Keep watching this space for the next installment of our 2019 Uniform Build-Along!
BGN T. Clark,
S-3 (Operations), Third Brigade