Military Uniforms

[bcholmes]

Do any of my friends understand military uniforms? I’m especially interested in WW2-era US Army uniforms, for a comic project.

There are some details that I haven’t been able to make sense of and I’d love some insights.

Mirrored from Under the Beret.

Comments

[the_axel]

I think I can help.
What do you want to know?

[bcholmes]

I'm trying to figure out whether or not there's a "correct" form of shirts and trousers. Consider this page: http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/OnlineLibrary/photos/pers-us/uspers-e/d-eisnhr.htm . In several of those photos, Eisenhower has a dark shirt with a tan-coloured tie. In others he wears a light coloured shirt and tie.

(Similarly, in the film, Captain America: The First Avenger, Colonel Phillis -- played by Tommy Lee Jones -- sometimes appears in a light-coloured shirt and sometimes with a dark shirt with a light tie. Steve Rogers, when we see him in a service uniform, wears a dark shirt and a light tie.)

Is this just, "I feel like it's a dark shirt kind of day" thing?

Same with pants. It looks like there are light soloured pants, and pants that match the brownish jacket. Mix and match?

[the_axel]

Armies have several grades of uniforms, and which one a soldier wears depends on where they are and what they are doing. Typically, the more ceremonial the occasion, the fancier the uniform.

With Ike being General of the Army, he would have had a degree of flexibility in his uniform that wouldn't be available to most soldiers.

In terms of what soldiers should wear, Wikipedia is a good starting point
For the US Army in WWII, for example, check out:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army_uniforms_in_World_War_II