Sergeant Major of the Army Dan Dailey wants to bring back the iconic Eisenhower jacket

Posted 2015-07-17 12:42 by Grunt Report with 0 comments

Sergeant Major of the Army Dan Dailey wants to bring back the iconic Eisenhower jacket, and he needs your help. In a new survey to the force, Dailey wants to hear if soldiers like the idea of the waist-length jacket made popular by Gen. Dwight Eisenhower during World War II.

The proposed jacket would “add one layer of etiquette” for soldiers who may need to go from the Class Bs to a more formal appearance without transitioning to the full Army Service Uniform jacket, Dailey said.

“I like it from a historical standpoint, history and honor,” Dailey said. “Eisenhower introduced the khaki version, and even though we’re in the blues today, it ties back to it.”

In addition to the Eisenhower jacket, the survey being sent to the force also will seek soldier feedback on several other uniform changes, including gender-neutral head gear and black socks with the new PT uniform.

“We want to make sure soldiers get a chance to express their opinion,” Dailey said. “It was very important to the [Army chief of staff] and myself for soldiers to know we’re listening to them.”

The survey will go out to soldiers’ military email addresses in batches beginning this week, and it will likely be up for at least two weeks, or until a large enough portion of the force has responded, Dailey said.

Even though Dailey has said he is “not going to be the uniform Sergeant Major,” he is pushing these potential changes to uniform items and wear in response to soldier feedback.

“I think we need an era of stabilization,” Dailey has said, even as the Army rolls out a new PT uniform and a new camouflage pattern for the Army Combat Uniform.

However, Dailey also is looking at how these changes also could boost morale across the force.

“If you can raise motivation by fixing things that don’t really have a negative effect on the standards and discipline of the Army, why not?” Dailey said.

A closer look:

Eisenhower jacket

The original “Eisenhower” or “Ike jacket” was patterned after the British battle jacket.

This new version, which already has a prototype, is a wind-proof blue jacket meant to be worn in a workplace setting.

In the survey, soldiers will be asked: “Should the Eisenhower jacket be adopted as an optional wear item, for males and females, in addition to the black windbreaker?”

When the Army got rid of its green Class A uniforms, “we got rid of a layer of etiquette,” Dailey explained.

The Class Bs are meant to be the Army’s day-to-day business uniform, while the Army Service Uniform is considered formal dinner wear, he said. The phasing out of the Class A green uniform meant there was no longer an in-between uniform.