The uniform is...

No discussion of West Point would be complete without an explanation of what cadets wear.

(I am not sure that a male graduate of the U.S. Military Academy would ever write that sentence. I am a bit surprised that I am writing it, but as I cover different episodes at West Point I am envisioning in my mind’s eye what we were all wearing. Not because I am a fashionista, but rather because that is what I see. I see cadets wearing whatever uniforms we happened to be wearing at the time. If readers are unfamiliar with West Point, I have to wonder, what on earth do they imagine us to be wearing???? What exactly do they see in their minds’ eye? Because I would like readers to have as accurate a picture as possible, I am taking a time-out to present this added information.)

It is astounding, really, to think of how many different uniforms we had to wear as cadets.

The very first uniform we donned, soon after our arrival on R-Day, was Gym Alpha. Why it was called this is beyond me; there was no Gym Bravo or Gym Charlie. But, as we were soon to learn, both West Point and the Army have strange names and acronyms for just about everything.

Gym Alpha (or “Gym A,” for short) consisted of a white t-shirt with the USMA crest and black shorts with yellow piping. (Eventually, we would be issued Gym Alpha shirts with our last names printed above the emblem.) On R-Day we wore this get up with black socks and black low quarter shoes. This is the only time, thank God, we would do this. Normally, we wore white socks and athletic shoes with Gym Alpha. This was the uniform we wore for PT, mass athletics, gym class, and intramurals. We could also wear it to study in at night in the barracks; it was sort of lounge wear for plebes. We were also issued form-fitting gray sweatpants and USMA sweatshirts to wear over Gym Alpha when the weather got cooler.

The second uniform we donned on R-Day was “white over gray.” Short-sleeved white button down shirts with gray epaulets worn with traditional cadet gray trousers (“gray trow”), black belts, black socks, and black low quarters. Eventually we would be issued white service caps to wear with this uniform, but during Beast new cadets wear gray service caps to distinguish them from the upperclass cadre. (During Beast, we also had to salute the upperclass cadre. They told us, “Whenever you see a white hat, salute.” The problem with this directive was that they didn’t say anything about green hats. One day the Supe walked all the way across North Area and not a single new cadet saluted him. The Supe is a three star general. Just about everyone in the Army – except for other three star generals and four star generals – salutes him. We quickly learned to salute not only the Supe, but all Army officers, as they all woefully outranked us.)

During our Oath of Allegiance ceremony, I don’t think we wore any hats. We hadn’t been issued them yet. We may have worn white gloves.

Cadets wear white gloves a lot – for parades, during drill, and for certain ceremonial and guard duties. We had lots of pairs of white gloves, and we had to make sure we always had at least one clean pair available on standby. You never knew when a clean pair of white cotton gloves might come in handy.

For Cadet Basic Training, our main training uniform was green fatigues and combat boots. We were soldiers going through basic training, albeit the West Point way, and we had to learn all the basic soldiering skills that new Army recruits learn. Green fatigues were also the normal everyday work uniform for soldiers in the regular Army. During our time at West Point, the Army switched from green fatigues to the camouflage Battle Dress Uniforms (BDUs), and we would receive our own BDUs at the end of Yearling year before we went out into the real Army on summer training missions.

At West Point, we dressed for dinner. We might be combat soldiers, but we were also gentlemen, goddamnit. While we wore fatigues all day long during Beast, the uniform for dinner was white over gray.

Once the academic year began, we put away our combat boots and fatigues. Our everyday uniform was called, unimaginatively, “as for class.” This consisted of short-sleeved (during fall and spring) and long-sleeved (during winter) dark gray button down shirts with epaulets and the ubiquitous gray trousers. We donned gray garrison caps in fall and spring and our gray service caps in winter.

During the winter months when we dressed for dinner or attended church or evening lectures, we wore the infamous Dress Gray – a gray wool tunic jacket with a priest-like black collar over gray trousers. As part of this uniform, we actually had to wear starched white collars and starched white cuffs with USMA cuff links. This was not a particularly comfortable uniform. It made you stand and sit ramrod straight, which I suppose was the intent.

For parades and formal occasions, like balls and graduation, we wore Full Dress (or FD), the elaborate gray wool coat with tails and ball-shaped brass buttons down the front. During spring, summer, or early fall, we wore FD over white; during winter, FD over gray.

During parades we also wore starched white cross belts with a highly polished brass breastplate and a starched white waist belt with a ceremonial black ammo pouch and a scabbarded bayonet. When cadets parade, they carry M14 rifles with stainless steel ceremonial bayonets attached.

They also wear “tarbuckets,” or black shakos with the USMA crest. While all underclassmen wear cattail-like attachments, Firsties wear feather plumes. Firsties also get to wear USMA sabers and saber belts, and they have to master a whole elaborate saber manual to replace the more mundane manual of arms.

We were issued a wide array of outerwear to go with all of these different uniforms: gray plastic raincoats, gray jackets to wear in Spring and Fall, short gray wool overcoats, long gray wool overcoats with capes (these are what you see cadets wearing during the march on before the Army/Navy football game), and black wool parkas with hoods. Whenever we traveled away from West Point in uniform and had to wear coats, we had to wear the Long Overcoat with the cape pinned back. Long overcoats are very heavy and quickly become extremely uncomfortable. None of the cadet-issue outerwear was particularly warm, which, given the nature of cold, windy winters along the Hudson River, was unfortunate.

In addition to our regular uniforms, we also had the pseudo-civilian blazer uniform. This was only for upperclass cadets. For male cadets, this meant gray trousers, white shirt, black and gold tie, and black blazer with class crest. For female cadets, it was the same, except we had gray skirts and USMA scarves instead of ties. We got to wear black patent leather pumps and panty hose. Black London Fog raincoats completed the ensemble for both male and female cadets.

I’m not sure why, but female cadets were also issued Dress Mess – long black skirt, white shirt, short white jacket, and black cummerbund. You pretty much looked like Julie from “Love Boat” in this get up. Dress Mess was for formal occasions like dinings-in or balls, which West Point called “formal hops.” (A dance of any sort at West Point was called a “hop,” as in “Let’s go to the hop!”)

We also had cadet pajamas, cadet robes (both summer and winter weight), cadet sweaters, and cadet swimsuits. We even had cadet flip-flops to wear to and from the shower.

Learning HOW to wear all of these different uniforms and knowing WHEN you were supposed to wear each one were all part of our cadet indoctrination, and, incredibly, it all quickly became second nature.