Recent content by votan

i don't know what it was like back when "ships were made of wood and men were made of iron" but when I was in the navy in the 80s the usual reefer coat was the green navy deck jacket. if you were on a working party and loading stores you wouldn't want the buttons ripped off your pea coat or have...

aboard ship a "reefer" is a freezer.

hey all, i thought i'd post some info re: contract dates on tags. while i was in the US navy (84-88 active; 88-94 reserve) i was issued 2 pea coats. the first was the one i talked about earlier that had silver metal buttons. i finally made it back to my parents' house to look at the coats. my...

hey that's good to know. thanks.

sooo, i asked that guy i work with about the uniform change. he was in the navy from '79-'84. he said: "there was a uniform change?". oh well...:)

i'm not saying CPOs never wear bridge coats. it is possible that a chief, senior chief or master chief could wear a bridge coat. i never saw one wearing one. i'm just saying that CPOs do wear pea coats and they have gold buttons.

i was reading thru the thread, again, and i need to mention that chief petty officers (E7,8,9) do wear pea coats. in 10 years navy and reserves i never saw a CPO wearing a bridge coat (or warrant officer); only commissioned officers. i suppose a CPO could wear a bridge coat (RHIP-Rank Has Its...

yeah, i was surprised that 3 of my coats were that early as well. one still has the same 'naval clothing depot' that yours has. it's a size 44 and in minty shape. i was wearing it quite often until i bought the 'unworn' 1967 size 44 coat with the tags in the pockets. i wear that in the winter...

i work with a guy who was in the navy around 1980 or so. i'll ask him if he remembers anything. i am sure the change in question was before 1984. i never wore my issued coat. i wore an early one; no tag inside but it has light colored corduroy pockets, double stitched cuffs. it looks very much...

glad to be some help. IIRC, the silver button change was navy wide in the 1970s. when the navy changed back to black plastic they eliminated other uniform items, too (eg: the garrison "piss-cutter" cap). as for my issued pea coat, well, it seemed like a good idea at the time! at least i didn't...

yes, it was bootcamp: october 1984. we were issued our "seabag" (all our uniform items) and marched back to the barracks where we were ordered to cut the silver buttons off and sew on by hand new plastic ones. we did this as a group. there was a big uniform change in the early '80s (late 70s...

when we were issued our pea coats in bootcamp (october 1984) they had silver buttons. we had to cut them off and sew plastic anchor buttons on...by hand. i don't remember the exact date of uniform change but i'd say it was early '80s. there were quite a few sailors who were grumbling about the...

i'm new here as well and have followed this thread since the beginning. i was in the navy (gunner's mate) from 1984-1988 and reserves 1988-1993. i have a few pea coats from the early '60s and a new condition 1967 that had all the inspector tags in the pockets. great info here!

intro... hello, i've been lurking for a while and finally decided to join. i was in the navy and have a degree in archaeology. i like all kinds of old stuff. so, hello to you all!