In case you didn’t know, the US navy have three different uniforms, all of which are worn for different occasions. Other institutions such as the police and the military are not known for having multiple uniforms. Not the navy! The have dress uniforms, daily service uniforms, working uniforms, and uniforms for special situations, which have varied throughout the history of the navy.
The three categories of dress include the service, full, and dinner dresses from the least to the most formal.The Naval officers wear the service dress uniforms for official functions, not rising to full or dinner dress. The civilian equivalent is a business suit without the equipping of tactical gears. They can also use it with ribbons worn over the left breast pocket in all variations.
Full dress uniforms are primarily worn for ceremonies such as changes of command, retirements, commissioning, and decommissioning. They can also wear them for funerals, weddings, or when otherwise appropriate. Although it is like Service Dress, the Full Dress has ribbons, and full-size medals are worn above the left breast pocket, with ribbons worn on the opposite side for decorations without corresponding medals. Navy officers can carry tactical gears such as swords
Coming in different variants, the navy dinner dress is the most formal and has the most variants. They are often worn with miniature medals and badges with no ribbons. They can additionally wear dinner Dress Blue with a dress shirt and black bow tie. Many junior officers and enlisted personnel commonly wear these variants in a case where they cannot wear the more formal Dinner Dress Jacket variant. This is because the more formal variant is only prescriptible for Lieutenant Commander and above and optional for Lieutenant and below.
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