Post Classifieds

Many changes for the Corps uniform

By David English

On October 7, 2009

Pin It

Several changes were made to the uniform issue given to freshmen in the Norwich University Corps of Cadets this year, according to the commandant of cadets.

Corps freshmen were issued new patches, jackets and blankets, and were also are required to purchase their own boots, according to Brig. Gen. Michael Kelley, vice president for student affairs and commandant of cadets.

The jacket system is the major change for this school year," Kelley said. "The second major change was the idea that the students would bring their boots as opposed to receiving a boot issue."

The new jacket system is made up of a water-resistant outer shell and a "fall and spring jacket" to make up the liner, Kelley said.

"Over the past three or four years we found that students weren't wearing the Gore-Tex jackets as much," said Sgt. Maj. Justin Lefebvre, senior advisor for third battalion in the corps. "So we tried to increase the value, or the wear-ability of the liner."

"Cadets didn't like the (old) summer cadet jacket," said Matthew Sanford, the cadet in charge of rook issue. "We formed a uniform committee and we looked at the pros and cons," said the 21-year-old senior criminal justice major from North Stonington, Conn.

The decision of this committee was to issue a new jacket.

The decision to use a new jacket just "made sense," and would be "the best fit," said Sanford.

The new liner has a place for rank epaulets as well as Velcro strips for name tapes. It's also a heavier jacket and, according to Kelley, is the best jacket system for the cadets.

The new jacket system is an improvement that has been requested by students and made over the past few years, according to Kelley. The older summer cadet jacket will be phased out in the same way as the battle dress uniform.

This year another decision was made to require the incoming freshmen to bring their own boots instead of receiving them as part of their issue from the school.

"We saw that it might eliminate some foot problems," Lefebvre said. "They could choose what kind of boots they were going to wear as long as it fit within the standards of the army combat uniform."

The students bringing their own boots freed up funds to keep the cost of the uniform issue the same as the past year, Kelley said. "It is a zero-sum game."

Since items like the new jacket were more expensive and brought uniform charges up, the school was looking for other ways to reduce the cost.

"We didn't increase the budget," Lefebvre said. "This was to keep everything at the charged amount for the uniform issue."

The school also decided to have the rooks buy their own boots in attempts to reduce the number of foot injuries, according to Lefebvre. "We wanted (the freshmen) to break the shoes in before they got here."

Every student's feet are different, so in the past ordering one brand of shoes for every cadet just wasn't practical. When rooks buy their own boots, they could choose the brand that was most comfortable for them.

"In the past years we've had a lot of problems with certain brands," Sanford said. "The heels came off (and) there were severe problems."

In the past the uniform store would have to replace the damaged boots that they issued to the freshmen.

"It was not a financially sound decision to keep getting mass quantities of these boots that were falling apart," Sanford said.

The material of the blankets issued also changed. Instead of the wool, maroon and yellow fleece blankets were provided.

"We had some issues with the company that provides our blankets for us," Lefebvre said. "They were having some financial difficulties."

The uniform store management was forced to make a last-minute decision and go with a fleece blanket.

Lefebvre said it was easier to obtain nearly 1,100 fleece blankets instead of wool on such short notice. "It was quicker to have them made and sent to us."

Fleece is a less expensive material than wool, according to Kelley, and it fit within the budget set allotted for uniforms.

One other minor change that occurred this year was with the nametags and nametapes worn with the ACU uniform.

Instead of seeing the rooks with white name tags on their ACUs, they now have white company patches to separate themselves from the upperclassmen.

"The (company) patches were (designed) in white for the rooks," Kelley said, "because of the tradition of the rook white name tag."

A driving force behind not using white name tags on the ACUs was to allow the rook transfer from "corps (uniform) wear to ROTC (uniform) wear," to be easier, Kelley said. "All that would change (on the uniform) is a patch."

"I think the (uniform store staff did a) great job with an additional 120 rooks," Kelley said. "They were aided tremendously by the cadet S-4 staff; they did a really remarkable job."

Cadets are encouraged to talk with the staff at the uniform store about the new uniforms and issue and offer their opinions.