Navy Says Women's Skirts Optional

USA Today has the headline: Navy changes dress code, makes skirts optional. My mind flashed to a story I heard at West Point. It seems that Edgar Allen Poe was briefly a cadet there. He lasted one semester. According to the story, one morning he noted that on the bulletin board that cadets were to fall out for parade wearing "cross belts and under arms." So he did. Wearing nothing but those white web cross belts you still see, and carrying a rifle. Soon thereafter he was expelled.

The Navy also announced that there is a big uniform redesign coming. One of the changes includes replacing the khaki's for chiefs and officers, coveralls, and the standard blue shirt/blue pants ensemble with a single camouflaged utility uniform. The object of the camouflage isn't to be able hide aboard ship, but to conceal stains and wrinkles. A uniform that makes sense? Nah, that makes too much sense.