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While
in the Navy, the men wore only Navy issued clothing. The basic uniforms
were dress blues, undress blues, and undress whites. These uniforms
are the "sailor suits" that everyone knows. Worn for liberty,
leave, and special occasions such as change of command, the wool
dress blues had white piping around the collar and cuffs and a black
silk neckerchief. Aboard ship, sailors might be directed to wear
their undress blues. These uniforms lacked piping and cuffs and
only men standing watch wore the neckerchief. By World War II, dress
whites no longer existed. The cotton undress whites had no piping
or cuffs and the same neckerchief was worn. Dress black shoes and
white hats were standard for all of these uniforms. Blues served
as the cold weather attire while sailors donned whites in hot climates.
Since NORTH CAROLINA saw most of her duty in the South Pacific,
her men got a lot more wear out of their whites.
Fashionable
sailors splurged on "tailor-mades." Tailors in cities
like New York or San Diego would advertise that they could make
you a sharp looking outfit. The jumpers (tops) were form fitting,
some to the point of requiring a zipper on the side. The pants legs
hugged the thigh and ballooned out into bell-bottoms. While not
regulation, bell-bottoms were an old Navy tradition. With bell-bottoms,
a sailor could pull the bottom of his pant leg over his thigh and
keep them dry and not wrinkled. Some tailor-mades have beautiful
rainbow decorative stitching on the inside. Since tailor-mades were
not regulation, some officers tolerated them while others went strictly
by-the-book. If the officer in charge was strict, the wearer had
to almost sneak off and hope not to get caught.
For normal
work duty, the Navy provided dungarees, long-sleeved blue chambray
shirts and high-topped leather shoes. During the war, men were allowed
to purchase ball caps to keep the sun off their faces. In really
hot areas such as the laundry, men went around in their underwear.
When
the ship returned to Pearl Harbor for various reasons, the men working
out on deck had to be in whites. After dinner, no one could appear
on the outside decks in their dungarees. They had to be dressed
in whites.
Sometime
after the first air attack, the ship's deck was painted blue to
blend in with the ocean to make the ship less of a target from the
air. As a result, everyone had to send their white hats to the laundry
to be dyed blue as well so that they would not be easy targets against
a blue deck.
The Navy
issued the first complete set of clothing, but sailors were then
responsible for purchasing their clothes in the future. The cost
was deducted from their paychecks.
The Battleship
had a laundry and regulations for having laundry done was quite
detailed which is understandable with a compliment of over 2,000
men. Men placed their dirty clothes in a large bag. Laundry men
washed clothes by division and the division's laundry petty officer
received and distributed the clean clothes. The Navy required that
all clothing, blankets, and towels be stenciled with name and division
so that a man's possessions could be easily identified. Clothing
found strewn about ended up in the Lucky Bag and the owner placed
on report. Unidentifiable clothing could be auctioned with money
going to the ship's welfare fund.
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