The History of: The US Navy Navy Working Uniform (NWU) & AOR Camouflage Patterns | Uniform History 

Navy has blueberry camo, People: lmfao, where are you gonna blend into, the sea? Navy picks up green camo People: Lmfao, stay in the water Navy: -_-

Will the “blueberries” still live forever in urban hip hop?

you forgot to mention that aor series of camo aor1 aor2 and aor universal were desighned for the us army for the ucp replacement trials.

I hated wearing the blueberries (Sea Cadets) and the material's so thick you'd start cooking. At least my Sea Cadet unit ditched the dungarees by 8th grade for me.

I can't believe the Navy didn't test the flammability of the blue cammies before issuing them. Seems like a huge oversight.

The army's UCP would have been great for the Navy!!!!! it would have blended them into the urban gray on ship and highlighted them if they fell overboard!!!! The army should sell their pattern to the navy!!! LMAO!

I was in the German Army and worked for a NATO command for a few years in the mid-2000s. I remember getting more and more confused over the years with all the new US uniforms coming in. At the end, the US branches seemed to have more different uniform patterns then many of the European and Canadian forces combined. Needed to look at the flag to be sure which country I was dealing with as the uniforms constantly changed :) Felt like they went a little overboard with this development during this era.

A solid blue or solid grey would have been perfectly serviceable, why even bother with a pattern? they wanted to blend in with the ship...

I feel like Marpat is the only uniform that seemed to worked from the begining

Actually if you think about it, if the Marines, Army and Air Force all got their own camouflage patterns, then the Navy could stay with Woodland and still have a unique pattern!

As many problems as it had, I always liked how the Blueberries looked.

Only the US military could squander this much time and money.

Seriously how do you not have more subscribers? Your videos are very descriptive and detailed, love the content brother, keep it up =]

Having a unified digital look between branches as a branding image made a bit of sense, and hiding stains also makes sense, the Australian Navy have a similar Navy variant of their camo for example. However the colour is a terrible idea for man overboard situations, and the printing costs of fabric compared to plain Navy Blue fatigues is also a significant expense that is hard to justify with "it hides stains" compared to "we need camo because we're in the field and want to conceal ourselves". IMHO it's far better to have a unified pattern for camo like Britain has with MTP across all branches, and for use where camo isn't necessary have plain Olive Green flight suits for pilots, or plain Navy Blue Navy working uniforms for sailors onboard ships. The branding is more significant, and there's no messing around with different branches adopting different patterns at different periods, the branding image of all services going with a variation of MARPAT was ruined anyway as soon as the USAF decided they wanted a twist on digital and went with a strange tigerstripe (which is at least slightly better performing than UCP).

I was wondering how blue camouflage is supposed to work. Answer: It doesn't. We just thought blue looks cool.

I love how every branch wanted their own unique uniform and after that major screw up, all, apart from the Marines, have a variation of Crye multicam

The Blue NWU looks damn good. I didnt know the NAVY wore the SKY Camo BDU . I thought it never got adopted it was worn by the PLA - People's Liberation Army of China. I wonder if any ever wore Urban Camo . I know Night Urban was worn by Special Operations.

The "tatical sleeve pocket" was only good for one thing. It's more commonly referred to as "the dip pocket" because it's the only thing that sailors would use the pocket for.

Wearing this sht was the most embarrassing thing the USN made me do.

i never knew there was an uwu uniform

"Man overboard!" "Where?" "Dunno, he's wearing blueberry fatigues!" Did those admirals think this up when they were "three sheets to the wind?"🍻⚓

I actually really like the bright green uniforms. They stand out against the water and match the maritime aesthetic.

(Air Force here) the Navy Blue pattern was actually pretty cool! The Air Force ABU is still the worst out of all of them!

You should really dig into AOR1 and 2s history it is really fascinating and worthy of a stand alone video. Especially AOR2 and why it is verticle and AOR1 is Horizontal.

Camo for the navy... because its truly important to be camouflaged whenever you are in a ship, in the middle of the ocean... its not like seamen go overboard and could need to be rescued

5:04 "MC PON I think this is good news." Goddammit that acting is so terrible its amazing.

The NWU blue digital had a experimental type that if salt water soaked it would become bright orange so if you fell overboard youd be able to be spotted quickly. However, with salt water mist in the air and sailors being naturally belligerent towards each other (throwing salt water on each other) the Navy decided not to go that way

I honestly don’t know why the Navy couldn’t have just switched out their old tan working uniforms for solid navy blue.

The guacamole camo

4:00 *This seems pointless, less effective, and more ugly. Why turn it sideways?*

Ideal uniform for all branches: take the cut of the nwu type ii/iii and make them in desert and woodland marpat. Collar integrates well with body armor, Marines can use their collar rank while in garrison and have removable hook and loop patches for field/training, hook and loop on sleeves works for the army patches, army and air force get camo that actually works, and the cut of the uniform allows for sleeve rolling.

I remember these in boot camp '05. A lot of the staff and RDCs wore the woodland variant

The US Armed Forces: Masters of over designing a uniform

The dark blues and grays would actually make the NWU an ideal night camouflage.

I still get flashbacks when I see red ropes...

So glad I don’t wear blueberries anymore. There was nothing good to say about that uniform. I wore coveralls every chance I could.

Sorry Navy family, But this MARINE has to say it. The Navy was definitely show how by-polar it can be......

I'm not military but I like the Blue Cammo. I think they look cool.

CADPAT: MARPAT is my son ... I AM A FATHER!!! MARPAT: AOR and NWU are my sons ... I'M A FATHER!!!! CADPAT: IM GRAND-FATHER TOO!!!! :D NWU: ... crap a wierdo family ._. AOR: yup :/

There were some of the more gray dominate pairs of NWU's floating around and being sold by the NEX. I've seen sailors that joined in 2016 that had some. It wasn't super obvious until they wore a mis-matched set (blue dominant blouse with gray dominant trousers or vice versa).

Hey, I recognize that shoreline at 5:20, thats Djibouti City

When type 3s first came out I saw them on sale on ebay marketed as "SEAL camo" a lot even though until the whole navy switched over Seabees were the most common wearers of it!

Graduated Navy bootcamp January 18th of this year. I love my NWU3s but all the other sailors loved the NWU2s for some reason. I guess because we look like Army GIs now and the blue NWUs made us more unique and distinct.

Actually NWU II/III has some difference between AOR 1&2 NWU II/III have "watermark" of the A.C.E. on it but AORs didnt and the colour is a little bit different between NWUs and AORs

I completely remember the rollout of NWUs to the fleet. The west coast got the roll out last, and i remember a couple of new check-in Airmen getting fucked over on their clothing allowance and issuing of those uniforms. Meanwhile the rest of us that were still wearing utilities got a sudden $300 drop in our accounts and told to go buy $450 worth of uniforms and be seabag inspection ready by some date in December (maybe it was January). Imagine all of NASWI bumrushing the NEX for new uniforms like it was toilet paper in 2020. It all got smoothed out and I loved wearing my blueberries aside from the immediate recognizing of it's flaws (the color scheme wasn't good for man overboard, and the material was flammable).

Khaki uniforms and stains? Uhhhhh...ok. Yeah, coffee and pen ink is a hell of a stain to get out 😂

I know the new solid navy uniform isn't camo, but it was worth a mention to say the navy has A TON of uniforms and at some times its a little wild

I will add this to the NDUBS problems, it also makes you invisible to drivers at night. The Taxi drivers servicing NNPTC refused to drive over 20 on base because on of them hit us for that reason.

We should have poopy suits, PTUs, and dress uniforms. Wear the Dixie cup with all of 'em or command ball cap and be done. That would lighten the seabag (like they have been saying they want to do for years now). If you want to add in a tactical uniform for units that do that type of stuff then throw in the marine uniform with a U.S. Navy nametape like they already do for the FMF guys. They won't do any of this though because there's too much money for some retired officer to make by convincing the Navy to change their uniforms every few years.

No more aquaflage patterns, because nobody wants to get lost at sea! Stick to NWU Type II/III instead and because they're more comfortable than the type 1's!

They wouldn't make well if you went overboard but a navy combatant conducting night time operations such as a seal or swcc maybe an MA being black an blue in the night.

My biggest concern is, it has been three minutes since the last uni change for the Navy. If the Navy is not careful, getting ready to fight a war with China or Russia, will get in the way of the next uniform change. Hopefully, what ever uni change comes, the working uniform won't make the wearer look like a sailor.

What a bunch of BS . what the hell was wrong with dungarees and white hat ? We are talking about the navy and I wore that with pried for years .When I got into the seabees I wore ODs and nothing wrong with that but come on your sailors what the hell do you need camouflage for ?

Thanks for the thorough explanation. I still hate the navy blue camoflague. God awful ugly.

3:37 Why is there a Coastie hanging out on a Navy Bridge? Probably teaching the QMs to navigate properly.

In Uruguay we use a slightly different version of the AOR for the army

The blue covered up the stains by the semen and for the sea man!

My dad was pissed when the blueberries where introduced and commands made them mandatory, I still think the old school uniforms look best but the blueberries are more navy than NW3s

The Volksmarine used bright orange for their sailors.

The Navy and It's Blue NWU , as The Army and It's Green- Gray UCP, were not that popular with Sailors and Soldiers, however, since then ,both The Navy and The Army redeemed themselves , and Yes, Navy and Army Special Operations Forces Personnel wear the Operational Camouflage Pattern/ MultiCam of the Army.🇺🇸🦅🗽🔫🗡️⚓

Who’s idea was it to have blue camouflage? It blends in with nothing. Thankfully they wised up and made the more useful desert and woodland variants.

A couple complaints of the blueberries were that they faded at different rates and the cuts/sizing were terrible. The MARPATS are much better and comfortable (less baggy). I liked the prior utilities, save for coffee stains; I never had to do painting though. Oh, and there might be another uniform on its way: www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2019/02/25/new-uniforms-revealed-fashionable-and-free/

The funny thing is... they will probably change it again!

Someone sure is making a lot of money selling all these updated uniforms to the military. Seems like they get new ones every few years.

I was in the Marines, and we always felt like the other branches were trying to copy us without actually copying us.

Adding on to what PINKY Zz has mentioned about United States Naval Sea Cadet Corps and Master-at-Arms Training at runtime 3:14, is correct. I will also add at runtime 5:11, that is USNSCC Master-at-Arms Training as well, and one of the female Cadets of the two at that time stamp of 5:11, is one of my prior Cadets from my Unit. I was her Commanding Officer. I was surprised when I saw her in this video. I wasn't expecting it. My first time ever veiwing this video. Good job by the way on your coverage of this topic.

I always thought it was a great idea to put sailors in seafoam pattern camo.

I’m in the USNSCC. We finally got the new type IIIs and their great!

I liked the blue ones except hated the material. They were like wearing denim. I love the type 3’s overall.

I still scratch my head wondering why each branch needs their own camouflage pattern.

the blueberry pants are the most comfortable uniform pants I have ever worn

Interesting video on The United States Navy Camouflage Pattern Uniform ( NWU). I Am Prior Service USMC and US Army, and, I learned a lot from this video. Thanks for the Information and Intelligence (I2)!! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🦅🗽🔫

AOR1 pattern retains the horizontal lay out, never been in vertical. In a few seconds glance, you can't tell the difference from MARPAT Desert pattern.

I agree with other commentators on this channel and their comments about nylon and the Falklands when we lost some ships in the conflict, The biggest problem is nylon (only good up to 60 degrees C) and fusing itself onto a person's body. I am sure everyone can visualise the horror our plastic surgeons faced when trying to heal severe burns when they're fused onto plastic. For us who were in the military at the time it was really etched into our Armed Services' 'corporate' memory that pure Wool 'Woolly Pullies' were best. At the time the Nylon versions disappeared when our Armed Forces re-equipped with the pure wool version which was only given when you had to replace your Woolly Pully due to wear and tear. The one conciliation that the U.S Navy personnel can be grateful for, is they found it before a major incident. It is amazing how developers can have tunnel vision and miss the obvious. The biggest challenge any military faces is keeping 'corporate memory' up to date and remember how our fathers/grandfathers overcame a given challenge in WWII etc. One of the things we Brits forgot when we were landing at San Carlos we had barrage balloons sitting in a hangar at Abingdon these were used during WWII on D-day to protect our ships!

Lets not forget how Navy personnel operating in the middle east weren't allowed to wear the Navy desert camo because the Marines thought it looked to much like MARPAT. It is limited to SpecWar units.

u forgot coast gaurd!

You should make an indepth video on AOR1 and AOR2 since they were derived from earlier patterns used by Delta. There are over 10 different prototypes that were called Digi or DG before they went with the AOR2 colours. Similarly they also tested Universal AOR which was almost like a Digital Multicam. Even some of the DG variants, DG3 and DG3A were similar in that they used AOR2 colours but replaced black with dark brown. There are many test pieces that were made and issued to SEALS that were made of these different prototype fabrics.

Great video series. What a great example of how to waste a lot of money for no real gain. Need to become a US military supplier.

Poor coast guard, no videos 🤷‍♂️

The Philippine Coast Guard uses a similar blue NWU pattern. The Philippine Navy uses a gray NWU.

The Navy's new green digicam looks a lot better the Man Overboard blueberries

I'm an Air Force guy so just an outsider's opinion. Since there's really little need to camouflage sailors working on ships, how about the same uniform, except solid dark blue pants and solid light blue shirts. They'd be an homage to the old-school chambray work shirts and dungarees. They'd be upgraded and functional and guys would look like sailors. The types of guys that really need camouflage tend to end up wearing whatever they want anyway.

I use aor2 for airsoft and absolutely love it, in a greenish and/or in a little shady woodland enviroment it fits almost perfectly

Smh. The Army is the only service that should be allowed to develop a service uniform, since, obviously, the vast majority of ground combat personnel are either Army or those in support of Army operations. The Navy just needs their standard working uniform. The Air Force works almost exclusively with the Army anyway. I get that The USMC want to be unique and MARPAT isn't a bad uniform, but being conspicuous on the battlefield is generally not advisable. OCP is a very good general use pattern. Even UCP wasn't bad for desert combat. If you want to be unique and foster espirit de corps, fine. Issue some fancy velcro patches. They work great on the ACU anyway.

I don't know if they're "Authorized" or if they even care about such things, but CAG had/has access to AOR1 as well.

and as an update, the Navy has recently finished testing a new working uniform that will eventually replace the coveralls in most cases and standardize the uniforms with something that isn't going to melt to sailor's skin and go up like an oil lamp. What's the camo pattern you ask? There isn't one. The new 2 uniform retains the cut of the NWU for the most part but is a simple dark blue for lower enlisted, and khaki for upper (E6 and up I think) enlisted ranks. No more stupid camo. It's ironic that the Navy basically decided after wasting millions of dollars, to just do what the Coast Guard had been doing for like 20 years at this point. Simple dark blue working uniform to hide dirt and stains until it can be laundered.

As a member of the USCG in a Port Security Unit, we are issued the Type IIIs. What I find funny about them is being station on the East Coast of the US it is actually a good pattern in the woods. Which is funny. Why do the guys on the boats have better woodland camo than the army? (Refering to the old grey digital camo the army had) I feel tbh these whole individual camo pattern for each branch, an entire waist of time and money, but hey, remember, all of this was done to justify some schmucks 6 figure salary in DC.....

4:58 Do they still use the ALICE belt for not combat wear? The white makes sense because they'd probably still have some left over and they're cheap, but OD green seems outdated, especially since none (as far as I'm aware) of America's armed forces still use the ALICE webbing

Regarding the two woodland camo options (dominant blue and dominant gray), how can you tell the difference? They look exactly the same to me. I'm looking to buy both the pants and the coat (the Propper versions) for a cosplay project I'm working on, but I can't seem to figure out what the difference is, and if I can't tell the difference, I'm worried sellers on eBay won't know the difference either. Are they very different when you can see them in person? 'Cos on eBay, the ones marked blue and the ones marked gray seem exactly the same.

I swear, the Crye Scorpion was like the girlfriend a guy always oversighted in the fucking romance movies (I have been binging your vids)

What the hell was wrong with the dungaree uniform we had in the 70's. People should be going to jail for the waste of money we have seen with Navy uniform changes in the last 50 years. Other than the dress blues every navy enlisted uniform no makes you look stupid. Khaki shirt with black pants? Would you ever dress like that? Terminate the Navy uniform board now!

A plain blue uniform would have been much more seamanlike. See the USCG ODU or the Royal Navy PCS uniform.

So Woodland pattern was used by USMC, Army and Air force before Jointees was goal all over.

The navy has the best woodland camouflage of any branch. Which is funny as there mostly on ships that are grey. The army should have taken that pattern although the scorpion 🦂 is affective..

What’s interesting about the NWU type 1 test B is I saw it at a surplus store with the label “test B” and the noticeable difference is that it has a chest epaulette for the rank rather than a collar rank

I think that the best pattern for the Navy would be gray dominant with touches of brown to hide stains. Or maybe just a solid brownish gray to reduce costs.

China had a blue camoflage for the navy and even the marines. But the the PLAN has also got ride of it for a grey version of a navy enlisted dress uniform and the marines for a black uniform.

I like how the navy went with blue camo instead of an actual color. Like bruh did you recruit jesus christ or something?

Don't forget, there was a short time we were authorised to wear the "light weight" type 1 uniform for tropical areas, although it was a waste as we were switching over to type 3's litterally a couple months later, oh how fun it was fighting for uniforms at the nex, all around I liked the type 3, but I still dont know the use of that stupid shoulder pocket

Why do the sailors look happier in Blue woodland than Digital NWU... hmm