Canadian Forces: Encyclopedia II - Canadian Forces - Uniforms

Canadian Forces - Uniforms

Canadian Forces - Unification

Prior to unification in 1968, the uniforms of the Army, RCN and RCAF were similar to their counterparts in the forces of the UK and other Commonwealth countries, save for national identifiers and some regimental accoutrements. Shortly following unification, these service-specific uniforms (navy blue, khaki, and light blue) were abandoned in favour of a rifle green, single-breasted, four-button tunic and pants, with beret or service cap, known as the Canadian Forces uniform, commonly referred to as "CFs" or "CF greens". Though accommodation was made for army regiments' ceremonial uniforms (kilts for Highland Regiments, for example), no allowance was made for the Navy and Air Force, with the exception of a rifle-green wedge cap for optional wear by the latter. The traditional Navy and Air Force rank names were replaced by their army equivalents, with naval-style rank badges for officers and army-style for non-commissioned members. Navy rank names were restored a few years later. However, the Air Force retains what had formerly been considered "army" rank (but which is similar to that used by the air forces of many other nations).

For everyday work wear, in environments or occasions where the CF greens would not be appropriate, personnel were issued the Work Dress uniform. This consisted of rifle-green work trousers; a zippered rifle-green work jacket; a "lagoon green" work shirt; and beret. The jacket collar was worn open; the shirt was either worn with a tie, or with the collar open and over the jacket collar. For a brief period in the 1980s, ascots or "dickies" in regimental or branch colours were worn inside the open shirt collar. This uniform, derisively referred to as a "bus driver's uniform", was generally unpopular.

A notable exception was the Canadian Airborne Regiment, who wore a camouflage jump smock, regimental maroon T-shirt, maroon beret, and high-top paratrooper boots, with work dress or combat trousers as applicable.

Canadian Forces - Distinct Environmental Uniform

In an effort to restore morale, the CF introduced the Distinct Environmental Uniform (DEU), which restored some of the traditional uniforms of the pre-unification Forces. While the term "DEU" refers to all the different environmental uniforms, in general usage it refers solely to what is more properly known as "No 3 (Service) Dress".

The following Orders of Dress existed after DEU was implemented:

• No. 1 (Ceremonial) Dress: Full formal dress uniforms for ceremonial parades and other special occasions. Uniforms include regimental full dress (such as scarlet tunics and bearskin hats of Guards regiments), patrol dress (a slightly less elaborate regimental uniform), and Service Dress (see below) uniform with ceremonial accoutrements (swords, white web belts, gloves, etc).

• No. 2 (Mess) Dress: Formal evening attire for mess dinners. Uniforms range from full mess kit (with dinner jackets, cummerbunds or waistcoats, etc) to Service Dress with bow ties.

• No. 3 (Service) Dress: Also called a "walking-out" or "duty uniform", it is the military equivalent of the business suit; it was the standard uniform for appearing in public (hence the moniker "walking-out dress"). The uniforms range from the tunic-necktie-undress ribbons to the more informal short-sleeve shirt dress. The Navy also has an optional white summer uniform with white high-collared tunic (colloquially termed the "ice-cream suit").

• No. 4 (Base) Dress: Known as "Garrison Dress" in the Army. It was a more informal uniform, originally for day-to-day wear in garrison or on base, out of the public eye. It usually consisted of work trousers and either a dress shirt or work shirt, with an optional sweater; Army personnel wore a disruptive-pattern jacket. It has been phased out and replaced by No. 5 dress (below).

• No. 5 (Operational) Dress: Originally specialized uniforms for wear in an operational (i.e. combat) theatre, they have now superseded No 4 uniform for everyday wear in garrison. It consists of a CADPAT combat uniform for the Army and Air Force and Naval Combat Dress (NCD) for the Navy.

Navy. Sea element personnel were issued a navy blue (which is actually a tone of black according to CFP 265 - CF Dress Instructions), double breasted tunic, navy blue trousers, and white peaked cap; with the exception of colour, it is very similar to the service dress of officers in the American navy. For the summer periods, the optional white uniform may be worn by naval personnel. It is interesting to note that officers' and non-commissioned members' uniforms are identical, differing only in insignia and accoutrements; the old naval "square rig" or "Donald Duck" uniform for non-commissioned members was not resurrected. Naval personnel were also issued No 4 (Base) Dress, which consists of a jacket and trousers similar to old CF work dress, but in black; it wass worn with a white dress shirt — open necked or with necktie — or with the Naval blue work shirt. This uniform has since been replaced with the No 5 (Naval Combat) Dress. Baseball caps (with ship's designations and numbers) similar to those worn by United States Navy personnel are authorized for shipboard wear.

The following are the different categories of naval uniforms in Canada:

Ceremonial Dress - 1

No. 1 - Navy blue uniform with medals, swords, etc.

No. 1A - Navy blue uniform with medals only

No. 1C - White high-collar uniform, with medals

No. 1D - White high-collar uniform, with ribbons only

Mess Dress - 2

No. 2 - Navy blue mess uniform, with "tradition" RCN ranks for officers, bow tie, and gold lacing on the trousers.

No. 2A - White mess uniform, with "tradition" RCN shoulder boards for officers below Flag officer ranks.

No. 2B - Normal service dress, however with a bow tie instead of the neck tie, and ribbons only (without medals).

No. 2C - Shipboard mess order. Like 3Bs, however, with a tuxedo belt, and without ribbons, specialist skill insingias, and name tags. "Tradition" RCN shoulder boards must not be worn.

No. 2D - Canadian Forces Standard (the midnight blues). Resembles a lot like the Canadian Air Forces No. 2, which was worn by all members of the CF, during the unified uniform period (1970s to 1986).

Service dress - 3

No. 3 - Like No. 1A, however, without medals, ribbons only.

No. 3A - White long-sleeve shirt, with navy blue trousers.

No. 3B - White, short-sleeve shirt, with navy blue or white trousers and oxfords (black with navy blue pants, white with white pants).

No. 3C - Navy blue wool sweater, with either the long sleeve shirt or short sleeve shirt. (If worn with the LS shirt, must wear neck tie).

No. 3D - Tropical tan uniform. Only members requiring the uniform for service in tropical climates are issued the uniform.

Naval Combat Drees - 5

No. 5 - Navy combat jacket, with beret (or baseball cap), trousers, ankel boots, and naval combat shirt.

No. 5A - Same as above, without naval combat jacket.

No. 5B - Same as above, however, with naval combat shirt sleeves rolled.

Army. Land personnel were issued new tunics and trousers similar in style to the old CF greens, but with the addition of epaulets. They were issued in heavy-weight rifle green (worn with the old CF green dress shirt) for winter wear, and lighter weight tan for summer; unfortunately in the latter case, headgear, neckties, belts and badges were still rifle-green or on rifle-green backing. The unpopular work dress was replaced with "No. 4 (Garrison) Dress", which consisted of the old-style work dress pants, a disruptive-pattern jacket, a black web belt, a short-sleeve summer Service Dress shirt with the collar open and over the jacket collar, and high paratrooper-style garrison boots. Due to concerns over the number of uniforms Army personnel had to carry with them on postings and taskings, the tan summer DEU was eventually retired, and the winter uniform mandated for year-round wear. The garrison dress uniform was never popular with the combat arms, who generally eschewed it for the combat uniform, even in garrison; Land Force Command soon stopped altogether and authorized combat uniform for all occasions where garrison dress was deemed appropriate, and eventually this authorization was extended to Land environment personnel in other commands. Recently, the peaked service cap was retired for Land personnel, and the beret became the universal Army headdress.

Air Force. Personnel in the Air element were issued a uniform similar to the old CF greens, but in "postman blue", with a light-blue shirt, black necktie, and postman-blue wedge cap. No 4 (Base) Dress consists of postman-blue work pants, light blue dress shirt (open-necked or with necktie), and optional V-neck sweater. Air personnel were eventually authorized to wear the Navy's work shirt, which was similar in colour to postman blue, though this was recently replaced by a camoflage uniform similar to the Land combat uniform. Air personnel were issued a postman-blue beret for wear with combat uniform where appropriate; it was soon authorized for use with work dress, then with service dress; the wedge cap is still popular.

The "Purple" Trades. For military occupations that are not specifically designated to a particular element (e.g. clerks, military police, medical personnel, etc), an element is usually assigned or may be requested on enrolment. Due to the way that members of these "purple" trades frequently have environments different from their current assignments, many units of the Canadian Forces, when on parade in dress uniform, will display a somewhat odd mix of navy, army, and air force uniforms. As various specialty courses become more widely available, no longer restricted only to "soldiers" or "sailors", for example, it is not unheard-of to see a Navy clerk in a tactical air squadron with parachutist's wings, or an Air Force medic in a tank regiment with a submariner's "dolphins" badge.

Canadian Forces - Combat uniform

Until well into the post-World War II era, the Army battle dress uniform was worn both on parades and in combat. It was common to maintain traditional regimental distinctions, such as kilts for Highland regiments, even in the thick of battle.

In the early 1960s, this was replaced by the combat uniform, often referred to merely as "combats". It was issued as a standard order of dress for Regular Force "army" personnel in field units of Forces Mobile Command and for personnel in field units or detachments in Canadian Forces Communication Command, as well as for personnel in other organizations as required for employment in a land combat environment. It was not issued to Reservists until 1972, although they were permitted to wear it if they purchased it themselves (usually at war surplus stores).

The combat uniform consisted of a long-sleeve olive-drab (OD) shirt, with two voluminous cargo pockets at the hip and two slanted pockets (designed for the 20-round FNC1 rifle magazine) at the breast, and drawstrings at the waist and hem; OD trousers, with regular pockets at the front and back and a large cargo patch pocket on each thigh, and drawstrings at the cuff; an OD V-neck undershirt; and black combat boots, with trouser cuffs bloused over. The beret was often worn, but could be replaced by a soft OD field cap or the American M1 steel helmet as the tactical situation dictated (oddly, while the Canadian combat uniform was universally olive green, the cloth helmet cover was a camouflaged woodland pattern).

Officers displayed their rank on slip-ons on the epaulets of the shirt or jacket; NCMs wore small OD versions of their rank insignia stitched in the centre of the upper sleeve, although for a period in the 1980s these were stitched onto slip-ons, ostensibly to save wear-and-tear on the uniforms. The national identifier consisted of a "CANADA" flash stitched on the upper shoulder just below the sleeve seam, and unit or trade identifiers were worn on slip-ons on the shirt's epaulettes; however, personnel belonging to Canadian Forces Europe and other overseas missions wore full-colour Canadian flag patches on the upper sleeve. In the 1990s, the "CANADA" flash was replaced with a subdued olive-drab canadian flag, worn on the upper left sleeve below the epaulette. Interestingly, these flag badges showed up in full-colour red-and-white when illuminated by a blue light.

Lightweight coats, rain suits, parkas, and other tactical clothing (in OD) were issued to deal with different weather conditions. For winter conditions, personnel were issued white mukluks and mitts, as well as white camouflage covers for their parkas, trousers, and helmets.

In the late 1980s, the CF experimented with an alternative combat shirt designed by an Air Command officer: it had flat breast pockets and lacked the hip cargo pockets and drawstrings. It was designed to be tucked in to the trousers like a regular shirt if desired, or worn untucked like the older style shirt; it proved rather unpopular from an operational standpoint due to its lack of storage capacity, and was considered to look sloppier than the older style; it disappeared within a few years as the stock was depleted. After the initial purchase, the original shirt was reinstated.

Canadian Forces - CADPAT and the Clothe the Soldier Program

In September 1996, the Treasury Board of the Canadian government approved the "Clothe the Soldier" project to address the deficiencies in the Army's operational clothing and personal protective equipment. By the 1990s, it was realized by the Forces that the combat uniform and personal protective equipment was becoming outmoded and obsolete. Over the years a number of specific deficiencies with various items had been identified; it was also noted that many items were not fully compatible with each other, reducing their overall effectiveness. In September 1996, the Treasury Board of the Canadian government approved the "Clothe the Soldier" project to address these deficiencies. Since that time, the Clothe the Soldier project has begun an ambitious task of issuing new items of compatible clothing, ballistic protection, and load-carriage systems. New combat clothing would be issued in an integrated system to deal with any weather or environmental conditions, from tropical to arctic and from arid to wet.

The project was initially mandated to support 40,000 members of the Land Force, Regular and Reserve. In July 2000 the project was expanded to cover 50,000 members, to include all CF personnel conducting land operations (the additional 10,000 members from "entitled units", for example the Communication Reserve).

In 1997, CADPAT (Canadian Disruptive Pattern) was officially adopted as the standard Canadian Army camouflage pattern. CADPAT is a computer-designed pixellated pattern, based loosely on traditional disruptive pattern camouflage. The very first CADPAT item issued was the camouflage cover for the new ballistic helmet. Other than the unique digital pattern, the new CADPAT uniform is very similar in design to the former combat uniform: trousers with cuff drawstrings and side-of-leg cargo pockets, and jacket with two breast patch pockets and two large hip cargo pockets. Rank insignia, however, is now worn on a single slip-on on a epaulette midway down the shirt, in line with the breastbone of the individual. The Canadian Flag is worn on the left shoulder as a national identifier; it is attached by a hook-and-loop system. A name tape is similarly attached over the right breast pocket; the tape bears the member's name, preceded by a symbol denoting the member's environment: crossed swords for Land, an eagle for Air, and an anchor for Sea. Members who wear an Air Force DEU have their rank insignia and nametag stitched in dark blue, and wear blue shirts with the CADPAT instead of the standard green ones. The old-style field cap was replaced by a broad-brimmed hat with a deployable neck covering.

Canadian Forces - Navy Combat Uniform

The only exception to this is the combat dress of the Navy. Referred to as "Naval Combat Dress" or "NCD's", both officers and non-commissioned members of the Navy wear a denim colored work/dress shirt (combat shirt) with rank epaulettes on both shoulders along with black work trousers. Combat jackets are worn over the combat shirts which also sports epaullettes for rank flashes on each shoulder, along with name tags and ship's crest over the right chest area. Depending on current situation or operation, headdress will either be a black beret or a ship's ballcap, and footwear will be either black ankle/parade boots, or black steel-toed sea boots.

Canadian Forces - Military Police

After unification, military police (MPs) wore the same uniforms as other personnel, distinguished only by a few unique accoutrements: a white vinyl cover over the service cap, a gold-coloured police-style badge on the breast pocket, and/or a brassard or armlet bearing the title "MP" or "MILITARY POLICE MILITAIRE".

With the introduction of DEU, these accoutrements (except the brassards) were replaced. Now the main identifying feature of the military police was the addition of the colour red: a red service cap band for Naval and Air Force personnel, a red beret for army MPs and red backing for the cap badges of air force and navy MPs. In 2005, the dress regulations were amended so that all MPs wore red berets regardless of their element, with any order of dress that permits the wearing of a beret.

In 2001, the CF formally introduced the Military Police Operational Patrol Dress (MP OPD), a marked departure from standard military uniforms: it is immediately recognisable as a police uniform as opposed to a military one. It consists of black trousers, short-sleeved shirts for summer wear, long-sleeved collared shirts for winter, the naval pattern sweater, patrol jacket, body armour, police equipment belt and MP Gore-Tex boots, with a red beret for all MPs. It is designed for wear on patrol duties only, by members up to and including the rank of Warrant Officer.

Canadian Forces - Berets

The beret is still the most widely worn headgear, and is worn with almost all orders of dress with the exception of the more formal orders of Naval and Air Force dress (i.e. Ceremonial, Mess, and Service Dress). A regimental or branch badge is worn centred over the wearer's left eye, and the beret is worn so that it drapes over the right ear. The colour of the beret is determined by the wearer's environment, branch, or mission, as follows:

• All army — rifle green (except as noted below)
• Armoured — black
• Airborne — maroon
• Military police — red
• Navy — black
• Air force — postman blue
• Search-and-rescue technicians — orange
• United Nations missions — U.N. blue

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Uniforms", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki