Feb
06
Do aircraft carriers normally have SEALs on board, plus why do deck personnel wear camouflage pants.?
ByI’m watching Carrier on PBS and wonder why some personnel wear camouflage pants, I thought Navy wore blue, wearing camo at sea doesn’t make sense to me.
I’ve always wonder if carriers routinely had SEALs on board, but now that I think about it it would limit their training opportunities.
6 Comments
February 6th, 2010 at 1:58 am
No, they do not have SEAL personnel onboard as a matter of routine.
A lot of things the navy has done with uniforms over the last 30 years hasn’t made much sense. They changed 4 times during the 22 years I spent on active duty. (1974-1995)
February 6th, 2010 at 2:45 am
Not sure about the SEALs on the carrier. But cammies- sometimes help with job description, military police, seabee’s, etc. But the gentlemen above me is right, they have changed the uniforms infinity times, and i think they’re going to again.
February 6th, 2010 at 3:31 am
I can remember when the navy spent a very large sum of money trying to develop a good grade of khaki shirt. My work shirts were Creaton brand and so were my good ones but the label said marine grade. foolish to try and develop something that was already in the Navy system but then we spent millions trying to develop a pen they could use in space. The Russians used a pencil but of course that was to simple for our government
February 6th, 2010 at 4:20 am
I don’t know about SEALs on board carriers.
The people wearing camouflage pants with red sweaters are aviation ordancemen. Many Navy ordnance units wear camouflage (BDUs) now. My reserve unit is a ordnance magazine unit and we wear BDUs, but we have to buy them ourselves.
Other aviation types also wear the camouflage pants. This is probably because those pants stand up better that the dungaree pants and coveralls do.
The Marine detachment on carriers do wear camouflage, but Marines have digital pattern uniforms.
There is a new Navy camouflage uniform, which is blue, but it will not enter the fleet for a year or so.
February 6th, 2010 at 5:15 am
Actually SEALs have been known to use carriers to get where they’re going, sure they might not be on there as duty stations or anything like that but SEALs often use the quickest way of transport available to them, be it a C-130 Hercules, an aircraft carrier, or their more regular type of transportation, submarine. Also when in such cramped spaces like that, they usually find some way to adapt to their enviroment and overcome the crowded conditions by training and doing calisthenics up on the deck, so training is rarely limited no matter what the situation. As to whether or not the camo-pant wearing sailors you saw were SEALs, can’t be determined without seeing it myself.
February 6th, 2010 at 5:21 am
Seals can be deployed to a carrier. That is typically their “launch pad”. When I was on the carrier they slept directly below my berthing and they used our head. It is the best platform for them to deploy in a hurry. They do jump around to other ships but most of the time they were with us.
As far as the flight deck uniforms. The cami pants are used because they are what we call “organizational clothing”. They are more durable and comfortable than the utility pants that we typically wear and because the flight deck is hard on clothing it is cheaper to replace those than uniform pants.