Army Officer Dress Mess Uniform

tbowman · #1 (**permalink**) December 29th, 2008, 01:12 AM

My friend who is a LTC in the Army will be going on a cruise with me this next year. He has the Army Dinner Jacket/Officer Dress Mess and wants to wear it on the formal night. It rivals the Tux and is very nice looking and (he looks great in it - I might add). Is this acceptable? We will be sailing out of Tampa, and I figure that most everyone on board will be American and used to seeing soldiers in uniform, but I dont want to cause a "stir".

Here are a couple of photos that I was able to find. I could not find his exact one. It will be sorta like these, only with the Field Artillery colors (red) on the lapel.

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matey · #2 (**permalink**) December 29th, 2008, 02:09 AM

It is a handsome uniform, but I bet there will be lots of passengers who think he is the captain of the ship!

Donna · #3 (**permalink**) December 29th, 2008, 08:52 AM

By all means, have your friend pack the uniform and do wear it for formal night with honor!

CA Cruiser · #4 (**permalink**) December 29th, 2008, 09:04 AM

Our sons always wear their Marine Dress Blues proudly!

#5 (**permalink**) December 29th, 2008, 06:14 PM

Most definitely yes !!!!! THe only "stir" he would cause is a good one.

Kamloops Cruiser · #6 (**permalink**) December 29th, 2008, 06:26 PM

On our Jan 08 cruise on Mariner , we had a number of military and police officers on board . They wore their fancy uniforms.
One was an RCMP officer from Canada who wore his Red Serge Uniform.
One officer wore a fancy uniform every night of the cruise.

DougR. · #7 (**permalink**) December 30th, 2008, 06:39 AM

Perfectly acceptable! I am a retired Air Force Master Sergeant and would proudly wear mine on formal night, except that my mess dress was several sizes ago

.

LisaK · #8 (**permalink**) December 31st, 2008, 09:06 AM

i totally agree with the others.

tbowman · #9 (**permalink**) January 2nd, 2009, 10:10 PM

Thank you all so much for your input. I have sent him (he is in Iraq right now and will be back in a few months) the link to this site.

I cant wait to see him all dressed up in those blues again.

Rev22:17 · #10 (**permalink**) January 8th, 2009, 07:40 PM

tbowman,

Quote:

Originally Posted by You

My friend who is a LTC in the Army will be going on a cruise with me this next year. He has the Army Dinner Jacket/Officer Dress Mess and wants to wear it on the formal night. It rivals the Tux and is very nice looking and (he looks great in it - I might add). Is this acceptable? We will be sailing out of Tampa, and I figure that most everyone on board will be American and used to seeing soldiers in uniform, but I dont want to cause a "stir".

Since your friend is on active duty and thus entitled to wear his uniform, it is most certainly appropriate that he should do so.

And the so-called "mess dress" uniform is the uniform that corresponds to a civilian dinner jacket ("black tie") outfit or tuxedo, and thus is the proper uniform to wear for the "formal" evenings.

Norm.

Rev22:17 · #11 (**permalink**) January 8th, 2009, 07:55 PM

CA Cruiser,

Quote:

Originally Posted by You

Our sons always wear their Marine Dress Blues proudly!

Ah, just to be clear, the proper Marine uniform to wear on a "formal" evening is the "Evening Dress B" or "SNCO Evening Dress" uniform.

Those who are not required to own the the respective "Evening Dress" uniform may wear the "Blue Dress A" or, for officers, "White Dress A" uniform instead.

Norm.