(Mods, you can delete my other thread if you want.)

Quick question for those of you with experience dealing with Naval officers' uniforms: for the hard shoulder boards, how do you clean the gold rank stripes? I got a set of vintage shoulder boards off eBay (which still meet uniform regs, ironically enough) -- they're in pretty good shape, but the gold stripes are a bit dirty. Any way to clean them up a bit? Thanks in advance...

Well... you generally don't bother cleaning them. In today's Navy, officers rarely wear summer whites or choker whites -- the uniforms that require the hard shoulder boards. We're in khakis all the time. The hard shoulder boards are worn a few times a year for most people.

Which means that they don't get that dirty, and by the time they do get dirty, you're probably about to be promoted, at which point you need a nice, new, shiny pair of shoulder boards with one more stripe.

For what it's worth, the older shoulder boards I have don't look dirty so much as "tarnished" -- or somehow oxidized, or maybe just worn off. I'm not sure it's just cleanable dirt anyway.

Good luck with your antiques, though.

Yours,
MF

I've got another one. Does the Navy still have the front flap in the front of their whites pants? An old salt told me that they could "march the buttons" using one hand on each side.

Originally Posted by AJChenMPH

(Mods, you can delete my other thread if you want.)

Quick question for those of you with experience dealing with Naval officers' uniforms: for the hard shoulder boards, how do you clean the gold rank stripes? I got a set of vintage shoulder boards off eBay (which still meet uniform regs, ironically enough) -- they're in pretty good shape, but the gold stripes are a bit dirty. Any way to clean them up a bit? Thanks in advance...

I would just take the uniform to the city cleaners,but if you don't want to
you don't have to.

Mod Edit: If you can't contribute something helpful, then refrain from posting.

Originally Posted by mikef

Well... you generally don't bother cleaning them. In today's Navy, officers rarely wear summer whites or choker whites -- the uniforms that require the hard shoulder boards. We're in khakis all the time. The hard shoulder boards are worn a few times a year for most people.

Well, here's the kicker -- since I'm USPHS, we're still allowed to wear the "salt and peppers" (white shirt with hard shoulder boards, dark pants) all year-round. It's actually a pretty popular uniform here in the office, though I'm not a huge fan of it since I think it looks a little goofy. I will wear it if I haven't given my khakis a bath and they're starting to walk around on their own.

I got these shoulder boards off eBay -- they're WWII vintage, but still meet the uniform regs. I like 'em because the embroidery of the PHS insignia (where the star would go for a line officer's shoulder boards) is really, really cool.

The tailor at Navy Bethesda just made me swap out my rank stripes off the mess uniform I picked up -- I guess there's no hope. Ah well, it's a good conversation starter.