This makes the rounds on Twitter every year or so- so let me explain what these are, and why we wear them! Context- I was at 8th and I for 5 years, and did between 2-300 funerals. https://twitter.com/chadgarland/status/1347161562629496833

The Field Jacket is primarily worn to simulate the Dress Blue jacket. It can only be worn with service B and C (short and long sleeve) and only during official barracks practices

The reason it’s worn so frequently is for two main reasons. The first is fix (and unfix) bayonets. The move itself is tricky, and requires precision and a little bit of luck. If you put your scabbard on your belt line- you’d be practicing a few inches off, and you’d get nowhere

The same can be said for sword manual. Return swords at the ceremonial level is a son of a bitch, ask around.

The second reason is it prevents us from having to wear our alpha coat, or dress blues whenever we have to practice for anything. We wear our service and dress uniforms almost daily during the summer, and funerals wear down our blues even more- this helps prevent that.

Anyway that’s really it. Yeah it looks really weird from the outside looking in. But it’s quite practical!

Also- on the mask thing. Everywhere at the barracks (except for the parking garage underground) is more or less a wind tunnel, and you’re practicing with a metronome on studio monitors at full volume- these poor captains can literally not be heard, it’ll be ok. I promise