I wonder if there's an unspoken rule of worthiness with military and their special garments... are they allowed (by church worthiness standards) to wear their special garments for daily, non-military-regulated functions? Or do they have to wear their standard "normal" garments then? Are they considered less worthy if they wear their military t-shirts with the marks screened inside of them and their colored bottoms when they could wear "normal" ones, or are they special?

And, if the military _can_ wear their special garments all the time, does that mean that all members should be allowed to wear them as well?

There are variations of the garments specifically made to conform to military standards (such as color, shape of collar, etc.).

I think the question is can you wear those variations ONLY with the military uniform, or can you wear them any time?

Yes, this.

Can't believe I'm asking this but what the hell!

What type of underwear do women wear in the military? Do they wear panties? Does the women's military garment match so it's the same? Or just garments that match the color?

Underwear gets complicated when you add in Mormonism.

Generally women are issued tan "granny panties". Underwear isn't all that regulated in the military as long as you don't wear white. White is bad. If you drop your pants to take care of buisness out in the field somewhere then white is a huge target for a sniper.

Are there any stories of LDS soldiers being saved by their garmies in Iraq?

I don't know about in Iraq, but I have heard a Vietnam vet talk about his many harrowing experiences. His life was spared several times without wearing his garment armor. He was told not to wear garments so they would not be desecrated or mocked and had the pictures that proved it where he was shirtless. The movie Hamburger Hill had a scene where the radio operator was killed, he was that radio operator in the real battle of Hamburger Hill, so the movie took some license due to the fact he was never injured while in battle. I've heard his amazing story twice. He may not have worn garments but he was given a blessing by his SP before he left that no harm would come to him, so there you go, a blessing for protection trumps garments.

Funny, all my military garments got mixed up in the laundry while my unit was in Iraq, so various soldiers in my unit was wearing my shirts! Kind of a shock whenever I saw them worn around.

Was it "approved" or "okay" for you to wear your military garments in non-military life, or were you supposed to only wear them for military stuff?

Well first off you can't buy the military kind without showing that you're in the military (id, orders etc), so the average civilian mormon wouldn't even be able to buy them if they wanted to. Also, I have to wear my abu (af) t-shirt all day long. It is off of me the second I get home, and nobody just wears the tan shirt around as a normal t-shirt off duty (at least that I know of). It would be more uncomfortable to wear the tan shirt as an undershirt than it would to wear the normal white garments. I remember having tan spandex garments for the bottoms too, and they were really uncomfortable so I never wore them. They are also out of regulations for pt gear in the air force, so I didn't ever wear the bottoms. You wouldn't be able to wear the tan ones underneath a white shirt for church either without it looking ridiculous.

Garments are a fkin joke. Who care what underwear you're wearing in the first place...

Didn't wear the bottoms? What if Jesus showed up, how would you remember you were supposed to bow down?

good point. I guess I would have to just say "well Jesus, I'm wearing the wrong underwear so you'll have to excuse me while I do my laundry and change my undies before I bow before you"

No one ever specified whether it was ok or not. I guess it was up to the individual. But brown garments look really tacky under other clothes. Sometimes at work the NCO in charge would make the order for the uniform to exclude the BDU or the ACU top. Then I would be caught in my garments because of the nipple markings. The other soldiers teased me about cutting out the nipple for kinky sex stuff and then sowing them back up.

I was 18 at the time. There were six or seven mormons, including three RMs, in my basic platoon. Basic was in the middle of summer in South Carolina. We were constantly in "cat 4," requiring us to go around in our t-shirts, with pants rolled up above boot level. The RMs all wore their brown garment tops as their T-shirt. I overheard another trainee observe in front of an RM that "you guys all tore your shirts in the same place."

Newer military "Garmies" have the markings on the inside...so when you are told to take off your "blouse" the markings don't show. I stopped wearing them about 6 months ago when I left TSCC.

And yes, to get them you need to show both a Temple Recommend and military ID at the temple clothing store. The branch of service (Army, Navy, Marine, Air Farce) also matters as each service has thier own approved colors and styles.

I was a RM when I joined over 20 years ago. I tried to wear the white civilian ones under my brown T-shirt. Had a DI throw a fit and demanded that I take them off immediately since it was CAT 4 heat index (Fort Jackson S.C. + August = HOT!!) I talked to the Chaplian who smoothed things over & suggested I wear the "military style" and had no problems after that.


Later when I went to the clothing line for final issue, you went to the clothing line in your "skivvies" as you tried on clothes. I was the only one in out of about 400+ with the long bottoms. DI's didn't care less, but one of the guys handing out clothes claimed "haven't seen a mormon in a long time..." guess he knew.


When I went to Desert Shield/Storm, 2 sets of my "magic underwear" turned up missing after being sent to the laundry. After that, I started washing them on my own. I am pretty sure I saw one set of long bottoms on a guy I knew wasn't LDS when we were in Med outprocessing.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/22/2013 01:44PM by magnite.

As for the other question of wearing them under civilian clothing; that is just...well, ridiculous.

Trying to wear civilian clothes over them just does not work since they are a uncomfortable and most likely the wrong color.

On top of that, the first thing you want to do when you have the opportunity is get out of uniform; and the underwear are just another part of the uniform - as much as they are in TSCC.

(and I can't spell today either..)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/22/2013 01:56PM by magnite.

I was told that I had the option not to wear garments during basic training, field exercises, and deployments. But, I preferred wearing the garment long bottoms out of modesty because we had females in our squad whom we bunked with.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/22/2013 01:45PM by homoerectus.