SCHOOL SPOTLIGHT: Benedictine Military School's JROTC cadre wearing new uniforms

If you’ve visited Benedictine Military School during the 2026-27 academic year, you may have seen our JROTC cadre’s new uniforms, which are modeled after one of the most iconic uniforms of World War II. If you haven’t seen the new uniforms, you will, if you attend BC’s annual Commissioning ceremony Sept. 12 in BC Gym.

Benedictine’s JROTC cadre, which consists of Senior Army Instructor LTC Stephen Suhr, MSG Richard Smith, SFC Leona Brooks, and CSM Antonio Cox, is wearing a new uniform modeled after the classic “pinks and greens” version worn by Army officers during World War II. The new uniforms became widely available to soldiers in 2020, and they are slowly being phased into daily use. It will become mandatory wear Oct. 1, 2027, when every soldier across the active duty, reserve, National Guard, ROTC, and JROTC must own a complete regulation Army Green Service Uniform (AGSU).

The current blue Army Service Uniform (ASU) will shift to an optional, formal ceremonial dress uniform known as the “Army Blue Uniform.” As active or retired military personnel serving as JROTC instructors, cadre follows regular Army appearance and wear guidelines (AR 670-1) regarding the AGSU. The cadre’s new uniforms are a great way to pay tribute to America’s “Greatest Generation.”

“It’s kind of the peak of Army performance when you think of World War II, and what that ‘Greatest Generation’ did, and the folklore and heroism of these generals, the MacArthurs and the Eisenhowers,” Suhr said. “I haven’t heard anyone complain about the look. I think people like it. There always was connection to your roots. Even the Army blues, people didn’t realize the jacket and the pants were a different color blue but that’s a Civil War throwback, the lighter-blue pants, because in the Civil War they would wear the pants a lot more often than the jacket and they would get faded in the sun. That’s why the Army went with that as its blues, as its Army Service Uniform. It’s always neat to have the meaning behind stuff as opposed to just doing it for no reason.”

According to Stars and Stripes, “The new uniform style replaces the blue Army Service Uniform, which carries a black-and-white nameplate that is not authorized for use with the Army Green Service Uniform. The new nameplate is dark brown with gray-brown lettering, a matte finish, and beveled edge. The nameplates will, for the first time, allow accent marks and hyphens on the surnames they display.”

The Army Green Service Uniform, commonly called the AGSU or “pinks and greens,” is the Army’s standard professional duty uniform. Designed to echo the World War II-era Army officers’ uniform, the AGSU uses a heritage green service coat paired with heritage taupe trousers. The look is intentional, connecting modern soldiers to the Army’s history, while projecting a sharp, professional appearance in office and ceremonial settings.

In the mid-1920s, the Army transitioned to a new, modernized uniform style to replace the World War I uniform. Formally known as the Army officers’ winter service uniform, the “pinks and greens” were distinctive for their olive drab (Shade 51) jacket and contrasting “pink” trousers. The tunic was made of a gabardine wool blend and was a dark, brownish green color (greens), while the trousers were a much lighter color that had a slight pinkish tone. The combination created one of the flashiest and most striking uniforms ever authorized by the Army. It was worn by Army officers and in the Army Air Corps, the branch of the Army that split off in 1947 and became the modern Air Force.

The “pinks and greens” uniform that was introduced during the mid-1920s included a Sam Browne belt until 1942. In 1944, a field jacket was introduced which was adopted by General Dwight Eisenhower and nicknamed the “Ike jacket” as a result.

Suhr said BC’s cadre decided to purchase the new uniforms this summer, a year before the mandatory Oct. 1, 2027, deadline.

“Because Junior ROTC is such a low priority on the totem pole of the (Army) supply chain, the first priority goes to active-duty folks, and as it works its way down, we can use the past as an idea for the future,” Suhr said. “And that is, when we switched from the old Army greens, which was our old Class A uniform: a green jacket, green pants that matched, a dark green, with a light green shirt, when we did that, I think the transition was probably five-to-10 years behind the Army. MSG (Richard) Smith remembers doing that switch when he was here (at BC), and he’s in his 16^th year here. It was right around that timeline from the transition. This goes back to, in 2006, the Chief of Staff of the Army wanted to combine uniforms as a cost-saving measure for soldiers, and so he went away from the Class A traditional green jacket and pants, and went to what we had always called, up to that point, our blues. He called it the Army Service Uniform. In 2006, that came into play and it served as both Class A, Class B, and that’s what we’ve worn here, teaching.

“In 2020, (the Army) introduced this throwback uniform and kind of brought back the Class A,” Suhr continued. “It’s an olive drab jacket with khaki pants and a different-shaded khaki shirt, and so it’s all nostalgic to the 1940s, the World War II uniforms. It’s really popular. We have brown shoes instead of black shoes. They are leather shoes. There’s a different service cap. There are subdued name tags. Just everything that goes with it is a throwback to that era. It’s been out for six or seven years but we hadn’t transitioned here because as (Army) retirees, we had the old uniform, we had the ASU, and we wore the Class B version of the ASU to teach, which was the white short-sleeved shirt or a white long-sleeved shirt, with a black tie.”

The problem, Suhr said, is that it has become increasingly more difficult to find the white short-sleeved shirts.

“They’re still making the long-sleeved white shirt that you need to wear but they don’t make the white short-sleeved shirts as much because the Class B is now this new AGSU, the Army Green Service Uniform,” Suhr said. “We finally bit the bullet, spent the money. It was very expensive. It’s roughly about $1,500 (per person) to get the set that we have, which is with the dress coat, and a few shirts, and a few pants so that we’re good to wear it throughout the week.

“We were joking amongst ourselves because none of us really wanted to spend that money,” Suhr continued. “CSM (Tony) Cox already had the uniform in his possession, and then SFC (Leona) Brooks bought it to promote her son (who is in the Army) because she wanted to be in a current uniform for that (ceremony). So, two of the four of us had broken down. It was really (down to) me, being the cheap guy, and MSG Smith being probably the closest to retirement, that was reluctant to do it. But we bit the bullet this summer.”

The first time BC employees and Cadets saw BC’s cadre wearing the new uniforms was during Registration Day on July 29.

“It’s been very positive, all the teachers saying it looks sharp,” Suhr said. “Obviously, it takes everybody by surprise. It takes some getting used to. The funny thing is a lot of people think it’s a Marine Corps uniform just based on the Marines do have a very similar-looking uniform. (We are) just kind of overcoming some of those misperceptions. I think it is a sharp-looking uniform. We all like it. I like the look of the jacket. I’m not as sold much on the Class B version yet. It will take some getting used to, just how the shirts fit and all that, but from the standpoint of the Class A jacket with its waistbelt, there’s a lot of different variations you can do now. There’s the Eisenhower jacket, a high-waisted coat that he’s famous for wearing in World War II. That is also authorized now. You can wear a leather bomber jacket for cold weather. It’s really kind of neat and nostalgic.”

Although the new uniforms are expensive, LTC Suhr said he and BC’s cadre are glad they made the change before “what we call the wear-out date” on Oct. 1, 2027.

“The ASU, the Army Service Uniform that we were wearing is still around,” Suhr said. “It’s just blues now. It’s a higher class, which it always was. I can remember when I first came into the Army and we had the green uniforms; the blues was only for formal events. It’s kind of a black-tie equivalent, whereas this Army Green Service Uniform is intended to be like a professional suit, a business suit. It’s meant to be that professional look for office work.

“We’re still getting used to it but, so far, the quality seems really good of the shirts and pants,” Suhr continued. “We haven’t been wearing it very long. The fit is a little different. Each thing always has its differences, but I think, overall, the feeling of the cadre here is that they like it. We plan to wear it for our ceremonies. This is what we’ll wear for Commissioning, for Gannam Day, for parades that we support, including St. Patrick’s Day. The only exception is we wear Class B for Senior Review and that’s just because of the temperatures – it’s getting hot, typically, at the end of April and we don’t want to be in that for an outdoor ceremony.”

BC’s Cadets will not be changing uniforms.

“We don’t anticipate a change for the boys,” Suhr said. “In the past, when we shifted, it was because there was a genuine ‘we’re not making the green uniform anymore.’ These blue pants that (Cadets) still wear here, it’s because they’re still being made. It’s part of the Army Service Uniform as a higher-level uniform. And the gray shirts that (Cadets) wear in JROTC are JROTC-only anyway, so they’ve been in the supply chain for a while. And, lastly, the dark blue coat that we wear is also still going to be in the inventory. I don’t think there’s going to be a big push to shift JROTC (uniforms) anytime soon. And maybe never. It could come someday but there’s been no talk of a change for us on the student side.”