Photo by Mark Goldman/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Both Army and Navy have released their alternate uniforms for this year’s rivalry game
One of the biggest rivalries in sports is about to be renewed.
The annual clash between Army and Navy.
This year’s edition of Army-Navy is slated for December 9, and will take place at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts. As we have seen in recent years, both teams have unveiled alternate uniforms for the occasion. Last year Navy honored the graduates of the Naval Academy who turned their eyes to the stars, paying tribute to the 54 graduates who later served at NASA.
Meanwhile Army honored 1st Armored Division during World War II, and their heroics during Operation Torch on the 80th Anniversary of that Division’s campaign in Europe and North Africa during World War II.
Here are the uniforms for this year’s installment of Army-Navy.
Navy: Silent Service
Navy unveiled their uniforms for this year’s installment of their rivalry on the Monday before Thanksgiving. This season, the Naval Academy pays tribute to the “Silent Service,” the Submarine Force.
According to the Naval Academy website:
“The entire uniform is flooded with Eclipse Navy to mimic the covert design of a submarine hull. The uniform was purposefully designed to embody the Force’s nickname: Silent Service. The overall design was intended to be simple and utilitarian to convey the stealth purposes of a submarine’s design.
“The design elements of the font are in contrasting white to mimic classification numbers of a submarine hull. These elements were strategically selected to only highlight elements that require on-field legibility like the player numbers, player names, the NAVY wordmark, the USMC globe and the Under Armour logo. On the pants, numbers are stacked vertically to mimic depth numbers of a submarine hull.”
Navy shared the “Silent Service” uniforms on social media:
Here, you can see just some of the elements that went into the design, from sleeve patches to how the numbers are stacked vertically to mimic the depth numbers on the hull of submarines:
Semper Deep.
Army: Dogface Soldiers
In 1942 Cpl. Bert Gold and Lt. Ken Hart, both from New York and serving in the United States Army, wrote a song together called “Dogface Soldier.”
The song came to the attention of Maj. Gen. Lucian K. Truscott, the commanding officer of the 3rd Infantry Division, and it was adopted as the division’s song.
To this day that song, and the nickname “Dogface Soldiers,” have been associated with the 3rd Infantry Division, and in this year’s Army-Navy game, Army will be wearing uniforms to honor that division. Specifically, the 20th anniversary of their operations during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
“The 2023 Army-Navy uniform tells the story of the soldiers of the 3rd Infantry Division during the opening phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Marne Division’s participation in the initiation of offensive operations in Iraq, the longest and most rapid armored advance since the Second World War.”
Here is another look at their uniforms for Army-Navy:
