National Defense: Soldiers’ Clothes

The U.S. soldier in uniform. Model 1941, tends to be casual to the point of slouchiness, conspicuously lacks the ramrod posture of the German soldier or the U.S. Marine. But the equipment the U.S. soldier slouches in is, according to the U.S. Army, the best in the world. To outfit and maintain a U.S. soldier, from toilet kit (63¢) to overcoat ($12.54), and buy his organizational equipment, from shovels (68¢) to hymnals for the chapels ($33.75 a set), costs $262.35 a year. Complete with Garand ($96), the Army rifleman’s equipment (including maintenance but not ammunition) sets the U.S. Treasury back $258.35 a year. Average annual civilian expenditure on clothes (estimated): $80. The soldier’s bill for clothing only: $157.71.