Uniforms (RDM)

Several types of uniforms are used within the Colonial Fleet and Colonial Marine Corps.

Colonial Fleet

Fleet Officers

A single-breasted dark blue duty uniform is used by officers (dark lighting sometimes makes them appear almost black, but they have been referred to as "blues" in dialog, seen in better lighting, etc). The left side of the uniform jacket folds over the right and is secured by column of buttons. Military occupation specialty badges are affixed over the pocket. Thus far, we have seen two distinct MOS badges for officers: fleet officers wear a badge shaped like a diamond flanked by a pair of outstretched wings (probably roughly analogous to the US Navy's surface warfare badge, while flight officers wear a similar diamond flanked by stubbier, wing-like wedges near its lower point (analogous to a fighter pilot's wings). Rank insignia are worn on the jacket collar. The pant legs feature bell bottoms, and it has a rolled-up collar. It has patches on the shoulders which are a darker shade of blue than the rest of the uniform, as well as a single pocket over the left breast of the user's uniform.

Fleet officer uniforms have a colored trim around the edges, which denote the rank of the wearer:

Junior Officers:

Ensign - a single white line
Lieutenant (Junior Grade) - a single white line
Lieutenant - a single white line
Captain - a single white line

Command Officers:

Major - unknown (no majors have ever been shown in uniform). Lee Adama was briefly promoted to the rank of Major during "The Captain's Hand", and his uniform still had a single white line trim. However, when his father William Adama was promoted to Admiral, he retained his Commander's uniform (without alteration, except for new rank insignia pins), possibly because supplies are low and it is difficult to make new uniforms/alter his old one, or because he is known to not enjoy pomp, or both. Perhaps, like his father, Apollo should have changed his uniform to a differently-styled Major's uniform, but did not.
Colonel - red line on outer edge, white line on inner edge
Commander - red line on outer edge, gold line on inner edge
Admiral - gold line on outer edge, white line on inner edge

The officers' dress uniform, known as Dress Greys, is modeled after the duty uniform, except for a few key differences. It is gray, lacks a pocket or shoulder patches, features a sash to which MOS pins and other medals are affixed, and is secured by a single clasp rather than a column of buttons. Epaulettes are worn at the left shoulder. Senior officers' uniforms also feature a dark gray bar around the neck. While the duty uniform is a tunic that tucks in at the belt, the dress uniform is actually an overcoat which extends below the hips and features an external belt made of the same material as the sash.

Officers can also use the green fatigue uniform for non-formal occasions.

Fleet Pilot Flight Suits

Flight suits with left sleeve pockets are used by flight-qualified crew (pilots, ECOs and the like). The flight suit is a life-support garment and can sustain the life of the pilot in hostile enviroments up to and including total vacuum and freezing temperature. Flight suits also have a metal collar that is attached to maintain an airtight seal between the flight suit and a helmet. Often, when not on a mission pilots wear the suit with the top half rolled down and hanging at their waist, revealing the t-shirt and tanktop they wear underneath. It also has been used to make an air-tight seal in a vessel by filling in a hole in the hull ("You Can't Go Home Again"). Pilots and ECOs where several patches on their flight suits: A patch designating the ship they are assigned to, on the right a patch for what craft they operate, usually a Viper or a Raptor, and a squadron patch, worn on the left breast under the outer layer of the suit. Additionally, the flightsuit has a chronometer mounted in a cuff.

Fleet Enlisted Crewmen

Enlisted personnel use a double-breasted green uniform, except on the flight deck where uniforms color-coded according to military occupation specialty are used, as on real-life aircraft carriers (only orange and yellow deck crew overalls have been observed so far).

Colonial Marine Corps

The uniforms used by the Colonial Marines are based on the BDU (see below), only in solid black rather than the digital pattern. Load-bearing vests, helmets, communications gear, knee and elbow pads, gloves and goggles are standard.

Marine NCO's (Non-Commissioned Officers) wear a khaki uniform with a simple row of buttons down the middle, and a downturned collar (on which rank insignia are worn). It has two pockets on the front, one over each breast of the uniform, which are secured by clasps. Like the Fleet officer uniform, it has differently collared patches on the shoulders, but on this they are gray shoulder patches on a khaki uniform.

Also, on the upper right arm a black armband is worn with the word "Security" printed in black letters on a small square of white. Sgt. Hadrian wears one of these uniforms, and during many episodes extras walking in the backround in hallways are seen wearing the Marine non-com uniform.

Apparently, there are no surviving Marine command officers left aboard Galactica (and presumably Pegasus), as the only officer seen so far has been Lieutenant Terry Burrell (Sacrifice). Unfortuneately, he was in plainclothes, so any further uniform details are lacking.

Additional notes

Both the officer and enlisted duty uniforms feature large patches on their left shoulders, which display the emblem of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol, and denote what vessel they are serving on. Galactica's crew patch is colored gold, with "Battlestar Galactica BSG 75" written around the seal. Pegasus' crew patch is colored white, with "Battlestar Pegasus BSG 62" written around the seal. For both officers and enlisted crew, rank insignia is affixed to both sides of the collar.

The battle dress utility uniform is an urban digital camouflage pattern of various shades of dark and light grays. It features angled breast and shoulder pockets and lacks abdominal pockets, and the buttons are covered, much like real-life United State Marine Corps MARPAT uniforms. The elbows of the battle dress utility feature large patches. The boots are typically not bloused, with the pant legs left hanging over the boots. The uniform features a mandarin collar which can be worn up for comfort in body armor or in a down position for appearance in other situations.

Black leather boots and hexagonal identification tags are used with all uniforms. All uniforms except for Colonial and Marine BDUs feature left-shoulder patches indicating their assigned Battlestar Group.

A gray sleeveless tee shirt covered by a brown tank top is worn beneath all unifroms, including at least the flight suit, the duty uniforms, BDUs, the deck crew work uniforms, and Dr. Cottle's coat (Mini-Series, Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II, You Can't Go Home Again deleted scene).

According to an interview with regular series costume designer Glenne Campbell Template:Ref, "The uniforms are made out of a very specific material, and we own all of that material that there is in existence -- they're not making this stuff anymore". Thus, for BSG fans that want to make their own costumes, it appears that it is technically impossible to make a complete recreation of the military uniforms on the series. As there are only a limited number of uniforms in existance, when someone gets shot the production team usually tries to have it shot in such a way that the costume is undamaged, i.e. when Cally shoots Boomer, there's actually a patch of cloth over the uniform that has the blood-packs underneath, which is painted to blend in with the rest of the uniform.

References

Dark-thoughts.net featuring numerous high-resolution pictures from the series

Template:Note "Costume Drama." Battlestar Galactica: The Official Magazine. Oct./Nov. 2005: 64.