Uniforms (RDM)

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

Colonial Fleet

Fleet Officers

Blue duty uniform (Miniseries).

Pilot Qualification Wings. Image created by Jim Stevenson

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.

It has large patches on the shoulders which are a darker shade of blue than the rest of the uniform. A round patch depicting the Colonial seal and including the wearer's ship's name together with its Battlestar Group is worn on the left shoulder. Two rank insignia are worn on the jacket collar.

Pilot qualification wings are worn over the breast pocket on the left. These exist in two variations. "Junior Wings" with two chevrons on a golden diamond and small swept-back wings to the sides, and "Senior Wings" with larger outstreched wings and an additional silver lining behind the diamond. The latter are awarded for extensive experience in flying small craft.

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

Junior Officers:

• Ensign to Major - a single white line - Example

Senior Officers:

• Colonel - red line on outer edge, white line on inner edge - Example
• Commander - red line on outer edge, gold line on inner edge - Example
• Admiral - gold line on outer edge, white line on inner edge - Example

The officers' dress uniform, known as Dress Grays, 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 or bronze 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. White gloves are worn as part of the Dress Gray uniform.

Dress Gray uniforms (Miniseries).

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 environments 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 tank top 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 wear 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 flight suit has a chronometer mounted in a cuff.

Fleet Enlisted Crewmen

Orange utility jumpsuit (Miniseries).

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

Khaki fatigue uniform and black battle dress uniforms (Litmus).

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 down turned 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 background 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). Unfortunately, he was in plainclothes, so any further uniform details are lacking.

There is a possibility that the Colonial Marine Corps do utilise digital camouflage uniforms with the Colonial Marine team that was sent to Caprica in the episodes Lay Down Your Burdens, Part I and Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II utilising "woodland" digital camouflage backpacks which gives some credibility that the Colonial Fleet are not the major users of digital camouflage uniforms and that the Colonial Marine Corps utilise and issue digital camouflage uniforms in "woodland" (and possibly "desert") colours for regular Colonial Marine forces like the real-life United States Marine Corps and their MARPAT combat uniforms.

There are a number of possible reasons why the Colonial Marines serving onboard both the Galactica and the Pegasus are not seen wearing digital camouflage uniforms and are seen wearing solid black tactical uniforms. One of the reasons why the Marines that serve with the Fleet are issued black combat uniforms could be due to the Marines' role as security personnel onboard the Battlestars as well as the fact the black combat uniforms are very effective in a darkened combat environment, especially in repelling any Cylon Centurions from raiding the ship (as seen in the Season 2 episode Valley of Darkness).

Ron Moore explained in a blog posting why the Marines do not have much uniform variation; it is primarily a budgetary issue:

Q: "Why do the "marines" on the show always wear a CQB (close quarters battle) gear loadout in all the episodes? Even in the ones where they are outdoors? Is it possible we might see a different "marine" gear setup? "

RDM: "It's primarily a budgetary issue. We've got the CQB gear, so it's cheaper and easier to keep using it week after week than it is to rent specific items for every mission or to buy a wide variety of gear for stock. There's also a costume issue in that we don't really have specific Marine uniforms, so we use variations of our existing "naval" uniforms for the Marines and distinguish them mostly through the use of the CQB gear."

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.

Colonial Shore Patrol (Scattered)

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 the real-life MARPAT uniforms the United States Marine Corps utilise. 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. This uniform has been in use in the Colonial Fleet for several decades (Scattered).

The digital camouflage uniforms that are used on Battlestar Galactica appear to be made by the American camouflage clothing company Tru-Spec for the commercial market and come in "woodland", "desert", and "urban" patterns. The Tru-Spec digital camouflage uniforms differ from the official MARPAT uniforms the U.S. Marine Corps utilise with the collar tips on the Tru-Spec uniforms are pointed while the collar tips on the offical MARPAT uniforms are rounded as well as the offical MARPAT uniforms having the emblem of the United States Marine Corps embrodered on the left hand chest pocket and the USMC's emblem imprinted in a small size into the camouflage pattern while the Tru-Spec versions do not have these emblems (The official MARPAT uniforms the U.S. Marine Corps utilise are manufactured by an American camouflage clothing company called Propper and the company makes the MARPAT uniforms exclusively for the U.S. Marine Corps which prevents these uniforms from being sold on the commerical market for civilians).

Urban battle dress utility uniform (Home, Part II).

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.

Tee shirt and tank top worn with green fatigue pants (Miniseries)

A gray sleeveless tee shirt covered by a brown tank top is worn beneath all uniforms, including at least the flight suit, the duty uniforms, BDUs, the deck crew work uniforms, and Dr. Cottle's coat (Miniseries, 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 , "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 existence, 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.

Rank Insignia

For Colonial rank insignia see Military Ranks (RDM)

External Links

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