The raging fire hisses as another lump of coal is shoveled into the glowing-inferno. You wipe the soot and sweat off your forehead and ponder on how your ship is the peak of Naval superiority. You and your fellow “Stokers” wear coal-dusted black boots from shoveling coal all day – surely a laborious tradition that will not change.
Stokers, also known as the “black gang”, served aboard the Navy’s steam ships, primarily shoveling coal in the blazing hot boiler rooms. They traditionally wore black roughout-leather boots to hide dust from the coal-fired boilers, coining them “black-shoe” Sailors. This became the Navy standard for both working and dress uniforms. The black shoes represented a Navy when powerful battleships and guns were the cornerstone of the fleet. However, naval technology quickly evolved, and just as battleships ruled the sea, airplanes began to rule the skies. The birth of naval aviation marked a new era of modern warfare – and the brown shoe.
These pre-aviation “black shoe” Sailors felt the divide from the prospective “brown shoe” Navy, and it didn’t happen overnight for them to embrace their “brown shoed” shipmates. Yet, we are all seamlessly united aboard the Navy’s centerpiece, and Nimitz-Class aircraft carrier USS George Washington is a prime example of the two unified sects serving crucial roles in the Navy’s shared mission – delivering decisive combat power and maintaining a global, ready-to-fight force to deter aggression.
But why brown? Around the early 1910s, early commissioned naval aviators found their shiny black-polished boots consistently dusty from the Coronado, California airstrips where they trained. Drawing negative attention from their superiors, these young aviators grew tired of appearing dirty and the constant routine of cleaning them. The frustrated aviators looked to their army counterparts, who wore brown boots, and decided to try them out. The brown boots quickly proved effective, both camouflaging the sand and keeping their superiors off their backs. The Navy officially approved the brown boot for aviators on November 13, 1913, but its popularity quickly became the aviation standards across the fleet, creating a cultural distinction between traditional surface warfare and naval aviation. The brown boot signified pride and belonging to what would become a carrier-based Navy, while the black boot represented the traditional surface combat-based Navy.
Today, the brown and black boot preference serves a choice of pride. However, differing views of tradition and modernism in 1913 was perceived by some who felt the new aviators were instinctive and unfocused on traditional Navy protocol.
“As a surface officer joining an aviation staff, you must first make yourself stop referring to yourself as a line officer, and to the others as aviators,” said Captain Andrew G. Nelson, head of the Manpower Plans Branch in the Office of The Chief of Naval Operations, in his article published July 1970.
Walking around George Washington, brown boots are a common sight. Although commonly worn by naval aviators, flight officers, and designated aviation khakis as a way to distinguish themselves from surface sailors, all khakis are authorized to wear them.
“There definitely is a point of pride that comes with the brown shoe … Someone could readily identify you as being a part of naval aviation,” said Lt. James Pirkel, launch and recovery officer from V-1 division. Pirkel has served as a naval maritime aviator and flew EP-3s with Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron (VQ) One. “Each of us has our own expertise in our respective fields and we all bring that knowledge to the table to try and get the mission done.
”Brown boots have become an icon within the Navy, displaying an important meaning to those who wear them. Yet, the “brown-shoes” and “black-shoes” rely upon each other, especially on an aircraft carrier. Rather than a divide between both groups, there is a shared sense of importance between the surface and air. The aircraft carrier cannot run without either.