#i want to read a whole book about the cultural meanings assigned to gi uniforms

[sea-changed]

"When the tactics of the Spanish-American War showed the wisdom of some semblance of camouflage, blue gave way to khaki [in U.S. Army uniforms] and eventually to the olive-brown tones of Dwight Eisenhower’s famous short jacket. The standard-issue olive drabs, or 'O.D.s,' were openly derided. 'It was a shade that might have reminded an imaginative observer of the color of vomit or even excrement,' the cultural critic Paul Fussell wrote in his 2002 book, 'Uniforms.' After V-J Day, it became existentially necessary for the Army to address its image problem. Olive drab was a drag on morale and a handicap to recruitment, and the mass entry of army clothes to the civilian life, as worn by veterans to tend their lawns or to pump a customer’s gas, further eroded its prestige.

"In 1949, the Office of the Quartermaster General set about stabilizing the army uniform, and its search for a new color may have represented the most extensive development and market-testing process in the history of both apparel and bureaucracy. An advisory committee ruled that a neutral gray-green would be 'flattering to the greatest range of people,' according to a later technical report. A team from the Quartermaster Corps proposed army uniforms to about 15,000 troops in 24 cities [and] quantified the relative enthusiasm of recruits, veterans and officers’ wives[.]

"[...] Phased in between the mid-’50s and early ’60s, the army green field uniform projected “the confidence and readiness of an authoritative military force,” the historian Shelby Stanton wrote in 'U.S. Army Uniforms of the Cold War, 1948-1973.' 'Army green,' Stanton felt, 'complemented the U.S. desire to project the most professional soldiering image toward its Cold War adversaries.'"

Troy Patterson, "How the Army Jacket Became a Staple of Civilian Garb" (New York Times)