And some of those uniform parts get expensive. It was like $60 to get new shoulder boards for mess dress.
I didn't know that - Looks like an opportunity for Walmart
Unlikely. First, Wal-Mart is a distributor / retailer, not a manufacturer. Second, US military uniforms are required to be made in the USA. (Not sure if it's actually a law, or just an administrative rule, but it exists.)
Isn't a distributor/retailer exactly what you need? When you are in a firefight you don't have time to comparison shop for ammunition online, and can't wait for Amazon Prime.
Walmart could be right there in Afghanistan making your fighting dollar go further - "save money. live better"
Hmm. Okay, if you think the cost is due to distribution, not manufacture, and you think Wal-Mart has better procurement and logistics than the US military (I could believe that), then you have a point.
Of course, there's still some misconception about the military going on here: for most soldiers, clothes are more likely to be stained by dirt, oil or food than by blood, and the vast majority of soldiers are behind the front lines of battle (assuming they're even in theater, or that there's even a war on), not on them. (I suspect the actual military folks in this thread -- of which I am not one -- wanted to point that out, but were too polite.)