If you’ve ever seen a movie about an American naval aircraft carrier flight deck, you’ve likely noticed the varied colored shirts/helmets worn by various teams on the deck.  If you’ve ever wondered what they all mean, DoD Live provides a primer:

The yellow shirts are generally worn by the person in charge. Their job consists of aircraft handling officers, catapult and arresting gear officers and plane directors.

The blue shirts [perform] as aircraft handlers, tractor drivers, aircraft elevator operators, and messengers and phone talkers. 

Purple shirts…are also referred to as “Grapes”. These men and women operate, maintain and perform organizational maintenance on aviation fueling and lubricating oil systems…

Green shirts…perform duties as catapult and arresting gear crews, air wing maintenance personnel, cargo-handling personnel…They do everything from working on the equipment…to documenting all the sailors…

The red shirts…consist of aviation ordnancemen, crash and salvage crews and explosive ordnance disposal (EOD).

Brown shirts [plane captains/crew chiefs] are largely responsible for the maintenance and general well-being of all the functions on the aircraft itself.

White shirts are made up of…quality control…, squadron plane inspectors, landing signal officers…, safety observers, and medical personnel.

The use of colored shirts can seem a little…elementary…to an outside observer.  The flight deck, though, is an extraordinarily busy (and dangerous) place.  It’s a system that seems to work well, and that’s what matters.