ALL CAPS messages have been around since the USS Monitor.
Navy messages have been going out in ALL CAPS since sails were around. But Navy Times is reporting that the sea service has just started permitting lower-case letters to enlist in the messages sent to the fleet around the globe.
They used to look like this:
Now they look like this:
The ALL CAPS messages were a relic of the pre-Civil War days, when the Navy used teletype machines, which initially didn’t have lower-case letters.
Navy officials say younger sailors – used to emails and text messages since toddlerhood – find the ALL CAPS messages tougher to read than the old salts.
The Navy loves its traditions so much, it even has a website dedicated to them. But we don’t think the loss of ALL CAPS messages will be mourned by many.