Unlike enlisted men, officers in the US Army purchased their own uniforms rather than being issued government-furnished garments from the Quartermaster Corps depots. Officer uniforms were individually tailored, often made in superior grades of fabric, and individuals were given considerable latitude in customizing them. The CCC followed the same practice.
US military officers serving as camp commanders, adjutants or doctors wore their military service uniforms while on active duty with the CCC. However, the question arose as to whether and how the project supervisory staff assigned to CCC camps from the Department of Interior, Department of Agriculture, and state forest services should be uniformed. The same question arose concerning the camp Education Advisors, the only civilians directly employed by the ECW/CCC itself.
Vintage images suggest that most technical staff were not uniformed most of the time. Whether from the Soil Conservation Service, the US Forest Service, National Park Service, Bureau of Reclamation, or other agencies, supervisors most often show up in photographs in whatever idiosyncratic combination of workwear and civilian business wear they found comfortable.
In 1935 there does seem to have been a push to have technical branch supervisors wear either their own service uniform (NPS and USFS), or, if their parent branch had no uniform, a generic CCC officer's uniform. The specs seem to have loosely followed US Forest Service practice.
Below is a link to a 1935 catalog for CCC Officer's uniforms from Fechtheimer Bros, the prominent Cincinnati-based purveyor of military uniforms and coats, issued in response to the 1935 mandate. The original is in the collections of the Denver Public Library.
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