DiscoverTask & PurposeHere are the Easter Eggs built into West Point’s latest Army-Navy football uniform
Here are the Easter Eggs built into West Point’s latest Army-Navy football uniform

Here are the Easter Eggs built into West Point’s latest Army-Navy football uniform

Update: 2025-11-12
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If you’ve never heard of a soldier armed with an “espontoon,” that might be because there’s only one in the entire U.S. Army, and it’s held for strictly ceremonial use in the service’s most hallowed infantry unit.





But the little-known ceremonial weapon will be front and center for next month’s Army-Navy game, depicted on the top of the football helmets that players from the U.S. Military Academy will wear in their annual showdown with the U.S. Naval Academy.





The espontoon blade will be among the most prominent of several hidden-in-plain-sight details included on the uniforms worn by West Point’s football team, which the school made public on Wednesday.





Over the last decade, both Army and Navy have worn distinctive, one-time-only uniforms that celebrate elements of their service for the annual game. A Navy official told Task & Purpose they would announce their specialized uniforms closer to the game.





The Army uniform honors the service’s 250th anniversary and the Continental Army, keeping with recent uniform themes that honored fighting units or particular campaigns.





<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Left, the espontoon carried by the Drum Major of the Fife and Drum Corps, 3d U.S. Infantry Regiment. Right, the 2025 Army-Navy football helmet with the espontoon blade depicted on the crown. Department of Defense photo by U.S. Army Sgt. Amber I. Smith; Helmet photo from Army West Point Football Facebook page.</figcaption></figure>



The mostly-white uniforms “pay tribute to 250 years of service since the Army was founded as the Continental Army in 1775 ahead of the Revolutionary War,” according to a website for the uniforms.





Most notably, the uniform numbers and names use a distinctive script that mirrors that in the Constitution.





“Written in the same style as the United States Constitution, it showcases the importance of having an Army that swears loyalty to a set of ideas rather than a monarch,” the release said.





The black script is on a uniform that appears white but is actually a print of white marble, a callback to wartime memorials and headstones. “From the beaches of Normandy to the rolling hills of Arlington National Cemetery, marble headstones represent the sacrifice of generations of soldiers who have upheld the army’s values and given their last full measure of devotion to their nation.”





Both academies have worn special, one-time uniforms for the Army-Navy game for several years, as has the Air Force Academy for its games with the rival academies. As the home team in 2024 — the designated host/visitor roles switch each year — the Army wore an all-black uniform dedicated to the 101st Airborne, and one for the 3rd Infantry Division in 2023. The 2021 uniform focused on Special Forces soldiers of Task Force Dagger, who routed Taliban forces in Afghanistan in 2001 — though the website created to celebrate those uniforms and the Green Berets behind them inadvertently featured several Air Force operators in prominent spots.





<figure class="wp-block-image size-large">Continental Army 'Easter eggs' in West Point's 2025 Army-Navy football uniform, from left: the Drum and Fife espontoon depicted on the helmet; purple stitching symbolic of the Purple Heart, first awarded to Continental Army soldiers; typeface taken from the U.S. Constitution; a chain logo, emblematic of the 75-ton chain used to blockade the Hudson River.<figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Continental Army ‘Easter eggs’ in West Point’s 2025 Army-Navy football uniform, from left: the Drum and Fife espontoon depicted on the helmet; purple stitching symbolic of the Purple Heart, first awarded to Continental Army soldiers; typeface taken from the U.S. Constitution; a chain logo, emblematic of the 75-ton chain used to blockade the Hudson River. </figcaption></figure>



The 2025 Army uniform includes several other Revolutionary War-era details. Near the collar is a chain that calls back to a 75-ton chain strung across the Hudson River near West Point to blockade British ships. Stitching and highlights are purple, the color of sacrifice associated with the Purple Heart medal, which was first awarded to Continental Army soldiers in 1783.





But at the top of the helmet is perhaps the deepest symbolic cut, a pointed blade that mirrors the ceremonial espontoon — a lance-like pole with a pointed blade — carried exclusively by the drum major of the Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps.





The Fife and Drum Corps is embedded in the 3rd Infantry Regiment, known as The Old Guard, the unit that performs all ceremonies at Arlington Cemetery. Unlike other military bands, the Fife and Drum perform as Continental Army, wearing period-correct Continental Army uniforms and playing only fifes, bugles, snare drums, and bass drums, the same instruments that George Washington’s soldiers marched under.







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