Totally legit

| February 5, 2014

AF doink

I dropped this picture off at our fan page last night, and it seemed rather popular. So while I’m fighting with my internet connection under a sheet of ice (luckily I have a mobile hotspot option on my phone to augment this business), I figured I’d drop it off for you sociopaths who don’t have Facebook accounts.

It might be easier to spot the things that are correct about this uniform than the things that are wrong.

Category: Phony soldiers

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Sparks

@49 Hondo me too. But…the soccer mom IS kinda…hot in all that exercise outfit! I am seeing her with the cap off, hair down and flowing all over me and she’s sorta sweaty and…

Sorry, product of the BYU thread and unresolved childhood issues. 😀

Hondo

ChipNASA: OK, now I gotcha. I was interpreting your previous as saying you’d found another photo of the guy at that location.

Hondo

Sparks: ya might want to lie down and rest until the room quits spinning and the walls quit moving, amigo. (smile)

Sparks

@53 Hondo Roger that. 😀

Matt

It could just be the angle but that guy’s head looks way too big for his patrol cap.

trapperfrank

He did get the air force gloves right.

A Proud Infidel

@21, Piney NCO, thanks for the offer, but I just bought a new pair of steel toe work boots I’m DYIN’ to give a good break-in! Maybe givin’ that asswipe a good stomping and a few face kicks could do it? I’m over in NW FL where there are plenty of active and retired Air Farce, he wouldn’t get far with his costume in my neck of the woods, and it’s very likely someone would find him/it before me and tear him up. In the past, I’ve overheard barroom bullshitters saying “YEAH, I was SF/Ranger/SEAL/Recon, and…”, that’s when I’ll ask “Yeah? Did you train at Camp Tanner or Fort Carnley?” both are fictional locations, and as soon as they start running their mouths about the badassed training they got at either, I call BULLSHIT on ’em in front of God and everybody. Yeah, I’ve had “invitations” to the parking lot, only to find the chickenshits long gone by the time I get out there!

Joe Williams

FYI, Carswell is now a joint forces base. Every branch of service is there now. Marines,Sailors,Air Force,TANG. Next time I am in Arlington,I willgo check out the Base. Joe

B Woodman

Things right with this uniform:
#1-The pants are on his legs
#2-The shirt is on his torso
#3-Nope! I’ve run out of things correct with those clothes (I DARE not call it a “uniform” the way he is wearing it)

Green Thumb

Great haircut.

USAF standard.

Just kidding.

Not so much….

A Proud Infidel

@58, it’s my favorite head game to play on posers in person, I call it ” Bust the Bullshitter”, that’s when I make up a ficticious name of an installation and ask if they served/trained there or ask something like if they went to Boot Camp at Ft. Bragg, etc. to see what their response is. If someone tells me they’re a Marine and I think they’re a poser, I’ll ask them if they went to Boot Camp at Camp Ferris or Coronado, (A real Marine would tell me San Diego or Parris Island after smacking me into next week) you wouldn’t believe how many fake barroom Marines I’ve busted with that question alone!!

DevilChief

I don’t know–I am not/was not Air Force but we have a few out here and none of them wear their rank on a sleeve like that. The rank is really small and located in the center of the chest. Also–that is an ACU. Most AF guys out this-away either wear the Army “Afghanistan” (MulitCam) pattern (which is different than the ACU shown above) or the Air Force’s tiger stripe pattern. All three of which have the rank in the center of the chest and it’s small. I know that’s out here and back home is back home but I would imagine there is some sort of, you know, uniformity to the wearing of a uniform. Like I said, I could be wrong but that smells bad.Also–his collar is “popped”. I see SGT’s yelling all day at PVT’s with accidentally popped collars after getting out of their body armor.

DevilChief

@61 obviously the contract world is filled with posers. Usually we have no “BS Mondays”. If someone throws the flag at someone’s BS, we all sit down and they have to prove by DD-214 and pictures. Catch a lot like that typically Army Seals and Marines whose last unit was “Camp LeJuene”. Of course this was before all the Stolen Valor guys like TAH taking a bite out of their butts.

ExHack

Hey, question for the genuine .mils, and there may be no good answer: if “popping the collar” on the ACU is such a terrible thing, why did they design the collar to be poppable? Isn’t there actually a velcro dealio to close the collar in the “popped” position?

Mind you, I work for The Government too, albeit civilian, so I realize the answer may make no sense whatsoever.

AverageNCO

Hey Hondo, I’ve heard you complain about our “upside-down” chevrons before. But I moved to Japan four weeks ago, which means four weeks of AWESOME AFN commercials. I’ve seen the one about Ft. Carson’s Mounted Color Guard a gazillion times already. I also watched GLORY on AFN Movies two nights ago. Back in the day Big Army wore their chevrons in the same direction as us zoomies….and the same direction as the most of our other NATO partners…Jus sayin’

Hondo

AverageNCO: yeah, the Army fixed that error in the late 19th or early 20th Century. I have confidence that our NATO partners will fix their error some day.

However, I have no idea why you guys in the USAF decided to go “back to the future” retro. I thought you’d have learned better by 1947. (smile)

The above is tongue in cheek, obviously.

For what it’s worth: my late dad was career USAF – starting with the USAF in 1947. Family accounts differ as to whether he was a “plankholder” or one of the first group of USAF inductees; based on reviewing his personal copy of his records after he passed, I think it’s the latter.

The “upside down” stripes dates to the late 1940s. For a short while after the “split”, the USAF continued to use US Army enlisted rank insignia. Not long afterwards (March 1948), enlisted rank insignia fairly similar to the present day ones were adopted. These new insignia were somewhat similar to the US Army insignia of the day turned “upside down” with a “empty-centered star” added in the center between the stripes.

After that change, Dad said he caught grief from time to time in service clubs (presumably in the late 1940s) for his “upside down” stripes. (smile)

Our current and former “upside down stripe” (smile) brothers/sisters-in-arms might find this link of interest.

http://www.afhra.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-090611-103.pdf

OWB

Thanks Hondo. Really did enjoy that.

I always just bought the idea that our stripes were more wing like being canted as they are. Whether that was the original intent or not, the result is the same. And, even if not articulated well, that thought had to be buried somewhere in the minds of the decision makers of the day.

Gonna stick with that story!

2/16

wait where is his umbrella? seems legit to me.