Air Force uniform announcement
An Air National Guard release announced this week that the same Operational Camouflage Pattern uniform the Army dons will be available to wear for Air Force units around the world.
But one look at the for-whatever-reason-uncropped photo used in the release makes it look more like an announcement that airmen can now wear whatever the hell they want.
Of all the eyes that military press releases are filtered through prior to publication, not a single person looked at this and thought, “Hey, would matching trousers be a good idea?”
Is this nitpicking too much? Obviously, but is the difficulty of matching OCP uniforms for an official announcement genuinely that substantial? That which has been seen cannot be un-seen!
In the Air Force Times article , Tech. Sgt. Daniel Ter Haar takes some liberty with the Uniform of the Day. Are Woodlands still authorized in the military? It has become impossible to keep up with all the changes. I remember when “Sleeves up, Sleeves Down” was the biggest controversy. I never understood the need for Air Force and Navy personnel to have camouflage. What ever happened to this guy?
It used to be easy to tell who was who, I have no idea anymore. 
Category: Military issues
Relax, Francis!
As a PSYOP guy, I’m pretty sure the intent was for this picture to be cropped, showing the progression of modern uniform evolution in the Air Force. Although why they put DCU’s before BDU’s I’m not very clear on.
As for the change, in one of the defense spending bills under the Obama Administration Congress basically said “Knock all this lack of uniformity uniform changes shit off” and since the Marines won’t share MARPAT OCP it is.
I recall when the Marine Corps was transitioning from the old woodlands to MARPAT, there was a good while where you could wear woodlands, woodland MARPAT with either the black or roughside-out boots. You can imagine it must have driven the first sergeant and SgtMaj types crazy! In the waning days of the woodlands still being authorized (1 October 2004 was the completion date for the transition), I had “old cammie Friday”. I was sort of sad to see them go (i.e. the old cammies) since you could iron those and make them look good. Although it several hours a week, the fact that the MARPAT is not to be ironed and the roughside-out boots don’t require shining makes me just a little sad. It used to be easier to tell the shitbirds at a glance.
Drat
“Although it several hours a week”
Should be
“Although it saves several hours a week”
Hah, I remember our gunny saying exactly that in 2004 – “If everyone looks the same in digis, how the hell can I tell who the shitbirds are?”
It was a shame when they were gone. When I was just out of boot everyone’s dream was to have some salty-ass white cammies, and once I finally had a pair like that, I couldn’t wear them anymore.
Again, some hot shot general trying to make a name for himself and screwing with the uniforms costing the taxpayers a bunch of money!
Nerds still complaining about the marine corps. 😭
Pickle suits. Let the squids wear blue. In garrison nothing else needed. Save the camo for when needed, issued locally, no more than three standard patterns WW. Screw the profiteers.
I’m not clear about why airmen need to look like a bush. Undoubtedly, there are some MOS where that makes sense, but for most, it doesn’t.
I’d like to see them adopt a bicorne hat, complete with swan plume. Officers would be allowed an ostrich feather and gold trim.
monocles optional?
They’re allowed to smoke, but only a pipe.
That old fart in the back looks like he would rather be doing ANYTHING else but be in this stupid picture for that captain.
Wait until the SPACE FORCE comes on line! LMAO! $10 million in development of a uniform!
https://www.economist.com/united-states/2014/04/12/out-of-sight
Wait until they try composing/writing a theme song! Try ferreting out what they spend on that.
I’m picturing the Star Trek opening monologue done in a shatternesque spoken verse rhyme.
I like Sesame Street’s Ernie singing “I don’t want to live on the moon”.
Jesus.
He wore a long cotton overshirt tied at the waist with a rope and a sheepswool cloak with armholes. He also dragged along a walking staff. Mine is hickory. His was probably cedar.
More wasting of tax payer’s money.
https://navy-matters.blogspot.com/2018/06/new-navy-uniforms.html
The Squid in the top pic is not a snipe because his sleeves are rolled up and it’s hard to verify by looking in his back pocket for a waste rag. He’s also missing his coffee cup hanging on his belt with a zillion keys but I do see what looks like a pocket knife. Looks like he didn’t get a chance to stencil his name above the shirt pocket. I’ll take it back on the rolled up sleeves because I was working under one of the OKIE 3’S laundry steam press with my sleeves rolled up and as I was lying on the deck trying to get into a comfortable position, my bare arm came into contact with one of the steam lines and I got a little burn mark on the skin.
Too clean for a snipe. No voided out crow. His attitude looks right, just too clean. I liked the Dixie cups. Someone asked me why I did not wear the ball cap. I told them I was a fucking sailor, not a ball player. I actually did (still do) own the command ball cap.
Not an airdale. We made Dungarees look sexy.
Seriously, does the Air Force even have a job that can’t be done in Dress blues or coveralls? If they need Cammo they can just draw it from the army group they are assigned to. And only then if they need to go outside the wire.
Guarding nuclear silos.
They have QRF and snipers making sure the missileers are kept safe until it is time to unleash the apocalypse, and that no one tries to steal the warhead.
Observations from an Army guy: Camouflage on Sailors is dumb unless they are operating on land.
The blueberry uniform makes an overboard sailor a bit difficult to spot.
I think they should have the same duty uniform configuration like the other branches and maybe to save money, just give them OCP’s.
I thought about grey uniforms but maybe there would be an increase in person-to-person collision on ships.
Air Force: Let them wear OCP.
Tiger stripe is baffling.
I tell my Air Force buddy that they should have black utilities with white or yellow stripes to blend in with the runways.
Okay, that is IT!!!!
The USAF can wear umbrella patterns on camo. Otherwise, just stick with the slick silver jumpsuits that are supposed to make them all look like astronuts.
I found a neon pink camo pattern with Hello Kitty! included, and I will get some and crank out a set of camos for that. Can’t possibly be any worse than my duck hunting suit.
And as to Space Force, they should all be wearing black, with a color patch that indicates what Section, e.g., Engineering, Infantry, they belong to, because obviously, only the Marines need to wear green.
And anyone on the Away team wears RED…
Oh HELL no!
As an airman from the days of the pressed starched pickle suit(1947-1977, I was in 73-80), followed by a change to the permanent press pickle suit(1977) like the one Francis in the pic from the movie “Stripes” is wearing, I say go back to that, it was good enough then it would be good enough now for the USAF and cheaper too.
The airman in the pic above look far to rag tag sloppy, and why would you need to wear camo on the flight line or in an office environment or if you were on swing or midnite shifts especially since for safety reasons they wear reflective tape on field jackets, well at least they did in the 70’s ?
I always said a pickle suit shirt with the patches and stripes on the sleeves and straight legged denim pants would have made a fine utility USAF uniform for wear in garrison; it would have been cheaper too. The big shots whined that since the pants and shirts faded differently (because they were made by different companies) the pickle suit did not present a proper military appearance. Right before I was told to can it, I replied, it’s a utility uniform not a parade uniform.
I was getting out as the ABU was coming in. I thought it was a stupid idea from the word go. Allegedly, like with the Navy’s blueberry pattern, it is supposed to provide camouflage on an airbase. Ah, no. And what’s the point of a camo uniform that you can’t wear in theater?
I never understood why we didn’t just wear DCU all the time, since that’s what you’d wear if deployed. Then when you get sent over the first thing they do is collect whatever pieces of uniform they can find to put you in. I know of guys who were sent over in the 8-point USMC-style cap, wrong MAJCOM patches, were given mis-matched stripes (one sleeve female-size, one sleeve male), etc.
Issue the uniform you’re going to deploy in. I think that’s at least the idea behind moving to the OCP. So I can support it. If nothing else, it doesn’t look as cartoony and made up as the ABU.
WAR STORY ALERT: You should have seen the crap the Air Force issued us to wear in 58. I don’t think we got halfway decent fatigues until the 60’s. And the f’n “brogans” issued to all but a few AFSC’s (i.e., Air Police also received jump boots), were great if you were someone used to plodding behind a plow pulled by mules.
It’s a shame the USAF is losing the one good thing they had going: big stripes on the uniform sleeves. I always wished the army had kept theirs. Alas, they were gone long before I pinned on my buck-sergeant stripes back in 1989….
Good point. I hadn’t even really caught that in my first look. I too liked the sleeve stripes. Didn’t like going to the tailor with a dozen shirts every promotion though.
There was brief period during the early to mid 80’s when they tried a Velcro aircrew style leather name tag. Not sure if it was for everyone or only jobs that spent time on the flight line. All I know is that I practically wore out several sets of BDU’s sewing on and taking off stripes, Velcro and name/U S Air Force tapes.
Most of these uniform changes are just a waste of time and money. And very silly.
I liked the dungarees. They were comfortable and cheap. Easy to maintain, easy to wear, and at sea nobody cared if they had grease stains or your shoes were not shined.. It was a working uniform and a ship at sea is a dirty, greasy maintenance intensive workplace. Plus, you looked like a sailor.
Quit trying to use common sense here. Uniform contractors have to eat too. Besides, that white hat just had to go; Dixie Cup (?); that raciss. And why should a sailor look like a sailor?
Pick a uniform, any uniform, and stick with it for more than a month, OK?
USAF blues work just fine when working in an office. Flight suits work fine when flying. Just about anything can be worn by folks twisting wrenches.
This really isn’t as difficult as so many are trying to make it.
I was fortunate enough last Friday to see six sailors wearing the NEW whites with all that piping on the flap collar and the cuffs of the jumper, plus the tie.
It appears they don’t want sailors to roll it properly, so it’s done for them.
Did not see any camo or fatigues or whatever it is nowadays.
Dear ChairForce.
99.99% of you will never get in harm’s way. You are not warriors but extremely competent mechanics-be proud of your chosen trade.
Remember how upset the pilots were when drone drivers based in CONUS were issued “flight suits”? That’s how 3-11s feel about aircam etc