Quick questions

[huey]

At the National Conference 2011, I saw a young senior member to wear the captain rank directly on his service dress without the epaulet, just like the AF people!  If we are allowed to do that now a day it should save some bucks!   

And why we have to wear plastic encased insignia on flight suit? It should save some more bucks if we use the cloth one.

Did we do this previously? And the regs changed so people can differentiate between AF and CAP guys, I guess!

[Eclipse]

At the National Conference 2011, I saw a young senior member to wear the captain rank directly on his service dress without the epaulet, just like the AF people!  If we are allowed to do that now a day it should save some bucks!

That was not and is not allowed on the USAF-Style uniforms.  It's possible you saw him wearing the double-breasted Corporate Service Uniform, which initially used
metal pin-on grade, however by the 2011 conference the grade was changed to standard CAP epaulet sleeves.

And why we have to wear plastic encased insignia on flight suit? It should save some more bucks if we use the cloth one.

Because.

Bright on dark blue cloth insignia is worn on the dark blue Nomex flightsuit as well as the dark blue utilities.

Did we do this previously? And the regs changed so people can differentiate between AF and CAP guys, I guess!

Neither cloth insignia on green flight suits, nor metal grade on USAF-Style uniforms has been worn for over 20 years.

[Panache]

And why we have to wear plastic encased insignia on flight suit? It should save some more bucks if we use the cloth one.

http://captalk.net/index.php?topic=18046.msg326114#msg326114

[mwewing]

At the National Conference 2011, I saw a young senior member to wear the captain rank directly on his service dress without the epaulet, just like the AF people!

Perhaps this person was an Air Force Captain. I wouldn't be surprised at all to find AF Officers at a National Conference. At a glance, it could be difficult to tell if the person was CAP or AF. Of course, an AF Officer could also be a CAP member which makes the distinction more difficult. Unfortunately, it is also possible that a CAP member was wearing the uniform incorrectly.

As others have stated, we must wear the epaulets.