New USAF Service Coat

[jimmydeanno]

Here's a pretty good read that I was sent a few days ago (it's from 2006):

http://www.afa.org/magazine/July2006/0706bluesuit.asp

[mikeylikey]

They should add the Air Corps Branch Insignia on the lapels.  They want to link the uniform historically, that would do it.

[teesquared]

Here's a pretty good read that I was sent a few days ago (it's from 2006):

http://www.afa.org/magazine/July2006/0706bluesuit.asp

Good grief! I hope they don't go with the "Billy Mitchell" coat! 

[ddelaney103]

Here's a pretty good read that I was sent a few days ago (it's from 2006):

http://www.afa.org/magazine/July2006/0706bluesuit.asp

Good grief! I hope they don't go with the "Billy Mitchell" coat! 

That article is way OBE.  af.mil has some pictures of the current coat being wear tested.

[SJFedor]

Here's a pretty good read that I was sent a few days ago (it's from 2006):

http://www.afa.org/magazine/July2006/0706bluesuit.asp

Good grief! I hope they don't go with the "Billy Mitchell" coat! 

That article is way OBE.  af.mil has some pictures of the current coat being wear tested.

Yeah. af.mil has the Captain who is the project manager for the wear test on there. But if you compare him to the General on the first post, the belt buckles are different on the waist belt.

Which one is liked more?

[afgeo4]

The buckle for the belt is going to be custom placed by each airman for best fit. The belt itself is under question and uniforms are being tested with and without the belt.

[ddelaney103]

Also, the General Officer belt is almost certain to be different than the average bear.

[Gunner C]

Here's a pretty good read that I was sent a few days ago (it's from 2006):

http://www.afa.org/magazine/July2006/0706bluesuit.asp

Good grief! I hope they don't go with the "Billy Mitchell" coat! 

That article is way OBE.  af.mil has some pictures of the current coat being wear tested.

Yeah. af.mil has the Captain who is the project manager for the wear test on there. But if you compare him to the General on the first post, the belt buckles are different on the waist belt.

Which one is liked more?

I'm pretty sure that is the general officer belt buckle.  If you dig deep enough, you'll find that it's the same one GOs wear on their pants belt.

GC

[jimmydeanno]

Here's a pretty good read that I was sent a few days ago (it's from 2006):

http://www.afa.org/magazine/July2006/0706bluesuit.asp

Good grief! I hope they don't go with the "Billy Mitchell" coat! 

The intent was just to show what the progression has been.  I find it ironic that the original intent/progression was to have a uncluttered streamlined blue business suit.  Then it progressively got more cluttered and such.  Then McPeak say's "you know, we were supposed to have a plain blue suit, let me see what I can do" and gets dogged on for it.  In all honesty, I think the McPeak coat looks better than this new one. (minus the sleeve stripes)

[Gunner C]

Here's a pretty good read that I was sent a few days ago (it's from 2006):

http://www.afa.org/magazine/July2006/0706bluesuit.asp

World War II had been a period of relaxed dress and appearance standards, particularly in flying units. Airmen crammed their earphones over their service caps to give them a "50-mission crush" and wore cowboy boots, scarves, and items borrowed from the British and other air forces. Their flight jackets sometimes sported garish artwork, and their uniform combinations were more mix-and-match than regulation.

Service leaders lamented the lax attitudes in place during World War II, but feared that cracking down would damage morale. The assumption was once the war was over, discipline would return.

Oh, the horror of it all.  Men, who went into the sky everyday who watched their friends get killed everyday and themselves knew that their days on earth were numbered, actually scoffed at the uniform regulations that were written by those who sat behind desks thousands of miles away.  Yep, they sure were a undisciplined bunch who went out to their aircraft everyday, ignoring their all consuming fear of death and dismemberment and went into battle anyway.

That is the biggest load of crap I've read in years.  When I was an NCO (a promotable E-6) I was assigned to a Special Forces A Detachment on the Nicaraguan border.  The four star from Panama had dictated that everyone would shave daily, even the jungle.  We were on four and five day patrols with the Honduran infantry, interdicting arms passing through.  We disobeyed that order.  First, we wore face cammie.  In order to shave, we'd have to scrap it all off, shave, and reapply.  That was something that would take about an hour.  Next, any cut especially on the face, became infected with hours (the jungle is a nasty place).  Third, any application of soap would do two things - it would leave an odor that could be smelled for about 100 meters (bad for hiding from bad guys) and it would attract mosquitoes (bad for your mental and physical health).

A spit and polish NCO in the rear (from a leg engineer unit) yelled at us for not looking like soldiers.  It was the most ridiculous thing I'd seen to that point.  We'd just come in from the jungle, protecting the border of an ally covered with mud, sweat, and anything else you can think of, carrying loaded weapons with double basic combat loads, and weighted down with extra batteries, water, and our own body bags (we always carried one for ourselves - if anyone got killed, we'd stash the body for later recovery).  He was standing there with a canteen cup of hot coffee, clean and pressed uniform, telling us how to be soldiers.  One of our team mates (a six foot four Cuban) called him every name in the book.  The well manicured Sgt knew that he'd run into a bunch of guys who didn't care for his parade field army.

Such was the US Army Air Force.  The folks who wrote the regulations weren't the ones who went out and died every day.  The generals and other commanders in the field understood this.  They knew that these guys needed something (actually anything) that would take their minds off of what they were really doing.  To say that they were undisciplined shows that he's never been anywhere and never done anything.

There's an old adage: No combat ready unit ever passed inspection; no inspection ready unit ever passed combat. (Murphy's Rules of Combat)

The guy who wrote that article is an idiot.

GC

[JohnKachenmeister]

That does not explain why Hap Arnold and the generals (who seldom flew) also wore the crushed cap.  The crushed cap was an affectation designed to set the Air Corps apart from the lesser Army branches, and to assert at some level a desire to be a service branch unto themselves.

When that happened in 1947, two things took place very quickly:

1.  All "Pursuit" planes were re-designated "Fighter" planes.  The P-51 became the F-51.

2.  Crushed caps were banned. 

[mikeylikey]

Not to keep bringing this topic back up, but I went through the Army Officers Guide from '43 and the uniform proposed is in fact an Officers Uniform.  Did anyone notice that Enlisted did not wear belts?  Did anyone notice that Enlisted pocket flaps were squared, not the proposed ones.  The AF is only playing to one side of the historical aspect, and that is the Officer Side.  This is a huge disservice to the Vast majority of Army Air Force Enlisted Personnel, and to the ones that followed.

Either way, since most adults in CAP are Officers anyway, this has no bearing on us. 

Just thought I would bring up an apparent oversight.   

[ddelaney103]

Not to keep bringing this topic back up, but I went through the Army Officers Guide from '43 and the uniform proposed is in fact an Officers Uniform.  Did anyone notice that Enlisted did not wear belts?  Did anyone notice that Enlisted pocket flaps were squared, not the proposed ones.  The AF is only playing to one side of the historical aspect, and that is the Officer Side.  This is a huge disservice to the Vast majority of Army Air Force Enlisted Personnel, and to the ones that followed.

Depends on when in the war this was.

In the pre-war days, enlisted wore fabric belts on their jackets while officers wore leather "Sam Brown" belts with shoulder straps.  They "dumbed down" the uniform to save money and speed production.

This was also when the Army changed from the nice overseas caps, which were like our flight caps, to the ugly overseas caps they wore up to the beret days.

[DNall]

The AF has always been officer centric, not even that it's pilot centric. That's not going to change regardless of how many enlisted aircrew take the fight to whomever at whatever point in history.

[0]

AAAAAA!!! Now I know why I don't like it... it reminds me of this:

That was actually modeled after the State Trooper uniform of Massachusetts.

[Timothy]

Top image is an original 1944 officers regulation service coat for an 8th AF pilot. They basically tried to copy it verbatim in the initial run of the heritage coat, but made the obvious adjustments to the lapels, which could have been altered to keep some kind of point, if they had tried. My hope of hopes is that they bring back the winged prop branch insignia after the wear test. At least they are bringing back the circled US insignia for enlisted ranks, though that is late 40's, but better than the regular US insignia now.

Bottom image is an army enlisted uniform circa mid WWII... sported by me! at the 315th Psychological Operations Company Dining In several months ago. It also sports pointed lapels and a bi-swing back, and though it did not have a cloth belt, it did have a "belt-back," or half a belt on the back side of the coat.

I wore the old style service dress in high school for 4 years before transitioning to the new coat in college, and now that I'm in CAP I will get to wear the new version before too long, thank God. I also read that the USAF was going to be contracting with Brooks Brothers to offer a private purchase "tailor made" service coat for ultra material and fit... cost TBD.

[PHall]

At least they are bringing back the circled US insignia for enlisted ranks, though that is late 40's, but better than the regular US insignia now.

They already brought back the circled US insignia about 18 months ago.
It was one the changes made by the last Uniform Board.

[jb512]

I ran across this picture about the new AF service coat... got a chuckle...

[LtCol White]

I ran across this picture about the new AF service coat... got a chuckle...

This is not the coat selected. It was one of the choices and is being considered as a possible Honor Guard or other formal wear uniform in the future.

[jb512]

I ran across this picture about the new AF service coat... got a chuckle...

This is not the coat selected. It was one of the choices and is being considered as a possible Honor Guard or other formal wear uniform in the future.

That doesn't make the picture any less funny....

Or maybe just to me.

Change it to "a new coat that the Air Force was looking at and may or may not use as a possible alternative to a choice they may make in the future regarding an update of the current service dress uniform or its equivalent".

Better?