Poll
Question:
Which do You Prefer: Flight Cap, or Service Cap?
Option 1: Flight Cap
votes: 35
Option 2: Service Cap
votes: 20
When wearing the blue service dress uniform, which do you prefer: flight cap, or service cap?
Depends on the uniform combo. If I'm wearing short sleeve, usually the flight cap. If I've got the service dress jacket on, I'll usually wear the service cap.
There's no option for both!!! ??? ??? ???
Preference really kinda depends. If you wear service dress it will depend on the formality of the event. More formal should be the service cap and less formal should be the flight cap.
Quote from: SJFedor on February 05, 2007, 06:12:43 PM
Depends on the uniform combo. If I'm wearing short sleeve, usually the flight cap. If I've got the service dress jacket on, I'll usually wear the service cap.
He said service dress, not service uniform... Maybe that's what he should have said, but service dress is pretty specfic.
I prefer none of the above...I'm just not a hat person. Given a choice I would not wear either.
I like the looks of the service cap with the full service dress uniform. It just gives the whole outfit more of a "uniform" sense to me.
That being said, the flight cap is much more practical.
Even in the most formal of occasions, a service cap is a pain because you have to find a place to put it after you take it off of your head. The flight cap is much easier since you can just stick it into your belt.
Personal opinion - saucer caps are for russian generals. Or 1950s bus drivers.
I wore the service cap most of the time when I was in the Air Force with blues or 505's but then that was over 40 years ago when service caps were worn much more often than they are today. I still prefer them though normally only with the service dress uniform. If you're outside in the hot sun those flight caps are worthless.
Quote from: Camas on February 05, 2007, 06:47:31 PM
I wore the service cap most of the time when I was in the Air Force with blues or 505's but then that was over 40 years ago when service caps were wore much more often than they are today. I still prefer them though normally only with the service dress uniform. If you're outside in the hot sun those flight caps are worthless.
Service Coat = Service Cap
Other times = flight cap
Unless it's raining, as I have a rain cover.
For a couple of years my encampment senior staffers wore wheel caps w/ their blues, regardless of sleeve length, etc., as the event takes place on a navy base, and the RDC's, etc., generaly all where wheel caps, and it would make it easier for them to identify the leaders.
However we stopped that last year...
The service hat was not even issued when I went through USAF BMT in 1994. You are hard pressed to find a USAF officer/enlisted that owns a service hat. I know that the unit I was in had one that was "rented" if someone, enlisted or officer, needed one.
But that was during the massive changes from the McPeak uniform, which actually eliminated headgear completely in its first draft. I don't know if service caps are issued now during BMT, but I got mine in '75 when I was at Lackland. Still have it, though it doesn't fit any more. (Comments about me being a "fathead" will not be appreciated. They'll be funny, but they won't be appreciated.)
Jack
McPeak was gone when I enter BMT. If you think about it, eliminiating the service hat is a cost savings service wide.
Sorry, I should've been more clear -- the early 90s was a time of changing again, after McPeak's changes (returning US to the lapels, epaulets to the officer coat, etc.).
I disagree completely about the service cap, though. To me, the service cap is the most military of all headgear. Flight (or overseas) caps are close, but for a while even the Boy Scouts wore 'em.
Jack
Beanies for everyone! >:D Wear it with service uniforms, and BDUs in garrison.
Quote from: MIKE on February 05, 2007, 08:05:06 PM
Beanies for everyone! >:D Wear it with service uniforms, and BDUs in garrison.
Only if they have little propellers on top. ;D
Quote from: Robert Hartigan on February 05, 2007, 07:48:43 PM
McPeak was gone when I enter BMT. If you think about it, eliminiating the service hat is a cost savings service wide.
It may have been cost savings, but it wasn't appreciated when McPeak showed up at Nixon's funeral wearing a flight cap. It was reinstated later as "optional" headgear for most ranks.
Shirt as outergarment: Flight Cap
Jacket as outergarment: Service Cap
TDY: Flight Cap.
The only time a service cap could be appropriate is in full service dress during a formal outside ceremony of some importance (not pass-in-review). Between that and how massively impractical, expensive, & annoying it is, I can't see owning one. I got one of the old style ones free & the hat device was in the box. Still sitting in my closet never worn. It's got a rain cover too & I got an umbrella & don't stand formation in the rain. It's nice for honor/color guard in the AF though & I wish they'd auth an enlisted device so we could use it for that purpose. Otherwise it'suseless & you look like a bus driver wearing it.
Quote from: DNall on February 05, 2007, 11:53:49 PM
It's got a rain cover too & I got an umbrella & don't stand formation in the rain.
You carry an umbrella in uniform? Wow,
DNall, that takes guts. When I was active duty, a guy wouldn't be caught dead with an umbrella.
Quoting Hawk200:
"It may have been cost savings, but it wasn't appreciated when McPeak showed up at Nixon's funeral wearing a flight cap. It was reinstated later as "optional" headgear for most ranks."
I remember that ... McPeak in his flight cap and airline pilot uniform.
I know I've said it before, but when the McPeak-style rank was first introduced (sleeve stripes ala Navy) a friend of mine in CAP who was also an AF Reserve LtCol said he was retiring, thanks to McPeak's uniform. "If I wanted to look like I fly for Delta Air Lines," he said, "I'd go fly for Delta Air Lines."
Jack
Once again, it depends on the uniform. Needed more options to give a better result.
I have a service cap for formal / special occasions. Flight cap is worn 99% of the time.
I picked one up after I attended a military funeral and most of the officers (AF) were wearing the service cap. I was in service dress w/flight cap.
I think AF regs require majors and above to own one.
Quote from: Smokey on February 06, 2007, 04:26:58 PMI think AF regs require majors and above to own one.
You'd be right. It is required for majors and up.
Formal occasion = service cap
Less formal (unit weekly meeting, commanders call) = flight cap (because it's more practical, I've always preferred appearance of service cap....flight cap reminds me of Boy Scout hat! please note, nothing against BSA, I'm an Eagle myself)
Quote from: ZigZag911 on February 06, 2007, 08:54:30 PM
Formal occasion = service cap
Less formal (unit weekly meeting, commanders call) = flight cap (because it's more practical, I've always preferred appearance of service cap....flight cap reminds me of Boy Scout hat! please note, nothing against BSA, I'm an Eagle myself)
Eh...Eagle to Eagle... I never saw a BSA flight cap..Anyone in my entire Council would probably laugh their head off. ... HOWEVER I do have a spiffy lookin Campaign Hat that I picked up at Jamboree one year. ;D
Back to topic: It depends on the occasion I guess. Ive even worn gloves and such to a funeral. ( And Ive ever been tasked to assist in a military funeral due to a last minute injury of the honor guard assigned) - I was more then happy to assist although I don't know if I can claim happiness at such an event.
I remember the BSA flight cap, we wore them up until the red berets came out in the 1970's.
Quote from: SAR-EMT1 on February 07, 2007, 11:32:04 AM
Eh...Eagle to Eagle... I never saw a BSA flight cap..Anyone in my entire Council would probably laugh their head off. ... HOWEVER I do have a spiffy lookin Campaign Hat that I picked up at Jamboree one year. ;D
I realize I'm dating myself...back in the 60s, standard BSA headgear was an overseas type cap!
Neat! :)
The 50's and 60's were, from everything Ive heard, a great time to be a Scout.... better then these days anyway.
Quote from: SAR-EMT1 on February 07, 2007, 09:39:44 PM
Neat! :)
The 50's and 60's were, from everything Ive heard, a great time to be a Scout.... better then these days anyway.
I was a scoutmaster in late 70s, 'new' program, actually pretty sensible,,,,,I don't know a lot about what's going on today....what I read in newspapers isn't all that impressive in terms of current approach to training -- but you gotta figure that the media probably misquotes BSA as regularly as they do CAP!!!
Quote from: ColonelJack on February 05, 2007, 07:45:30 PM
But that was during the massive changes from the McPeak uniform, which actually eliminated headgear completely in its first draft. I don't know if service caps are issued now during BMT, but I got mine in '75 when I was at Lackland. Still have it, though it doesn't fit any more. (Comments about me being a "fathead" will not be appreciated. They'll be funny, but they won't be appreciated.)
Jack
Isn't the "Mkgeek"
For the routine wear of uniform (squadron meetings, group/wing meetings, conferences, SLS/CLC/UCC, encampment, CPC, Staff College, etc), I wear the flight cap.
Like others, I reserve the wear of service cap for the more formal events (memorial services, special observances, etc.).
Quote from: Chappie on February 12, 2007, 12:19:44 AM
routine wear
That struck me as interesting. Routine wear for me is once maybe twice a week depending on activity. For some it is twice a month, maybe three.
Don't like either piece of headgear. Would prefer an optional heather-grey beret.
Quote from: CAP Safety Dude on February 14, 2007, 01:04:52 AM
Don't like either piece of headgear. Would prefer an optional heather-grey beret.
Why? That beret is worn by Air Force combat weather troops that are augmenting Army Airborne units. Believe me, those folks would not appreciate that.
CAP doesn't really need berets. I used to think they were cool, until I had to wear one (Army Guard). They're a pain. Service caps and flight caps are fine for us. And we don't have any program that really equates to the hardcare personnel in the military that rate them.
Why? Because I like them now. (I'm in the Army Guard too and hated them in the begining.) Granted, they don't serve a purpose but neither does the bus driver cap or the flight cap.
I think we tend to overthink what the Air Force thinks about us and what they don't think.
Personally, a grey beret with the white/grey aviator uniform would look really sharp.
Quote from: CAP Safety Dude on February 15, 2007, 12:50:39 AM
Why? Because I like them now. (I'm in the Army Guard too and hated them in the begining.) Granted, they don't serve a purpose but neither does the bus driver cap or the flight cap.
I think we tend to overthink what the Air Force thinks about us and what they don't think.
Personally, a grey beret with the white/grey aviator uniform would look really sharp.
Its my understanding that one can have any head gear with the white/grey aviator uniform, or jacket for that matter.
CAP 39-1 says...
"Headgear is not required but a CAP baseball cap may be
worn."
What does that mean? You don't have to wear a hat/cap, but you can wear a CAP baseball CAP? Does that mean exclusively?
I don't wear this combo, but could someone wear a cover that is not a baseball CAP? I ask this for the benefit of the question.
Quote from: Major Carrales on February 15, 2007, 01:39:12 AM
Its my understanding that one can have any head gear with the white/grey aviator uniform, or jacket for that matter.
CAP 39-1 says...
"Headgear is not required but a CAP baseball cap may be
worn."
What does that mean? You don't have to wear a hat/cap, but you can wear a CAP baseball CAP? Does that mean exclusively?
I don't wear this combo, but could someone wear a cover that is not a baseball CAP? I ask this for the benefit of the question.
To just take the manual at face value, yeah it probably means exclusively.
Being that there is no prescribed headgear or coat/jacket for the white/grey aviator uniform I choose to wear what looks the best with it. Brown A2 Aviator leather jacket and if I so desire, grey beret.
Just my interpretation of the manual.
I have seen worse: Baseball cap that supports your favorite NASCAR driver or local farmers cooperative; jacket with the local body shop advertisement on the back; highschool letterman jackets. Stetsons. Riding coats. Camo field jackets; any variety of Tree Bark brand jackets.