Starching the BDU cover

[Stonewall]

I really fear the same fate will befall the current field uniforms.

It's already happening, I know of a few AD folks who have started to get their uniforms starched.

A guy at Airman Leadership School told me the cadre were ironing and I think, starching, their ABUs.  I never starched my BDUs, I won't starch my ABUs.

[CASH172]

Isn't the ABU permanently pressed enough to make starching completely unnecessary?

[PHall]

I really fear the same fate will befall the current field uniforms.

It's already happening, I know of a few AD folks who have started to get their uniforms starched.

A guy at Airman Leadership School told me the cadre were ironing and I think, starching, their ABUs.  I never starched my BDUs, I won't starch my ABUs.

They're PME types . . . . . 'nuf said?

[Hawk200]

Isn't the ABU permanently pressed enough to make starching completely unnecessary?

Supposed to be. Then again, there are overachievers everywhere.

[Gunner C]

but BDUs looked like hell. 

They certainly did, but I always figured that was mainly because they used that uniform in conditions it was not designed for, namely garrison wear.  The BDU's were designed as a field uniform, where the lack of sharp lines is a good thing.  It's when they started to wear them in the garrison that things fell apart though.  In garrison, you wanted to look sharp, and the BDU's just didn't look that good unless you at least ironed them a lot, and many used starch.

I really fear the same fate will befall the current field uniforms.

They weren't that good in the field: 

The pockets were hard to get into.
The top button on the jacket (shirt) was about mid sternum.
The closures on the sleeves were just a strip of cloth with a button hole.
The fly button holes were a bit small for the buttons (not a problem unless you had to take a leak - then it went to emergency really quick).
The pants hems had those ridiculous draw strings - people used those instead of stuffing their pants into their boots (letting all sorts of wee beasties up your leg).
The collars were HUGE and would beat you to death if you were a jumpmaster hanging out the door of a C-130.
The colors were too dark to make a difference.
The hat was based on the patrol cap but it wasn't made the same way and just didn't work as well.

(A patented Gunner War Story ®)

I was an E-7 at Engineer ANCOC (Advanced Non Commissioned Officer Course).  There was an Engineer Officer Basic Course class that was running parallel to us.  These clueless 2LTs had been in the Army darned near two weeks and were really impressed with themselves.  They had gotten the idea that they should starch their BDU caps to look professional (they looked like dorks).  We would put our BDU caps in our cargo pockets, but they would file in, one by one, into their classroom, putting their pretty starched hats on the shelves in the hall.  At the end of the class, they'd file out in reverse order, retrieve their pretty hats (with their shiny gold bars).

I saw the folly in this.  I waited until they were in class and switched all of the hats.  At the next break, our class was waiting to watch them retreive headgear.  We then ran to the windows to watch them trying to figure out what happened.  Some acted like their heads shrank, walking around with their hats down over their ears.  Others kept trying to force their now too-small hats onto their heads.

There were 42 E-7s rolling on the floor.  After that, they kept their hats, as prescribed, in their cargo pockets, and they no longer starched them, as prescribed.  Hopefully, at some point, they turned themselves into leaders of warriors and left behind their stupid West Point/ROTC visions of what killing the enemy was all about.

GC

[SARMedTech]

I wear BDUs (khaki) for an organization besides CAP and they are far from the most practical, but I have to say that having worn them in the field they are better than trying to kneel over a patient in blue jeans.

The only time my khakis ever see an iron is for a meeting and then only when leadership outside of my organization are in attendance. Of course, we dont have to worry about impressing cadets.

[O-Rex]

Isn't the ABU permanently pressed enough to make starching completely unnecessary?

Supposed to be. Then again, there are overachievers everywhere.

Okay, but for the rest of us, are they lower maint than BDU's?

[Hawk200]

Isn't the ABU permanently pressed enough to make starching completely unnecessary?

Supposed to be. Then again, there are overachievers everywhere.

Okay, but for the rest of us, are they lower maint than BDU's?

Once again, that's a case of "supposed to be". But the last I read, the Air Force was already looking at "perma-crease" stripes for the ABU. Which kinda gives the impression that they're probably going to have the living daylights ironed and starched out of them.

If worn according to the directions given with them, they should be lower maintenance. Whether or not people follow the directions they're given determines whether or not they will be. Those that do the fancy stuff usually think that it's acceptable to disobey the care directions.

[ddelaney103]

There's no reason, in a CAP context, not to starch your BDU's, especially if you're wearing them.

As a safety issue, you should never starch your BDU's if you're wearing them.  Besides all the burns you'll get, it's deuced difficult to get a decent crease once you've got your limb in there...

[Eclipse]

There's no reason, in a CAP context, not to starch your BDU's, especially if you're wearing them.

As a safety issue, you should never starch your BDU's if you're wearing them.  Besides all the burns you'll get, it's deuced difficult to get a decent crease once you've got your limb in there...

I'm sure it will surprise none of you that I have had cadets trying to iron uniforms while they were wearing them.   

[O-Rex]

There's no reason, in a CAP context, not to starch your BDU's, especially if you're wearing them.

As a safety issue, you should never starch your BDU's if you're wearing them.  Besides all the burns you'll get, it's deuced difficult to get a decent crease once you've got your limb in there...

I'm sure it will surprise none of you that I have had cadets trying to iron uniforms while they were wearing them.   

Great topic for your unit monthly safety briefing: it's right up there with "Don't eat yellow snow." 

[Stonewall]

Isn't the ABU permanently pressed enough to make starching completely unnecessary?

Supposed to be. Then again, there are overachievers everywhere.

Okay, but for the rest of us, are they lower maint than BDU's?

My only complaint with the ABUs is that they're practically a set of BDUs with a different material...plus pencil pockets on sleeve and lower legs.

Are the ABUs lower maint than BDUs?  Yes, because I don't shine the boots and I don't iron the uniform.  I wash, dry (low heat) and hang.  They do have a permanent crease in them that hasn't been lost yet.  And so far, no one in my unit has touched their ABUs with an iron either.  About half my squadron wears the ABUs so far.

[Earhart1971]

Doesn't anyone follow the manufacturer's instruction to not starch.

I never starched, not even in the Army while in the Old Guard.  I just ironed or had them pressed with steam.  Always said "no starch".  I just can't stand the way starch feels.

Starching is a Marine Corps cover tradition.

I used the without Marine Corps Emblem, Army Train Engineer Cap, starched, as a Cadet. Split a Coffee can and used it as a mold, with liquid starch. Came out pretty good.

Are you wearing AF ABUs for CAP? I did not know CAP had gone over yet, officially.

[Stonewall]

Are you wearing AF ABUs for CAP? I did not know CAP had gone over yet, officially.

Nope, I'm in the Air Guard.