What Are Your Thoughts On...

[356cadet]

Should we also have desert BDUs? Also, should we have cloth ranks for the cadets and cadet officers just as the Air Force did (cadets- shoulder     cadet officers- collar)??


Desert Cloth Ranks


Subdued/Gortex Cloth Ranks


Share your thought. (Senior grades, NCO and officer, would be the same as the Air Force)

[NC Hokie]

DCUs...not only no, but NO!

Subdued insignia...I'm not in favor of this and doubt that the AF will allow it but I won't complain if it comes to pass.

[arajca]

Given the rate of promotion for most cadets, you'd destroy the sleeves with in a year. Not to mention, subdued grade insignia would look funny when everything else is full color. The full color insignia is what keep the CAP bdu's visually distinctive from the AF bdu's.

[Hawk200]

No need for subdued. Darker tapes/rank insignia(such as navy blue backgrounds) and not quite so garish patches would be nice, but we have no need for subdued at all. We are not the military, and there is no need for us to have the same, or even similar, insignia.

Desert BDU's are really kind of a moot point with the ABU. It replaces both anyway.

[Cecil DP]

DCUs...not only no, but NO!

Subdued insignia...I'm not in favor of this and doubt that the AF will allow it but I won't complain if it comes to pass.

The reason for subdued insignia is so that shiny stuff doesn't shine or catch on stuff  letting the enemy shoot you. CAP is not a combatant force-ergo no need for subdued insignia.

[SarDragon]

NO!

That stuff is really U-G-L-Y!

[Pumbaa]

Let's see... we wear woodland camo... and then put on bright orange vests...

[♠SARKID♠]

No, negative, nope, nagativo, not gonna happen, bad idea.

[Dad2-4]

I'd go for white on uniform colored backgrounds (dump ultramarine blue). But like already stated, why adopt a desert tan if we'll eventually go to ABU? Cloth rank on the sleeve for cadets? NO. Period. Try getting those sewn on correctly every 60 days or so.

[BrianH76]

I think these issues have been debated here for quite a while.  My thought is that what we've got has worked for quite a while now.  No need to change it. 

[Hawk200]

I think these issues have been debated here for quite a while.  My thought is that what we've got has worked for quite a while now.  No need to change it. 

There's no problem with change as long as it's practical and has a benefit. This idea is neither. It won't necessarily make the uniform look better, and it isn't really practical. Got to be one or the other to do it, and preferably both.

[MIKE]

Where's the flag blue on grey insignia? 

[DC]

DCUs

1. What for?
2. Were switching to ABUs in the near future anyway...

Subdued Rank

1. No need
2. I have enough trouble getting my cadets to put their wing patch in the right place, I don't even want to know what it will be like to get them to place rank on sleeve..
3. Impractical, cadets promote too often.

And, above all, we're switching to the ABU, so this is all academic anyway...

[MIKE]

The DCU cadet officer grade insignia should really be black and not spice brown, even though brown looks better.

[RiverAux]

Sew on rank for "enlisted" cadets would not be a good idea.  We would have parents at the doors of the CAP building with pitchforks if they were expected to do that much sewing.

[BillB]

For almost fifty years, cadets under the grade of C/2Lt, wore sew on stripes, there was never a "big" problem with placement, promotions etc. During WW II cadets wore standard army stripes, followed later by the white on blue.

[IceNine]

^ During those times almost every home had a sewing machine AND someone who knew how to use it.

We live in a very different world where tailors actually MAKE MONEY!!!

[dogboy]

For almost fifty years, cadets under the grade of C/2Lt, wore sew on stripes, there was never a "big" problem with placement, promotions etc. During WW II cadets wore standard army stripes, followed later by the white on blue.

Promotion was much slower then, so Cadets changed rank less often.

Back when I was a Cadet (BWIWAC), rank was related to the Table of Organization. Regardless of one's progress in the achievement system, one could not be promoted until a slot was open in the TOE. 

I don't know whether Cadets have gotten smarter or the Cadet program has been  dumbed down, but in my Squadron, in the three year period I was a Cadet, there was only one CoP (equivalent to Mitchell Award).

[MitchCat]

eh, no.  Can you imagine the cadets if they were told to get a pair (or two) of DCUs, only to be told in a couple (months? years?) that CAP is switching to ABUs, and they need to get two pairs of those? Not only the parents, but cadets as well would end up frustrated, especially if the cadets are providing everything for CAP themselves (nearly my whole squadron).  As for sewing on the shoulder insignia, not a good idea.  At all.  Too difficult to actually get it on strait, and even more difficult to motivate cadets to go and fix crooked insignia.  Basically, ditto on all the other posts...

[356cadet]

I just brought this up for one of my cadets. Personally, I disagree with it, simply because cloth stripes are for the senior NCOs. Period. But, if we did have the DCU's I wouldn't complain, since my squadron is in the desert  .