An Interesting Find

[MajorPayne]

 Hello everyone!
This past weekend, my uncle and I went out to an old antique war shop in Pamona, California. While brousing around the shop, I found a CAP section which consisted of a few various name tapes and some pins. But as I was looking, I spotted some epaulets, except these specific epaulets were maroon red and were for the grade of Captain. I have googled them but I am still curious to find out more about their history. Any thaughts?

[FlyTiger77]

Hello everyone!
This past weekend, my uncle and I went out to an old antique war shop in Pamona, California. While brousing around the shop, I found a CAP section which consisted of a few various name tapes and some pins. But as I was looking, I spotted some epaulets, except these specific epaulets were maroon red and were for the grade of Captain. I have googled them but I am still curious to find out more about their history. Any thaughts?

Search CAPTalk for "berry boards." You should find plenty of information, and thoughts, and...well, you can read them yourself!

[Eclipse]

Berry boards which were thrust upon us during "The Great Unpleasantness" of the mid-90's.

Search "berry boards" here for plenty of info.






From the CadetStuff Wiki: http://wiki.cadetstuff.org/index.php?title=CAP_uniform_history
"In the mid 1990s an incident occurred in which a National Commander performed a feat of magic (called by some the "Harwell self-promotion") that resulted in punitive actions en re uniform wear. Thus was begun the reign of the "Maroon Epaulets". Known by various names, such as "berry boards," these were very unpopular and are the historical mark of a rift between the USAF and the CAP that remains to some point to this day.
Initially, a maroon "wraparound" was ordered worn on CAP blue uniforms by the AF just after the Harwell self-promotion incident. This was placed on the service coat epaulet one-half inch from the end of the buttonhole near the lapel. It came with velcro ends and a piece of velcro to be added under the epaulet, and you were supposed to press it so that it didn't stick up like a loop."

[MajorPayne]

Thank you all for the advice. I will be sure to go check that out.

[The CyBorg is destroyed]

MajorPayne: I came into CAP just after the berry boards were imposed.

Prior to that, we wore the same blue shoulder marks as the Air Force, with the addition of an embroidered "CAP," on the epaulettes of the blue shirt.  We also wore metal grade on the service coat, and everyone, regardless of rank, wore the "CAP" cutouts and blue nameplate.



The grey shoulder marks and "U.S." cutouts came in 1995.  They look worlds better than the berry boards, but there was no good reason to take the blue shoulder marks and metal grade over the actions of a few twerps to begin with...and it kickstarted a CAP love-in with grey that lasts to this day.

When the grey shoulder marks came in, I threw away the berry boards I had.