What's wrong with the Air Force?

[HarleyQuinn]

Someone was bitching about the AF service dress uniform at work last week. I told them to STFU or you will anger the uniform gods into action. Too late!

Why doesn't Big Blue just contract the PT uniform to Nike or Under Armour? They already have moisture wicking material. I wear Nike Dri Fit material to the gym everyday and it's amazing.

https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2018/08/16/the-air-force-is-working-on-a-new-dress-blues-uniform-and-its-going-old-school/

Edited August 16, 2018 by HarleyQuinn

[Champ Kind]

Someone was bitching about the AF service dress uniform at work last week. I told them to STFU or you will anger the uniform gods into action. Too late! Why doesn't Big Blue just contract the PT uniform to Nike or Under Armour? They already have moisture wicking material. I wear Nike Dri Fit material to the gym everyday and it's amazing.
https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2018/08/16/the-air-force-is-working-on-a-new-dress-blues-uniform-and-its-going-old-school/

Who actually has to wear service dress so frequently that they bitch about it? So many better things to rightfully complain about as your service dress sits in the back of your closet 364 days out of the year.

[cragspider]

41 minutes ago, Champ Kind said:

Who actually has to wear service dress so frequently that they bitch about it? So many better things to rightfully complain about as your service dress sits in the back of your closet 364 days out of the year.

Champ I agree, we have other things  to worry about than what the service dress will be since we rarely wear it. But if we are going to change it bring back the old school style jackets, in either the older bluish grey that the AF started out with or the Pink and greens old school AAC style. While the older blue one wouldn’t require as much change for most of us anyway if we keep the same blue shirt as well  

Now we do have something to complain about the pt shirts. They do suck and should have been made out of a wicking fabric a LONG time ago. 

[HarleyQuinn]

10 hours ago, Champ Kind said:

Who actually has to wear service dress so frequently that they bitch about it? So many better things to rightfully complain about as your service dress sits in the back of your closet 364 days out of the year.

70% of millennials between the ages of 17-24 are ineligible to join the military. Not sure why anyone in Big Blue cares about the service dress uniform right now. Uniforms shouldn't be the priority, it should be the people and why they keep running for the door. There is nobody to backfill the personnel who are leaving. I'm the last person who will be serving in the military from my family. Apparently, generations of families serving has been something the military could count on. Generations of families serving is slowly fading away too. The generals can have fun wearing these awesome new uniforms because everyone else will be gone.  An AF of one coming soon...

Edited August 17, 2018 by HarleyQuinn

[SFG]

4 hours ago, cragspider said:

Champ I agree, we have other things  to worry about than what the service dress will be since we rarely wear it. But if we are going to change it bring back the old school style jackets, in either the older bluish grey that the AF started out with or the Pink and greens old school AAC style. While the older blue one wouldn’t require as much change for most of us anyway if we keep the same blue shirt as well  

Now we do have something to complain about the pt shirts. They do suck and should have been made out of a wicking fabric a LONG time ago. 

USAF PT shirts should also sit in the back of one's closet 364 days out of the year...

[17D_guy]

Guess I'll be the only person who supports and thinks going back to something we had before McPeak is a good idea™.  As someone who led Airman and had to wear the Service dress 4+ more times a year, going back to the 4 pockets I saw growing up would be fantastic.

It's kinda legit heritage.  Imagine if we get back to the Hap Arnold symbol with this leadership crew.  Would you all complain that's a waste too?

Sure, there's other things to focus on as well.  But it's not like you're going to pull someone out of the uniform board, tell them to retain more Airmen and it'll have an impact.  

[GKinnear]

IMO the only worthwhile change is the IKE jacket, otherwise no one cares

[Trapped in ROTC]

7 hours ago, Champ Kind said:

Who actually has to wear service dress so frequently that they bitch about it?

Us lowly cadets...

I remember the last time the AF wanted to have a heritage inspired service dress

[HarleyQuinn]

3 hours ago, 17D_guy said:

Sure, there's other things to focus on as well.  But it's not like you're going to pull someone out of the uniform board, tell them to retain more Airmen and it'll have an impact.  

A uniform board is about as useless as comm fixing a share drive outage at 1500 on a Friday. When you show up on Monday, I'm willing to bet it will still be down. Why do we need a uniform board and since when have they ever gotten anything right? Having a uniform board is like having an airman from services trying to fix you a grilled cheese while deployed. Just a waste of time. But when the contractor who never stops smiling named Jaleb taps out the airman, you will be served the best grilled cheese in your life.

AF Priorities: 1. Queep 2.365s/179s 3. Uniforms 4. You never seeing your family 5. Retention

Edited August 17, 2018 by HarleyQuinn

[IMUA]

12 hours ago, HarleyQuinn said:

Why doesn't Big Blue just contract the PT uniform to Nike or Under Armour? They already have moisture wicking material. I wear Nike Dri Fit material to the gym everyday and it's amazing.

I wish Nike made all our uniforms...and no not because i’m an athlete but because they’re comfortable. 

Edited August 17, 2018 by IMUA

[viper154]

8 minutes ago, IMUA said:

I wish Nike made all our uniforms...and no not because i’m an athlete but because they’re comfortable. 

How about no more PT uniform. Just wear your civilian gym clothes, or you’re grandpa jeans and kitty ear hat. No one gives a shit. One less thing to dig out of the closet for the annual pt test or ‘stan deployment. 

[17D_guy]

2 hours ago, HarleyQuinn said:

A uniform board is about as useless as comm fixing a share drive outage at 1500 on a Friday. When you show up on Monday, I'm willing to bet it will still be down. Why do we need a uniform board and since when have they ever gotten anything right? Having a uniform board is like having an airman from services trying to fix you a grilled cheese while deployed. Just a waste of time. But when the contractor who never stops smiling named Jaleb taps out the airman, you will be served the best grilled cheese in your life.

AF Priorities: 1. Queep 2.365s/179s 3. Uniforms 4. You never seeing your family 5. Retention

So...never update the uniforms, or research new materials.  

Ok.

[Seriously]

1 hour ago, viper154 said:

How about no more PT uniform. Just wear your civilian gym clothes, or you’re grandpa jeans and kitty ear hat. No one gives a shit. One less thing to dig out of the closet for the annual pt test or ‘stan deployment. 

When the current PT uniform came out, you were supposed to wear it untucked and could mix and match items with civilians clothes. Of course, that didn't last long.

[HarleyQuinn]

18 hours ago, 17D_guy said:

So...never update the uniforms, or research new materials.  

Ok.

You have a hard on for uniforms? What new material is going into the service dress uniforms? Ability to repel coffee, ink, and stains encountered at the chow hall or in an office? You're talking to someone who watched his father wear BDUs for 20+ years of which I wore them for 5+ years. Our uniforms are not the reason why we partly struggled in Afghanistan and Iraq with insurgents. Uniforms don't stop snipers, IEDs, or VBEDs. The Marines have the cheapest uniforms but they outlasted all the other services in combat and proved to be far more useful.

You have my vote of confidence for BODN's first Uniform Board President position.

Edited August 17, 2018 by HarleyQuinn

[war007afa]

4 hours ago, HarleyQuinn said:

Our uniforms are not the reason why we partly struggled in Afghanistan and Iraq with insurgents. Uniforms don't stop snipers, IEDs, or VBEDs.

Actually, the ABU was part of the struggle in Iraq/Afghanistan. Insurgents routinely targeted the dudes in the “different” uniform first because they had learned who was talking to aircraft.

But that has nothing to do with the change in service dress uniform which *might* happen “eventually”. 

[pawnman]

7 hours ago, 17D_guy said:

So...never update the uniforms, or research new materials.  

Ok.

No.  Just don't have a board do it.  The Air Force still hasn't learned that you can't lead by committee...this is how we get things like terrible PT gear and reversing the patches on the OCPs from the flight suit AND from the current AFGSC guidance.

[Breckey]

23 minutes ago, pawnman said:

No.  Just don't have a board do it.  The Air Force still hasn't learned that you can't lead by committee...this is how we get things like terrible PT gear and reversing the patches on the OCPs from the flight suit AND from the current AFGSC guidance.

AND current AFCENT, ACC, AETC guidance as well.

[SocialD]

10 hours ago, HarleyQuinn said:

A uniform board is about as useless as comm fixing a share drive outage at 1500 on a Friday.

Not true.  Nothing worse than showing up to a mandatory drill thinking you're finally going to attack the great queep monster, only to see all the AF systems  you need, "down for mx."  VPC/Outlook/DTS we're all down last drill...apparently no one in the military works weekends.

 

8 hours ago, viper154 said:

How about no more PT uniform. Just wear your civilian gym clothes, or you’re grandpa jeans and kitty ear hat. No one gives a shit. One less thing to dig out of the closet for the annual pt test or ‘stan deployment. 

If the PFT is truly going back to the squadron, I highly doubt I'll ever wear my AF PT gear again.  

[Sprkt69]

3 hours ago, war007afa said:

Actually, the ABU was part of the struggle in Iraq/Afghanistan. Insurgents routinely targeted the dudes in the “different” uniform first because they had learned who was talking to aircraft.

But that has nothing to do with the change in service dress uniform which *might* happen “eventually”. 

Are you trying to talk about the guys who wore the same uniform as their assigned unit but had a big JTAC patch and a radio strapped to them?  The ABU was terrible in the field and should not have been worn in combat as it melts to you. As cubicle camouflage, fine whatever.

[Homestar]

A new service coat is long overdue.  The current design sucks and is stupid looking.  I'd love to go back to the coat we had in the early 90s or something with heritage.  The business suit look is lame.

[HarleyQuinn]

6 hours ago, Sprkt69 said:

Are you trying to talk about the guys who wore the same uniform as their assigned unit but had a big JTAC patch and a radio strapped to them?  The ABU was terrible in the field and should not have been worn in combat as it melts to you. As cubicle camouflage, fine whatever.

This! Initially, JTACs probably wore their ABUs until someone said this is stupid and you guys will be issued the same uniforms as the units you are supporting. I was in Afghanistan back in 2010 so I could be wrong. If you were going to spend time at a FOB with a Task Force, they wanted you in their uniform. No ABUs because they didn't want you to stand out. Pretty sure someone here has more information on this than I do.

Edited August 17, 2018 by HarleyQuinn

[war007afa]

On 8/17/2018 at 7:12 PM, Sprkt69 said:

 The ABU was terrible in the field and should not have been worn in combat as it melts to you. As cubicle camouflage, fine whatever.

We appear to be in violent agreement. Initially when our guys went out in the ABU, they were targeted more often because of it. Didn’t take long to quit doing that. 

20 hours ago, HarleyQuinn said:

Pretty sure someone here has more information on this than I do.

You mean like the guy who literally said the exact same thing as you did in your argument above?

[HarleyQuinn]

1 hour ago, war007afa said:

We appear to be in violent agreement. Initially when our guys went out in the ABU, they were targeted more often because of it. Didn’t take long to quit doing that. 

You mean like the guy who literally said the exact same thing as you did in your argument above?

There is a difference in a JTAC wearing the uniform on missions vs other AF personnel having to wear the uniform on FOBs so they blend in with everyone else. I guess you glossed over that last point?

[Kenny Powers]

7 hours ago, HarleyQuinn said:

There is a difference in a JTAC wearing the uniform on missions vs other AF personnel having to wear the uniform on FOBs so they blend in with everyone else. I guess you glossed over that last point?

Who F#cking cares what uniform people wear?

[StoleIt]

You're telling me the enemy, in the middle of a gun fight, could tell the difference between the ABU and the ACU? I call BS on that.

I remember shopping for ABU's when they first came out and everyone was laying them on the floor to try and get a matching shade of gray and one Lt Col tried to buy an ABU top with an ACU bottom. They look really freaking similar.