New service dress

[aejackson]

Whatcha Think??

http://www.af.mil/news/story_media.a...ryID=123020472

Personally, I think that they are looking in the right direction, but still a long way from actually being where they need to be....

1. I can handle the high collar thingy.
2. The belt needs to be a real belt with actual buckle, not stolen from our raincoat
3. Contrast...give me some freakin contrast.! ! !

[Field_Sailor]

Looks mighty Navy. Also it looks like you're going back to the old style AF uniforms.

[USMC Chuter]

My vote is for the Hap Arnold version. It looks good, without opening things up for copycat accusations.

[marty321]

it looks ok, but the collar has to go

[Grunt4Life]

I think that they would give the Air Force a better look, although it does look like that they are copying the Leatherneck style collar.

[Infantrymen]

I hate it right now.... but it 'could' grow on my me...

I honestly feel like everyone is trying to be a "Marine" to get recruits.... (it looks like a Blue Marine uniform to me...).

Give me a break, if recruiting is better with one branch there is a reason... Of couse kids want to join the Marines... "kill, kill, kill, we are bad ass".

The USAF needs to show why they are worth joining, not try to compete with everyone else...

[d'artangan]

Air Force tradition (not what Mc Peak thought was tradition), called for a "Plain Blue Suit" designed from the Army uniform we were geneticallyt linked to.

Old Don, Out

[Grimmy]

Why is it, when some services start to worry about morale or recruiting problems, they try to deal with it by simply changing the clothes issued?

Can they even really be called uniforms anymore when every time there's a problem, they change a hat, or a dress suite, or their work clothes?

If it is an issue of modernizing due to patterns or materials better able to do the job, fine. But if its changes driven by their people feeling "lesser" than another service or going through a morale crunch, then the problem isnt in the cloth or pattern choices. It's in the practices and expectations.

Want folk to be prouder and more motivated? Give them reason, give them challenge, wipe away some of the custom that might permit or promote weakness, if there are any such.

This and the blue "cammy" stuff has all the hall marks of trying to "dress more butch" and that's just weak.

[d'artangan]

Sometimes the little things mean alot. Its what SAC used to call moving the flagpole. Gen Curtis Lemay was said to have the base engineers move the flagpole whenever he moved to a new base. Then when retreat was blown, the personnel on base would notice that something had changed, and the phone calls would start immediately to find out what was going on. He got everyone's attention.

[CFergusn]

Alright ladies, my two cents. This looks like the old German SS uniforms. They are better than the business suit look we have now. Hell I dont feel military in it. This is a company designed for war, not holding business meetings and discussing stupid shit, which we do anyway. This new uniform will look shit hot, like we are a military service, and may, just maybe get more respect from the public than what the current one does for us. Besides, we are the only branch that doesnt wear full size medals. This would allow a single uniform for formal, semi-formal, and class A. So bring it on... I am ready for a change.

[d'artangan]

Air Force Magazine ran an article on the "heritage" uniforms aeveral months ago, and they are still being discussed in the letters to the editors. I think alot of folks like them, but are afraid of what has been happening since 1990. Mc Peak decided that he should design a uniform that would show our heritage linkage to the airlines. If he had studied his AF heritage a little, he would have known the Air Force and its predicessors (Army Air Service, Army Air Corps, and the other names used) had been around long before the airlines. Anyhow, he designed this uniform that looked like it should be worn on the Love Boat (including Navy rank on the sleeves), but what could you expect, his first name was Merril, just like Capt Stubbing on the Love Boat.

The next chief of staff wisely blew that out of the water, but the gates were open. The current uniform without breast pockets, and lapel insignia that don't distinguish between the ranks (I liked the circle and US when I was enlisted, and would have preferred to keep that one after I got my commission, but I realized that you needed a certain amount of separation of ranks, and that was about all I was willing to give in to). But I agree we should be allowed to wear our larger medals when in the semi-formal or formal uniform. But, you know where that came from....remember WAF stripes?

If they gave us old farts a choice, I would go for the high collar, but they've got to get rid of the belt, it just causes the uniform to bunch up around the waist.