Does the Air Force wear Army uniforms??

[The Last Standing Knight]

Originally posted by Muley Gil:
" However, most of the Army guys I know would like a few minutes alone with the genius who thought lots of Velcro on a combat uniform was a great idea."

It's my understanding that everything the Marine Corps rejected in a utility uniform, the Army adopted.

<Laughs hysterically!
You made me spit coke on my screen

 

[cmort666]

Originally posted by Muley Gil:
" However, most of the Army guys I know would like a few minutes alone with the genius who thought lots of Velcro on a combat uniform was a great idea."

It's my understanding that everything the Marine Corps rejected in a utility uniform, the Army adopted.

The Army also has so much time on its hands that when I was on active duty some short bus type concocted a way to roll the sleeves of the BDUs that was on a par with origami for its complexity. The Marines just rolled theirs up.

 

[cmort666]

Originally posted by billhud:

Originally posted by wjh2657:
Even when they wore the BDU, the USAF BDU was a little different than the Army. I am in TN State Guard and we still wear the Woodland BDU uniform, When the PX ran out of Army BDUs I bought the USAF BDU. Collar is a little smaller and the fit is a little more like a uniform (tapered) than the Army BDU. I think a lot of USAF bought the Army ones though and it was acceptable. You have to look real close to see the difference. I actually like the USAF BDU better, it fits better and has just enough"taper" to look better. Camo Pattern is exactly the same though.

Not quite. Sounmds like the Army ones you has were old versions and the new USAF ones you bought were the same as the newer ones the Army had. The reson I know this is that for logistics simplicity, the military omnly sourced one BDU at a time. There were three different BDUs over the years.

The first run of Army BDUs used substandard dies, and the light green would turn to snow white in the wash. They became quite a status symbol for my drill sergeants when I was XO of a Basic Training company at Fort Knox. Quality control was wretched. I saw BDUs with the thigh pockets sewn on backwards. The pistol belts with the plastic buckles were crap too. My supply sergeant had a large box full of belts with broken buckles.

 

[cmort666]

Originally posted by imjin138:
I still like my khaki uniform for class b wear. To bad the Army did away with them

I showed up for the Infantry Officer Basic Course at Fort Benning in 1980 wearing one of those.

 

[safearm]

To answer the original question: yes, Air Force guys DO wear Army uniforms. I was the commander of an Air Support Operations Squadron, the unit that supplies JTACs (Joint Terminal Attack Controllers-used to be Ground Forward Air Controllers) to the Army. When the JTACs are deployed with an Army unit, they wear the ACUs, not the ABUs, so they don't stand out. The JTAC community was exceptionally perturbed about the uniform changes; at one time, everyone wore the same BDUs, either woodland or desert, and it was easy to blend in. It doesn't make any difference when you're in garrison, but in the field, you don't want to highlight yourself from everyone else as that usually draws sniper fire.

 

[deralte]

Don't know much about these new fangled uniforms but I can remember far enough back to when we were wearing Army uniforms. Thats going to give away my age - we started getting Air Force blues in the early 50s but some still got brown shoes until the supplies ran out.

 

[billhud]

Originally posted by cmort666:

The Army also has so much time on its hands that when I was on active duty some short bus type concocted a way to roll the sleeves of the BDUs that was on a par with origami for its complexity. The Marines just rolled theirs up.

You could jerk them down IMMEDIATELY the Army way. Better was just to never roll them up. I never did.

 

[GLV]

You all are waaayy to modern for me

When I enlisted in the USAF, I was issued an US Army uniform. The year was 1950.

Battle dress was a set of flying fatigues--cotton for summer and wool for winter.

 

[USAF385]

You mean... your uniforms in 1950 didn't have near-infrared signature technology?

How on earth did you manage?!

 

[therevjay]

I really do wonder who the genius in the pentagon was who came up with the idea of 'velcro pocket closers' for the new Army ACU's?

It might not be a bad idea at all, IF all soldiers worked in offices. However even in the new, modern, hi-tech Army sometimes "Snuffy grunt" finds himself out in the woods. With people who want to kill him. Got any idea how far away (particuarly at night) you can hear someone open one of those idiodic velcro clousers?

Very possibly the same lame brain who had the idea of "The zen sleeve rollup", decided velcro made more sense then buttons.

 

[mesabi]

The primary source of input for the current Army uniform layout (except for the pattern) was combat arms NCOs from the squad leader to CSM level serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Apparently, they failed to read internet forums.

 

[billhud]

Originally posted by mesabi:
The primary source of input for the current Army uniform layout (except for the pattern) was combat arms NCOs from the squad leader to CSM level serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Apparently, they failed to read internet forums.

And today they are the ones with the primary and valid complaints regarding the ACU.

 

[S-W4EVER]

Originally posted by S42N8:I have to agree with others that the service-specific utility uniforms are a poor choice. We've been down this road for a while now, and it ain't too hard to see what the best features of the various types are. Consolidate the best features, standardize, and stop spending $$ on multiple uniforms... God knows there's a better use for the money.QUOTE]

Sir, I believe you nailed it.

 

[S-W4EVER]

deleted

 

[S-W4EVER]

deleted

 

[dennis40x]

Going by memory from an article which I believe was in the Marine Corps Gazette the Marines went to the digital pattern utilities as a cost savings measure. Apparently the older pattern there was a surcharge for each utility set due to joint development cost???????. Because the Marine Corps developed the digital pattern there was no surcharge added to the procurement of the utilities.

Now along-long-long time ago when I was in the Marine Corps the Navy Corpsman wore the same uniforms as the Marines (Utilities, Dress Greens, Tropical, and Kaki) the rank insignia was Navy. As far as been there service ribbons they had a miniature (anchor-eagle-globe) badge that would secured to the service denoted earned while attached to the Marine Corps.