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New AF Dress Coat Left Flapping in the Wind
Defense Tech Website ^ | Sept 18, 2008 | Bryant Jordan

Posted on 09/28/2008 7:09:24 PM PDT by hattend

New AF Dress Coat Left Flapping in the Wind

It could just be that the Air Force is entering an era that, in part, will be defined by what will not be a hot-button issue: uniforms.

"First things first," Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz responded Sept. 17 when asked by Military.com whether uniforms -- new ones or modifications to current dress -- will be relegated to the back burner during his tenure.

Schwartz, who had just listened as his major command chiefs offered up a list of things the Air Force needs today-right-now-thank-you-very much -- including new tankers, more manpower, new tankers, upgrades and maintenance to mobility and fighter planes and, oh yeah, new tankers -- said the Air Force has any number of critical programs it must tackle.

Maybe, at some point down the road, when these other things have been taken care of, he said, uniforms may again be on the agenda.

For now, Schwartz does have to deal with proposed uniform changes that he inherited, including the adoption of a new service dress uniform modeled after one worn by legendary airman Hap Arnold.

The Air Force has a long record of changing or tweaking its uniforms. Acting Air Force Secretary Michael B. Donley made a humorous reference to this fact on Monday, the opening day of the Air Force Association's Air and Space Symposium in Washington, D.C. The Air Force dress uniform only recently underwent a change, with the addition of a belt to the jacket, and Donley noted that the last time he worked for the Air Force, as an assistant secretary and then acting secretary in 1993, the uniform went through major changes under then Chief of Staff Merrill McPeak.

He said he would answer questions today about uniforms the same way he answered them back then: "Ask the chief."

Schwartz last month decided to defer until sometime next year a decision on a Hap Arnold-esque service coat. The proposed jacket came out of a 2006 uniform board under Schwartz's predecessor, Gen. T. Michael Moseley.

Some uniform changes have been greeted critically by airmen -- including a proposed blue cammie BDU several years ago -- who argue that the Air Force has more important issues facing it than whether it should have a belt on a service dress jacket or whether BDUs should come with a permanent crease.

The proposed new dress jacket will cost about $125 million to manufacture if it's approved, the Air Force estimated.

-- Bryant Jordan


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government
KEYWORDS: airforce; fugly; michaelmoseley; moseley; northkorean; uniform; usaf
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God, the country is possibly on the verge of electing a communist as President and the Air Force wants to model themselves as some kind of North Korean wannabe.

What's happening to our country?


1 posted on 09/28/2008 7:09:24 PM PDT by hattend
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To: hattend

The Air Force seems to be suffering from a major inferiority complex.


2 posted on 09/28/2008 7:12:18 PM PDT by Mr Ramsbotham (Laws against sodomy are honored in the breech.)
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To: hattend

You don’t know your history... those uniforms resemble the Air Service uniforms of Billy Mitchell. I still don’t like them.


3 posted on 09/28/2008 7:12:31 PM PDT by GAB-1955 (Kicking and Screaming into the Kingdom of Heaven!)
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To: hattend

It has been abandoned by it’s citizens.


4 posted on 09/28/2008 7:12:53 PM PDT by hedgetrimmer
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To: hattend

I do believe that uniform was dropped from consideration......this has to be an old article.


5 posted on 09/28/2008 7:14:03 PM PDT by Squantos (Be polite. Be professional. But have a plan to kill everyone you meet)
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To: hattend
What's happening to our country?

Getting ready for the Obamamessiah?

Ugh!

6 posted on 09/28/2008 7:14:06 PM PDT by Ole Okie
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To: hattend
More like a direct copy of the Marine Corps Dress Blues...

I suspect you never were member of the Corps, were you...Only a non-Marine would mistake that uniform for that of the North Koreans.

7 posted on 09/28/2008 7:14:35 PM PDT by Chinstrap61a
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To: hattend

I’d laugh, except we went through the same crap in the Navy. We had some Z-grams that were beauts.


8 posted on 09/28/2008 7:16:12 PM PDT by Thrownatbirth (.....Iraq Invasion fan since '91.)
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To: Chinstrap61a

Nope, was not a Marine.

I’ve seen the Marine Dress Uniform and this doesn’t look like it (or as sharp)


9 posted on 09/28/2008 7:21:30 PM PDT by hattend (Obama has gone from voting PRESENT, to not even wanting to BE present! Call me if you need me!)
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To: hattend
God, the country is possibly on the verge of electing a communist as President and the Air Force wants to model themselves as some kind of North Korean wannabe.

ROFLOL

10 posted on 09/28/2008 7:22:02 PM PDT by org.whodat (Republicans should support the SAM Walton business model, and then drill???)
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To: Squantos

The article was dated 10 days ago.

Hopefully, this uniform won’t make it to the finals.

Reading the comments after the article not many people like it.


11 posted on 09/28/2008 7:23:37 PM PDT by hattend (Obama has gone from voting PRESENT, to not even wanting to BE present! Call me if you need me!)
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To: hattend

Two thumbs down here on the new gear.
(Admittedly spoken like the never-served, over-protected citizen that I am.)

It does have some of the lines of some 1920s uniforms.
But what I dislike is what it also looks like.
To my inexpert eye, it looks like a Nehru jacket that didn’t get
the collar finished before showing.
Or maybe something like WWII Soviet garb.

But hey, what do I know about fashion?
I’m NO Tim Gunn!


12 posted on 09/28/2008 7:24:47 PM PDT by VOA
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To: hattend

Looks like something the Salvation Army would wear.

Not knocking the Salvation Army but that just isn’t military!


13 posted on 09/28/2008 7:28:03 PM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar (We're not supporting clean coal --- Joe Biden)
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To: hattend

Oooooh ... it’s Space Command!


14 posted on 09/28/2008 7:28:09 PM PDT by sphinx
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To: hattend

Sounds like the air force budget is about $125 million too high.


15 posted on 09/28/2008 7:28:45 PM PDT by PAR35
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To: hattend

The design looks like something from the 1920s or 1930s. A very “Old School” design. I kinda like it - a bit of a traditional look.


16 posted on 09/28/2008 7:34:45 PM PDT by Army Air Corps (Four fried chickens and a coke)
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To: hattend

I was under the impression that the uniform pictured had been dropped from consideration. Hopefully this is mere taunting from beyond the grave!!!


17 posted on 09/28/2008 7:35:17 PM PDT by M203M4 (True Universal Suffrage: Pets of dead illegal-immigrant felons voting Democrat (twice))
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To: hattend; Squantos

OTOH, I think the new USAF “urban tiger stripe” BDUs are pretty snazzy.


18 posted on 09/28/2008 7:37:05 PM PDT by Travis McGee (--- www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com ---)
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To: Travis McGee
So many designs to try...


19 posted on 09/28/2008 7:38:26 PM PDT by null and void (Good advice is something a man gives when he is too old to set a bad example.-F. de La Rochefoucauld)
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To: hattend

Do we really want our troops looking like the Third Reich? Because that’s the first thing I thought of when I saw this.


20 posted on 09/28/2008 7:42:55 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (I'd like to tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.)
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