Forum: Air Force Life

F16nomore is absolutely correct. I joined in June of 91 and because of the big run on BDU's I was issued OD's. Then in september I had to buy BDU's. I did get a special clothing allowance but it was still a pain in the ****.

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When I was at Hahn AB in the mid 80's, the SP's and the GLCM unit started wearing the BDU's with a black leather name tag, no patches or rank. The officers started complaining from day one because no one would salute them. So in the AF way of things, colored patches and rank got added to the BDU's.

In 85, the Chief Master Sgt of the Air Force came to Hahn and one question we asked was the rest of the AF going to BDU's and he said no. Three years later we changed over.

When the first BDU's came out, you were not allowed to press them. After a while, every one of them looked like they had came out of the dryer in about the size of soft ball, so you were then allowed to press them.

How some things go in full circle...

MKopack wrote:

SixerViper wrote:

That being said, I think the USAF BDUs look better than those of any of the other services. Second-generation DCUs look better than first-generation ones do (see Desert Storm) and again USAF's look best among all the services. I know nothing about the new fatigues or whatever you call 'em, but I'm glad I don't have to wear them any more.

Is there / was there a difference between the AF BDU's and the other services? A good portion of those I wore came from Army bases (where clothing sales had a much better selection, though still AAFES) and my only pair of 5-color 'chocolate chip' deserts came from Brigade Quartermaster when supply couldn't keep up during Desert Storm.

Mike

To my knowledge, there's no difference at all between the bare Army and AF BDUs. The only difference is the stripes, patches, name tags, etc. I was just saying that I liked the USAF patches on BDU/DCUs more than the other services. I thought that the stripes on the sleeves made the uniform look better than the pins on the collar of the Army's BDUs. Those new uniforms look like $hit. Glad I'm retired!

I remember having to have a reflective stripe sewn on the back and on the cuff of the long sleeve O.D.'s before they issued reflective belts

I like the BDU's i like having a majcom and wing patch. The new ABU's look stupid, the green boots look like sh*t, the AF should have just gone with desert boots. I've noticed that the new ABU's are in dry cleaners everywhere, I'm pretty sure they new uniforms are NOT supposed to be dry cleaned or pressed.

Racer181 wrote:

I've noticed that the new ABU's are in dry cleaners everywhere, I'm pretty sure they new uniforms are NOT supposed to be dry cleaned or pressed.

You're right, 'wash and wear' - just like the BDU's when we started with them back in '87... We weren't originally even supposed to iron them.

Give it a year or two, the spray starch will be back.

Mike

MKopack wrote:

Racer181 wrote:

I've noticed that the new ABU's are in dry cleaners everywhere, I'm pretty sure they new uniforms are NOT supposed to be dry cleaned or pressed.

You're right, 'wash and wear' - just like the BDU's when we started with them back in '87... We weren't originally even supposed to iron them.

Give it a year or two, the spray starch will be back.

Mike

But the BDU wasn't designed with NIR properties or whatever. Apparently these are supposed to hide us at night when viewed through NVGs. I mean I think it really only matters for SkyCops TACP's and the like. the rest of us maintainers and officer workers i think will be ok.

I worn the O.D. green fatigues up until I PCS to Spangdahlem in 1988, I switched shortly after I got there in Early 1988 of course there is another switch going on right now going from BDU's to the ABU's somebody didn't think when they were approved they are a pain in the but for a maintainer, especially the Green suede boots which don't stay green for long working on A/C, and don't take very well to fuel.oil or scuffing when around the flightline

Racer181 wrote:

But the BDU wasn't designed with NIR properties or whatever. Apparently these are supposed to hide us at night when viewed through NVGs. I mean I think it really only matters for SkyCops TACP's and the like. the rest of us maintainers and officer workers i think will be ok.

We were actually told when the BDU's came out there there was a significant decrease in IR detection with wearing them, and that was one of the reasons for their introduction. The 'baggy' appearence would also break up the 'human shaped' silouette. Of course the iron and starch just blows that out of the water... Rule #1 back in the summer of '87 was DO NOT iron your uniforms, and there were people who were disciplined who did so. That didn't end p lasting all that long. I don't know how many people I've seen since then whose BDU's are actually shiny.

Mike

Fiscal year '92 was the last wear date, I was at Dyess AFB, TX, and coming back from DS/DS...

The OD uniform was both good and bad. They were cheap; and you could make the shirts into short-sleeves, and if you took them directly out of the dryer you never had to iron them. However they ripped easily, and if you were a maintainer working on a low to the ground machine like an F-4 you would wear out the knees in a day!!! They also showed stains.

Oh yeah, stains on the ODs! I remember more times than one where Pops would come home with a greenish-pink uniform from a hydraulic leak.

Thanks for giving the official date Scorpio. Living on base at the time, I do recall seeing many who kept their OD's up until the very end. Kind of like what I'm planning on doing with my BDUs. I'm not buying the ABUs until I absolutely have to. Since I only wear BDUs one time per month, it's really not feasible for me to spend the money on something that I won't use very often. I do enough of that in my personal life! Wink

I figure that there will be some changes made to the ABUs before the mandatory wear date anyway. The AF is notorious for throwing that curveball.

I'd still like to see organizational patches developed for ABUs, which I think will happen. With no patches, and no unit-specific hats, it's hard to know who works where, or who does what.

As a development stemming from ABUs, starting FY09 aircrews may officially wear the sand colored ABU undershirts with flight suits. Some of us (heh heh!) kinda jumped the gun on that one, but we weren't called out on it...prolly because our Wing King did it first. Laughing

But now, it's official.

However at home station, we still wear a flight suit that looks like we're about to go bomb Hanoi. I wonder if they'll ever get rid of the green flight suits...what with being in this day and age of drastic uniform changes.

Forum: Air Force Life

OD Fatigues