I can't help it they are both butt ugly. But that might work when hiding somewhere from an enemy. If nothing else when they find you they might feel sorry for you for having to dress like that.

I like it! It is ugly; but, functional. I like the extra pockets on the sleeves...more like our jungle fatigues in the 60's! The hat is more like the starched fatigue hat that my dad wore in the army in the 50's & early 60's. I never cared for the baseball-type caps that we used to wear.

I always wore the permanent-press fatigues, whenever I could get'em! I guess that I must have OD Green blood in my veins, because I always thought that a uniform should look like a uniform...and our fatigues in the 70's never did! I hated the baseball cap & I hated the wrinkles in the old starched fatigues...and I always thought that we should have bloused our boots...like the Army & Marines did!!! I took pride in my uniform; but, it's hard to take pride in something that looked so causual and so sloppy! I never liked the old 1505 short-sleeved Khaki uniforms or the old Chuka boots.  They weren't at all comfortable!!!
                   
                                        Charlie Baker

I hate the new uniform and hope i dont ever "have" to wear it. as long as i can wear the origional i will. i might be wierd but i like having the nice well shined boots. the suade looks awful. i also prefer the black shirt instead of the ugly green/brown. also the name tapes are too difficult to read.

Change is always ugly, but compared to the Army... well the best thing the AF did was not have all that Velcro on it like the army, also having one uniform whether down range or at home station... it just makes sence...

I work with the Army (LRMC, Germany) and they love the new uniform, fits better, more comfortable... So I am excited to get it... I just hope we don't change our minds in 5 years and go with something else..

Jeff

I have personally communicated with the president of Tiger Stripe Products, the original designer of the Airman Battle Uniform. Go to his site and read what he says about how he was treated by the Air Force. As far as the ABU goes, I have written an article in "Air Force Times" addressing the design. I have spoken with the folks at Battelle, who make the fabric, as well as ATTEMPTED to speak with someone at the Uniform Board at Wright-Patterson AFB. Us troops at ground level have had minimal input on the design. This abomination has been shoved onto us by generals who saw the MARPAT and said, "Ooooooh, me too, me too!". Both the MARPAT and the Army ACU had a great deal of thought go into them, even though the ACU won out over Crye Multicam, which is a far sperior design. Actually seeing and holding the ABU is quite a revelation. The tops are made by Propper and the bottoms by NIW, so there is quite a shade difference, the tops are more greenish and the bottoms much grayer and lighter in tone. There's an Air Force message out addressing this issue. The weight of the fabric is HEAVY. Another terrible feature is the two inside chest pockets, what a waste. The AF has already said they can be cut out to make the garment cooler. How's that for fraud, waste, and abuse!? With the inner pockets in, the wearer has five layers of cloth between him and his body armor, utterly unacceptable!

Last edited by AFSarge (2007-09-12 13:34:27)

The guys in Afghanistan who had to wear them liked them.  I was in DCUs (since we stayed inside the wire and weren't attached to an Army unit) so I can't say they are more or less comfortable. Personally I think they are ugly (in person and in print) but "when they're shooting at ya, it ain't about being pretty".  From a distance (100 meters or so) they were hard to see in the brush, so I'd wear them.

On the down side, I had to make space for Mess Dress, Service Dress, Blues, BDUs, DCUs, ABUs, and PT Uniforms and the six different shoes/boots.  (I never owned 6 pairs of footgear at one time, let alone 6 different types!)

I'm retired so I will not be wearing this uniform. As far as what I think? I think the AF should go back to cotton fatigues. Always liked them and no one else wears them. Of course if your going to a zone where you need to wear camoflague then by all means wear it.
I read where the shoulder boards are going out. I just always thought the AF should look different. Pilots where their Flight suits anywhere and it seems to be O.K. Why not wear a uniform that wears well and looks good?

I started wearing the ABU's about a month ago.  They aren't too bad at all.  They're a bit warmer than the summer weight BDU's, but I sit in an office all day, so they are tolerable.  The women's uniforms button in the opposite direction as our BDU's do, so that takes some getting used to.  The boots aren't bad, it took a little time to get used to those too.
I LOVE the fact I can wash, dry, hang and wear!  Just have to watch your detergent and make sure it doesn't have optical brighteners in it.

Well for all the haters I wear the ABU and love it. I am not confined to a desk everyday where I can shelter my boots from the elements or dust or rocks I work in the field. Literally. Yeah it can be a little hot but so were BDU's with a pound of starch on them. As for not letting the troops input ideas... well we were asked and ignored cause they let the old desk jockeys make all the decisions. Yeah I just called out the chiefs... it happens. Honestly the only reason we did not go with the prototype with pockets on the sleeve and no lower pockets was because the top 3 are very attached to their kite sized rank. Don't believe me!? Well the last uniform board just took away the shoulder board option for blues shirts for SNCO's and when is the last time you saw a Chief wear a gortex jacket.... You wont they will be in a field jacket in the rain in August so you can see their HUGE chevrons from a quarter mile away.

gloefer wrote:

"Honestly the only reason we did not go with the prototype with pockets on the sleeve and no lower pockets was because the top 3 are very attached to their kite sized rank. Don't believe me!? Well the last uniform board just took away the shoulder board option for blues shirts for SNCO's and when is the last time you saw a Chief wear a gortex jacket.... You wont they will be in a field jacket in the rain in August so you can see their HUGE chevrons from a quarter mile away."

The reason I rarely wore the Gore-Tex was because it's not very comfortable (full disclosure-I'm a retired MSgt), the hood/collar setup sucks.  I only wore Gore-Tex if it was really raining hard. A field jacket treated with Camp Dry or Scotch Guard is much more comfortable the rest of the time.  Plus Gore-Tex is loud, the noise from a room full of people wearing their full setup is ridiculous. And Yes, us old farts thought they looked better, though chevrons weren't really part of the equation.
Also, I can't say I was ever really attached to the enlisted shoulder boards.  Sort of a "O" wanna-be thing.

The direct quote from the uniform board is that Senior Enlisted advisers declined sleeve pockets because they though that the rank would not be readily recognizable from a distance. If that doesn't add credence to the fact that they were more in love with their Chevrons than function I don't know what does.

Runner wrote:

I've been around for the greens, BDUs/DCUs, and now the ABUs (enlisted in 1982, still serving).  Each have their unique qualities, both good and bad.  On the whole, I like the ABUs.  The wash and wear quality is, by far the best feature, IMO. What we need to be wary of are the GOs and Chiefs like I've seen here at Scott AFB who are already hot pressing their ABUs to ensure those extra-sharp creases, in direct contradiction to published care instructions and stated policy. Also, I'm not a big fan of no unit insignia and am of the decided opinion that if we have nothing to identify our unit affiliation (aka esprit de corps), then the zipper-suited sun gods/goddesses need to permanently remove their patches, as well.  Imagine the economic savings (the officially stated reason for ABU wearers not having them) that can be realized if units no longer have to purchase patches, and parachute shops can actually spend their time and resources repairing, I don't know,...maybe parachutes and life-support equipment!

If I were "CSAF for a day", I would direct the above re: patches, and fire the pinheads who approved the APEC (new Gortex).  The APEC is utterly operationally useless.  It zips from the bottom with no additional zipper pull at the bottom so you can open the bottom while sitting (tactically unsound if you're assigned to duties outside the wire and have your IBA shoved up into your face/field of view by the bunched up bottom of the jacket while riding in a HMMWV).  The woodland/desert Gortex has a two-way zipper (upper and lower pulls), and the Field Jacket, which has been excluded from inclusion in the ABU camo pattern altogether, was designed with a 3/4 zipper that allowed this ,as well.  Additionally, again unlike the woodland/desert Gortex and Field Jackets, the zipper butts together with a minuscule "wind seal" rather than a no-kidding wind/weather flap covering it or behind it.  Just ask a flightline /battlefield/Security Forces Airman how it feels having a 50 degree or lower, 10+kt wind blowing through the uncovered zipper of the APEC and he'll tell you that he can't function after 10-15 minutes due to hypothermia.  The APEC was obviously "field tested" by the jokers working at the Uniform Board whose longest walk in the weather in this abomination of a jacket was from the South Parking lot into the Pentagon. I e-mailed the Board and their response was they couldn't change the finalized design.  Now, we all know that if I wore stars, the fix would be immediately staffed and the design changed.  But alas, I'm don't.

Enough of my rant!  Thanks for reading this.  I'd like to hear further discussion.

Layers my friend, layers, sure the Gore-tex is great for windy weather but i also spent 4 GLORIOUS years in North Dakota so i can tell you exposed zipper or not it's too freaking cold outside lol. As for the jokers on the uniform boards I agree whole heartedly that they are a bunch of people who think field testing is walking fron the grass to the front door.

Last edited by Monkey7680 (2007-11-18 13:33:14)

I Like Them!  Not having to iron them is a dream!  Ok they are too heavy for the Warmer Climates like Luke but all and all I like the functionality of them only thing that I will really miss is the Unit Baseball caps.