Prep School Charlie Blues Fitting
Hello Families!
It's Thursday already. Where has the week gone? Uniform fittings continue today. It was Charlie Squadron's turn.
Since we are on the subject of uniforms, I thought I would talk a bit more about the uniform they are being fitted for.
The current U.S. Air Force Service Dress Uniform, which was initially adopted in 1994 and made mandatory on 1 October 1999, consists of a three-button coat with silver-colored buttons featuring a design known as "Hap Arnold wings", matching trousers, and either a service cap or flight cap, all in Shade 1620, also known as "Air Force Blue". This is worn with a light blue shirt (Shade 1550) and a herringbone patterned necktie (Shade 1620). Silver mirror-finish "U.S." pins are worn on the lapels. Officers' coats feature epaulets on the shoulders, while enlisted airmen have plain shoulders. The preppies wear officer's coats.
Enlisted airmen wear cloth rank insignia on both sleeves of the jacket and shirt, while officers wear metal rank insignia pinned onto the epaulets of the coat, and Air Force Blue slide-on loops ("soft rank" shoulder insignia) on the epaulets of the shirt. While at the prep school, the preppies wear the slide-on loops on both the coat and the shirt epaulets. Officers also wear a band of dark blue cloth sleeve braid loops 3 inches from the cuffs of the sleeves of the coat. Braid is worn in a 1/2-inch width for officers in the rank of colonel and below and in a 1-inch width for general officers.
The current USAF service dress uniform continues to include the three-button blue coat. However, as a matter of practicality for daily duty, particularly in warm weather climates, USAF personnel will typically wear the short-sleeve or long-sleeve Shade 1550 light blue shirt (for men) or short-sleeve or long-sleeve light blue blouse (for women) as an outer garment, with or without a tie or tie tab, with applicable rank insignia, speciality badges and a blue plastic name tag (ribbons are optional). A variety of alternate outer garments are also authorized for this uniform combination such as blue pullover sweater, blue cardigan sweater, lightweight blue jacket, or brown leather A-2 flight jacket (A-2 flight jacket wear is limited to aeronautically rated officers, enlisted aircrew, and officer and enlisted missile operations personnel only). The preps are issued the lightweight blue jacket, (pictured above).
I found this cool photo of Air Force uniforms through the years (Courtesy of Wikipedia).
Ok. That's it for this entry. Photos are all up for Charlie. If you don't see your trainee, they might have been unavailable for a variety of reasons. Don't worry, they will still be fitted at another time, although we may not be able to get a photo.
Tomorrow it is finally Alpha's turn. Thanks to all the Alpha families for their patience. Also, don't forget the Virtal Town Hall today at 5:00PM MDT. Feel free to submit questions you may have via the Prep School Facebook Page in the comment section. They will try to answer them fully before and during the livestream.
Enjoy the day! More tomorrow.