Uniform Recreation

I was challenged at church by some Veterans to wear my dress uniform this past veterans day (2020), so began a month long search. I only had my ribbons and a few loose pieces that made it from my time in the Air Force, the rest didn’t make coming home from Germany where most of my household goods were “lost”. I only had a few pictures that my wife’s grandmother kept to even remember how the uniform looked.

The Challenge

The first challenge was knowing that the Air Force was in the process of changing over the uniform toward the last 1990’s into 2000. We were going from the “bus driver” look to the “airline pilot” look, which started some controversy that I will go into later in this article. I was determined to get the look as close to how I had it, with any AF regs of the time; along with any base uniform “liberties” that were promoted at the time.

Sourcing

Jacket, Pants, Shirt, Pants Belt and Hat = Ebay. Had to search for a bit to find a uniform that fit me (not as small as i once was) and was not faded. (Blue Air force Uniforms turn purple when exposed to too much sunlight.

The “ropes” or Aiguillette took me weeks going through websites and images to find the same one Pope AFB used at that time.

https://www.supplyroom.com/us-military/product/26805/double-braid-aiguillette-shoulder-cord-with-2-nickel-tips-one-color

White Belt, rank patches – Marlow

Item Number: 60-050-mw60050style2-!60-050-0-0-00-000-2100

https://www.marlowwhite.com/web-belts-for-honor-and-color-guards

Honor Guard Metal Pin – 2 different orders on ebay. The first was faded.

https://www.ebay.com/usr/ms.sparrow59?ul_noapp=true

White Beret – Don’t ask me why Gen. Floys wanted white… but we wore white and became known as the Q-Tip Brigade.

http://www.ebay.com/usr/kmcoll2?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2754

Flying Tigers Patch for Ascot

http://www.ebay.com/usr/itsyourairplane?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2754

Bus Driver Hat