Michael wrote:

"Doug \"Woody\" and Erin Beal" wrote in message ...
The "worried about" comment wasn't meant to be pointed directly at you,
Michael. In 17 years of doing this stuff, I'm a bit frustrated at the folks
who *do* make a big deal of it (for various reasons). I can understand your
curiosity factor... Which is why I made the attempt at answering the
question instead of ending the post after the top line.

Sorry for the misunderstanding. I wasn't sure if you felt I was one
of the uptight people that worried about stuff like that.

But since my nerve has been inadvertently touched, allow me a small rant...

The black shoe Navy (and some senior Flag aviators who have forgotten what
it was like to be a JO) have gone a two different ways with flight clothing.

(a) In the past, hold the aviators down by banning them from wearing the
flight suit/jackets anywhere off base. Mighty frustrating having to change
out of the flight suit to get gas while USAF dudes were having lunch at
Burger King in theirs... Thank goodness those days are over.

(b) Currently, they have proliferated it and made it something less
"special" or unique to aviation. Not that I wear khakis very often, but
when I do, I am proud to be a "brown shoe." Nowadays, the black shoes have
the option of wearing brown shoes too (though honestly most don't for the
same reason I don't wear the black ones)

Why are they given the option of wearing brown shoes now?!

BUT many of them opt for the green Nomex flight jacket (which used to
be an "aviators only item) instead of the (standard) khaki jacket.

Hmm, that's no good. The Nomex should remain an aviator only garment.

~Michael

On my Tin Can, which was new construction, we had a full complement of nice new foul weather gear. In addition to the
regular green cloth jackets, we had a number of "Extreme foul weather" coats. These were some kind of shiny synthetic, well
padded and insulated, and had a cool looking rib running down the outside of each sleeve.

Naturally , these were much coveted and a command decision was made to issue them to officers and chiefs only. This
directive was modified down in the gear locker to be: officers, chiefs, and SK (Storekeeper) petty officers.

As you would expect, this created an immediate uproar and the original unmodified policy was quickly forced, enforced and
reinforced. The SK's hadn't really expected to get away with it anyway.

I don't think the flight gear battles are a whole lot different.

Bob McKellar, former Tin Can Pork Chop