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When was the blue and white machine woven U.S. Air Force uniform tape dicontinued?


bbmilitaria
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bbmilitaria

Does anyone have an approximate date the rayon blue and white machine woven U.S. Air Force uniform tape was discontinued? Thank you for any help, Mike

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I went in the Air Force in 1979. Had white on blue in Basic. Almost immediately converted to subdued (blue on green), wearing that thru the 1980's.

My drill sergeant had actually already converted to subdued. A mix on our flight picture in October 1979.

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They were actually worn onto the 90s on the blue fatigue uniform. Depot teams and Transient Alert personnel wore these. January 81 was the end date for those worn on green fatigues though.

 

Randy

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Went into the Air Force in December 1977. Wore OG 107 cotton green fatigues with blue and white name tapes and U.S. Air Force woven tag.

 

Entered SP Academy at the end of January 1978 and graduated in February. Went to Camp Bullis for combat training. While at Camp Bullis, uniforms for the cadre were interesting. Some still wore Vietnam War jungle fatigues with black on green name tapes and the RVN police patch. Others wore blue on white name taps and US Air Force tapes -- remembered specifically because of MA-1 flight jackets where the name tapes were configured much like the fatigues.

 

The conversion to the blue lettering over OD green name tapes pretty much coincided with the conversion to the OG-507 uniform even though I would continue to wear OG 107. In February 1978, at least one of the instructors converted to this new uniform voluntarily.

 

In my case, some of my uniforms started to convert while at Alaska around 1979. I still have a MA-1 flight jacket with blue on green tapes and subdued insignia. The configuration is also different because I wore an Alaskan Air Command patch on the right breast and name tape and SP qualification badge on the left. Usually, there was OG green button under the name tape for a shield.

 

When I returned from overseas in 1980 for assignment to the 366th TWF, I remembered that all of my fatigue uniforms had to be converted to the blue green insignia. I thought, however, that the conversion was more about the fact that the 366th was the Alpha unit of the Rapid Deployment Force and we were all world-wide deployable. I didn't convert to the OG-507 fatigue until 1982. I did my first formal RDF deployment with this unit, which I've always considered sort of joke because I was sent back to Alaska.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Steindaddie

The last day for full color insignia (blue & white name tapes, patches, chevrons, etc.) on the OD fatigues was 31 December, 1980. I wore mine until that last day; come January 1st, it was officially to be all subdued. Though 31 December was the last day, full-color insignia had been gradually disappearing starting in 1979. By about early 1980, it became increasingly difficult to find full color stuff on the shelves of the military clothing store. My squadron (62nd TFS) issued subdued patches (they were hideous looking) in the summer of 1980. By mid-late 1980, the majority of troops had gone subdued with only a minority of full-color die-hards or those who were getting out before the end of the year and saw no need to spend money on modifying uniforms they would soon no longer need. Me, I knew I would sew-on E-4 come 1 January 1981 and was not going to waste potential beer money on subdued E-3 stripes I would just have to throw away.

 

Somewhere on the forum there was a discussion about fatigues worn during that transition time which were a mix of full-color and subdued insignia. Though the individuals wearing such non-regulation attire were not in a majority, we had numerous guys in my squadron wearing a mixed- bag of subdued name & USAF tapes, colored patches & chevrons, etc. Referring back to the issuance of subdued patches in the summer of '80, plenty of guys by then were already wearing subdued chevrons & name tags but, lacking any subdued replacement, they still wore color patches. So it was a real crazy-quilt of fatigue uniforms, and a blind eye was maintained. However, the phase-out date was scrupulously observed - I never saw anyone with full-color insignia on OD fatigues after that. When we came back to work after the new year, it was all subdued. If one did not have a subdued squadron patch by then, you cut off the color one and went patch-less.

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  • 2 years later...

I hate to resurrect an old thread but I can’t find the date that I’m looking for and I figured it was worth posting here rather than starting a new one… 

 

When were the white on blue name tapes introduced in the Air Force?

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There is a website devoted to USAF Basic Training and Technical School photos (all dated by month and year) and the earliest evidence of the name tape in question is July, 1966. These are initially seen worn by the instructors, not the trainees. Interestingly enough, in that same month and year, the Army authorized new name tapes (black on OD green). Coincidence?

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