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USAF BLUE Fatigues


T-Bone
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Transient Alert also wears blue fatigues. A photo would help, hehehe..

 

-Ski

As soon as I figure out how to get these to not suck every bit of light out of a room.

These have to be one of the most dificult uniforms that I have photographed.

 

BTW could you explain Transient Alert, please?

 

T

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As soon as I figure out how to get these to not suck every bit of light out of a room.

These have to be one of the most dificult uniforms that I have photographed.

 

BTW could you explain Transient Alert, please?

 

T

 

I'm not sure what you have looks like this shirt, but Transient Aert folks wear blue fatigues as well. TA is responsible for handling aircraft that aren't assigned to the base that they are at. They do basic maintenance and servicing and are located at bases around the world. Here is a shot of a TA shirt.

 

-Ski

post-3043-1239363631.jpg

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I'm not sure what you have looks like this shirt, but Transient Aert folks wear blue fatigues as well. TA is responsible for handling aircraft that aren't assigned to the base that they are at. They do basic maintenance and servicing and are located at bases around the world. Here is a shot of a TA shirt.

 

-Ski

Are you saying these uniforms are still being worn or did you mean "back in the day"?

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I wore them as a Missile Crew Member, Air Force One Maintainers wore them and also the BX Gas Station guys at Vandenburg AFB wore them when I was there for crew training.

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Are you saying these uniforms are still being worn or did you mean "back in the day"?

 

They are still being worn by Transient Alert folks.

 

-Ski

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They are still being worn by Transient Alert folks.

 

-Ski

 

Those are the ones, though they must be vampires, they refuse to photograph properly.

 

These ARE still being worn? I have never seen them?

Anyone know where to score a shirt 18 1/2 x 34 and pants 46" x 33" ?

 

I have stuff here to do patch up a SAC SP shirt, and would od it if I could get a big set.

 

T-Bone

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I wore them as a Missile Crew Member...

 

When I was at Malmstrom AFB in the late 60's, the Minuteman launch control officers wore those with various colored ascot scarves.

 

Here's a photo from the National Park Service, show a missile officer at work:

 

lcf1.jpg

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Those are the ones, though they must be vampires, they refuse to photograph properly.

 

These ARE still being worn? I have never seen them?

Anyone know where to score a shirt 18 1/2 x 34 and pants 46" x 33" ?

 

I have stuff here to do patch up a SAC SP shirt, and would od it if I could get a big set.

 

T-Bone

 

TA here at Dover AFB still wears it.

 

-Ski

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TA here at Dover AFB still wears it.

 

-Ski

 

Ski-

 

Do they have them in Clothing Sales/ AAFES out there?

 

I thought TA was all contractors now?

 

Timo

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When I was at Malmstrom AFB in the late 60's, the Minuteman launch control officers wore those with various colored ascot scarves.

 

Here's a photo from the National Park Service, show a missile officer at work:

 

post-214-1239899147.jpg

 

Now he looks to have the Flight Suit, which I think was SAC specific(even the label said it). I kick myself for not grabbing a bunch when I could at Elmendorf, they still had them and donated them to the Thrift Shops in Anchorage.

 

BTW is it required for AF officers (O-1 thru O-3) to look like the do not yet shave?

 

I just had this discussion with a new 2LT in Security Forces here.

 

T-Bone

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Not to highjack the thread but missile crews called them crew blues. The flight suites came much later. Most missile crews wore the fatigues when going on alert and to the missile trainer. Once you got behind the closed blast door you wore what ever you wanted. I wore ERDL jungle pants furry slippers and my M1a flight jacket as most of the launch control centers were cold. As for shaving most of us didn't shave coming out of the field.

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Not to highjack the thread but missile crews called them crew blues. The flight suites came much later. Most missile crews wore the fatigues when going on alert and to the missile trainer. Once you got behind the closed blast door you wore what ever you wanted. I wore ERDL jungle pants furry slippers and my M1a flight jacket as most of the launch control centers were cold. As for shaving most of us didn't shave coming out of the field.

 

Never got a picture of that Air Force "uniform" did you thumbsup.gif

 

Not bothering to shave is normal, O-2 who do not HAVE to shave; well just a little disconcerting.

But I knew 22 year olds with gray hair...guess it is a ground troops thing.

 

T-Bone

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Yes what you saw was extremely accurate. Don't know why the flight suits changed color. Jimmy Stewart did great in the part because he was an Air Force Officer natural fit for him.

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Stewart actually retired from the Air Force as a Brigadier General. He flew combat in WWII, and also flew on combat missions as an observer in Vietnam. Amazingly, he was usually sure to cover up his service because he didn't want to capitalize on it just to play up his movie career.

 

When they filmed Strategic Air Command, Stewart was a real O-6 but was playing an O-5. I suspect this is one of very few times were an actor has taken a demotion in a film role.

 

~TS

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I have one of these two-piece crew blues sets from a Peacekeeper (AKA, the "MX Missile") launch officer O-2 from the 400th SMW along with the scraf and the baseball hat. I guess I should get all that stuff together photo it sometime. I always founf it odd that any duty military uniform even came with short sleeves on the shirt. Being former Army, we never had exposed forearms when on any duty but garrison office work...

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Hi guys. First time poster here.

 

I poked my head into this topic because I just saw the classic movie Strategic Air Command on TCM, and I was curious about some of the USAF uniforms I saw there, all blue. Especially intriguing were the crew uniforms for the B-36 guys. Colorful blue flight suits... not NASA bright blue, but brighter than newer USAF shades, kind of a French Blue almost. They weren't too baggy the way many flight suits are. Headgear were ballcaps of the same blue color, with big rank insignia patches on them. It was a very attractive uniform, and if they were real, I'd wonder why USAF would go away from something so distinctive looking. Those uniforms just screamed "Air Force".

 

Were these real uniforms, or was this all Hollywood? I've read that Jimmy Stewart wanted the movie to be as accurate about USAF as possible.

 

Did you notice the chevrons on M/Sgt. Bible's ballcap? Those were miniature cloth chevrons made just for caps. I've seen photos of them, but never seen an original cap-sized chevron. Very rare indeed!

I used to have an old blue B-15 jacket like the ones worn in the movie. You are right, those clothes screamed "Air Force". I understand that they got away from all the blue duty uniforms like that to conserve money. Why not use Army fatigues and save a few bucks? I don't have any idea why the blue flight jackets changed to sage green tho. I liked the blue ones! thumbsup.gif

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  • 1 year later...

Crew blues were introduced to missile crews around 1967. Before that, crews wore standard non-military issue painter's coveralls, dubbed "white bags/flour bags". Crew blues were worn until around 1989 or so, when they were replaced by the blue flight suit shown in the previous picture. The blue flight suits were called "blue bags", and were specially made for missile crews. The label lists them as "SAC MISSILE CREW COVERALLS", and they are not flame-retardant (they are made of a standard polyester/nylon/cotton blend).

 

I've seen crew blues that were used by CLSS squadrons in addition to missile crews, but never SPs. They are rather difficult to find on the collector's market, especially the pants. It took me two years of searching to find a pair of pants that fit me. The crew blues that I've acquired over the years were all from CLSS squadrons, and I converted them over to missile crew blues. A month or so ago I won an actual set of missile crew blues from the 373rd Strategic Missile Squadron (Titan II, Little Rock AFB). Based on the insignia, the previous owner was most likely part of deactivation, which makes them really cool.

 

Here's an old picture of my crew blues collection:

3185997429_f3d94f0a5e_b.jpg

 

This is a public-domain picture of a 381st Strategic Missile Wing (Titan II, McConnell AFB) crew member at work in the missile procedures trainer:

2812168161_664d34f59d_b.jpg

 

And finally, this is me in a set of crew blues I put together. This was taken at the Titan Missile Museum in June 2009, when I was working there. Dr. Strangelove-style at the launch console:

3657507093_5678a944d3_b.jpg

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DutchInfid3l
Crew blues were introduced to missile crews around 1967. Before that, crews wore standard non-military issue painter's coveralls, dubbed "white bags/flour bags". Crew blues were worn until around 1989 or so, when they were replaced by the blue flight suit shown in the previous picture. The blue flight suits were called "blue bags", and were specially made for missile crews. The label lists them as "SAC MISSILE CREW COVERALLS", and they are not flame-retardant (they are made of a standard polyester/nylon/cotton blend).

 

I've seen crew blues that were used by CLSS squadrons in addition to missile crews, but never SPs. They are rather difficult to find on the collector's market, especially the pants. It took me two years of searching to find a pair of pants that fit me. The crew blues that I've acquired over the years were all from CLSS squadrons, and I converted them over to missile crew blues. A month or so ago I won an actual set of missile crew blues from the 373rd Strategic Missile Squadron (Titan II, Little Rock AFB). Based on the insignia, the previous owner was most likely part of deactivation, which makes them really cool.

 

Here's an old picture of my crew blues collection:

3185997429_f3d94f0a5e_b.jpg

 

This is a public-domain picture of a 381st Strategic Missile Wing (Titan II, McConnell AFB) crew member at work in the missile procedures trainer:

2812168161_664d34f59d_b.jpg

 

And finally, this is me in a set of crew blues I put together. This was taken at the Titan Missile Museum in June 2009, when I was working there. Dr. Strangelove-style at the launch console:

3657507093_5678a944d3_b.jpg

Wow! Nice collection! I've been trying to get a hold of a set for awhile now...

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Wow! Nice collection! I've been trying to get a hold of a set for awhile now...

 

Yeah, took a while to put together. Finding patches and insignia for them is always a pain in the rear. Even finding MIMS (missile maintenance squadron) patches for the OG-107 uniforms is difficult. I would LOVE to find a 390th MIMS patch.

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  • 9 months later...
Not to highjack the thread but missile crews called them crew blues. The flight suites came much later. Most missile crews wore the fatigues when going on alert and to the missile trainer. Once you got behind the closed blast door you wore what ever you wanted. I wore ERDL jungle pants furry slippers and my M1a flight jacket as most of the launch control centers were cold. As for shaving most of us didn't shave coming out of the field.

 

I ran across this forum and signed up so I could share what I know about the "Crew Blues." When only missile crews had them we never called them fatigues or blue fatigues, just crew blues or maybe crew uniform. When you talked about fatigues you meant the green ones that were worn by security and maintenance guys. I guess we wanted to make a point of the fact that only us missile crews wore them.

 

Nick Halliday is right about the 1967 introduction of Crew Blues.

 

The first ones issued have the following on the tag. Man's Missile Combat Crew Alert AF Blue shade 1549.

 

I attached a picutre of three Crew Blue shirts that I took at the Minot Minuteman I reunion last year in Dayton, Ohio. They are what was being worn at Minot in the 91st Strategic Missile wing in 1972-1973. Below are some notes about them.

 

Two of them have SAC Missile Combat Competition patches above the left pocket. It was also called Olympic Arena.

 

Two of them have a 91st SMW patch on the right pocket since they were either Instructor or Stanboard/Evaluation crews. The other has a 742nd Strategic Missile Squadron patch on the right pocket.

 

All three have a Senior Missileman Badge on the left pocket, that was for 3 years. In 1969 you did not get the Missileman Badge until you had been on crew for 6 months so one without it would be correct.

 

The one for Sutter has a cloth Combat Crew badge above the name tag, the other two don't. Some people put it on and others didn't

 

All three have long sleeves since we were not allowed to cut them off and none were issued as short sleeve.

 

With the crew blues you wore a scarf/ascot/dickie. We called them scarfs. It varied by wing but at Minot Standboard/Evaluation had orange, Instructors had yellow, 740th SMS had red, 741st had green and 742nd had gray. I think the 742nd was supposed to be a light blue but it was really dull looking gray. On the scarf you might a pin that blue and white split diagonally with a gold number showing the number of evaluations you scored highly qualified on.

post-27658-1298236211.jpg

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  • 7 months later...

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