The Great Flight Jacket Thread (wearing/buying Leather, NOMEX, WEP jackets/patches)

[mwardakpsi]

I'm with MB.

If the CO is behind the CMC, don't dig a hole for yourself....if not, do what you want.

He's a CMC from the shoe community, right? Does he have or wear a green flight jacket. If you must comply, become his personal uniform police nazi and look him over all the time for "violations."

I'd get a piece of black velcro put on and stick a nametag there when at work, remove and wear out in town.

Here's mine and I wore it this way for the last 6 years of my 20 on active duty.

There are only three aviators, with me being the only tailhooker. Green flight jackets are banned. We had flight suit friday for 1 day before that was no joy. Its aviator extinction!

It was a good fight to explain that rank is not required on patches for the jacket and that we are actually issued them!

 

[SDNalgene]

Technically, yes.

Well that's lame. There is one rule I think I will break without pause. Come on, it's the flag, the patch belongs on the shoulder, screw the rules on that one. I suppose that will diminish any arguing power should I find myself working with an anti-aviation CMC, but I will cross that bridge when I get to it.

 

[phrogpilot73]

On my issue jacket, I have velcro for the nametag - so I can swap it out as the mood strikes me. On the uber-sweet Oxford Leather Shop jacket that PSW bought me - I currently have nothing. I'm planning on getting leather nametag/squadron patch from flightjacket.com and have it sewn directly on the jacket.

For those who have used flightjacket.com before, if they don't have a die for your squadron patch, do you have to make a bulk order? Or can you order just one patch?

 

[DangerousDan]

There are only three aviators, with me being the only tailhooker. Green flight jackets are banned. We had flight suit friday for 1 day before that was no joy. Its aviator extinction!

It was a good fight to explain that rank is not required on patches for the jacket and that we are actually issued them!

That sucks... I know one of the LDOs in my unit told me about the green jackets being banned when I got back from C6F. It annoys me because I love my green jacket as much as I love my brown shoes. I know I'm taking a flight suit to bahrain with me in a couple of weeks because the staff has FsF there. On a side note where do you get the rank and desert patches in bahrain or from wings and things?

 

[ea6bflyr]

Here's mine with Tipsy Gypsy nametag and patch.

-ea6bflyr

 

[NozeMan]

flightjacket.com seems to make a pretty good product and has good availability. Who sewed your leather patches on your jackets? I haven't had anything done to it yet, but have considered sending it back to Wings n' Things to get done. What is the gouge on which (if any) squadron patch to put on? It'd be cool to have a squadron on there, but what about when you go to a new one down the road? Pags is right on their nametape, it's pretty sharp and I might head the simple route w/ first/last name and the Navy Jack.

 

[ea6bflyr]

flightjacket.com seems to make a pretty good product and has good availability. Who sewed your leather patches on your jackets? I haven't had anything done to it yet, but have considered sending it back to Wings n' Things to get done. What is the gouge on which (if any) squadron patch to put on? It'd be cool to have a squadron on there, but what about when you go to a new one down the road? Pags is right on their nametape, it's pretty sharp and I might head the simple route w/ first/last name and the Navy Jack.

PR's in my squadron sewed mine on...they have HEAVY DUTY sewing machines....make sure you tell them where you want the patches. Squadron Patch: Either your current squadron or your last squadron, if you are not currently in a squadron.

-ea6bflyr

 

[onedge]

I'm here to tell you that the Nomex fleece is warm! The system is a pretty sweet setup. What I ended up getting to test was: 3 different weights of long johns, Fleece Jacket & Vest, Fleece Farmer John, Goretex Pants & Jacket, and Fleece Mask. I never wore the Fleece Mask, but I wore all of the rest. It took a bit of time to figure out what combo wasn't too hot. There were times in the winter time when I was sweating because I had selected stuff that was TOO warm. My only gripe about the system - the gloves. There were none. So I was stuck with the crappy, bulky winter gloves. My toes also got very cold, but I had invested in the battery powered socks. I actually had ones that had a remote battery pack, so the wire went up my pant leg, out my zipper and into my thigh pocket. It was nice...

I would love to get my hands the vest and jacket portion of the system . Any one know if you can get this stuff on your own? If so, how?

 

[Uncle Fester]

The PolarTec stuff is damned hard to get through the Navy supply system. We tried to pick some up for Afghanistan flying, when it gets damned cold back in the Tube...no dice.

Yet the hell of it is, when I went through NIACT, they issued us all a complete set as part of the RFI. Jacket, hat, socks, farmer Johns, plus the silky long underwear, the whole kit. Even for those of us going to Djibouti (average winter temperature around 80). Since it's all "next to the skin" items, they can't reissue them, so we got to keep it all - still in the plastic wrap - when we redeployed home.

 

[Schnugg]

As an old retired guy I wear my green nomex jacket with my nametag (wings), topgun and tomcat patches anywhere I want. Wore it on veteran's day in DTA. Didn't hear a peep. Then again, I'm retired and can tell someone to go pound sand as the jacket has no rank on it.

I also have one of the new khaki gov't issue nomex flight jackets...what to do with that? Hey, it's not green!!

 

[exhelodrvr]

The only "green" flight jacket that's worth a damn is in reality a "liner" for a winter flying suit --- it was referred to as "green nylon" but I don't think it was REALLY nylon but rather some other fire resistant material. It's not in the system any more as far as I know ... it had a knit collar, knit sleeve cuffs, knit waistband, and was the usual resting place for most fellows' patch collection. It was worn with khaki's, working blues, and flight suits and was a constant companion in the aircraft on cold days or on X-country's to cold climes ... it could even be worn while you were strapped into an ejection seat. If you wanted to get really fancy, you would couple it with a wolverine fur-rimmed hood to make an outfit that would stand up to the coldest WX we'd encounter on the platform in the Sea of Japan ... it was also what we wore to Cold WX survival in the middle of winter on Mt. Baker.

The later "nomex" kinda gray-green jacket was reserved for pussies and O-4's and above. It was NOT something that was lusted after ...

The good "green nylon" jacket material is represented in the background under this patch ... it's similar to helmet bag material.

I would wear that under the SV2 on cold days

Now I wear mine to work (which isn't needed often in San Diego) - it is the most comfortable jacket I have ever had.

I think the reasoning behind not allowing them in town (and probably the same with flight suits) is because they can get pretty stained if they are actually worn when flying/pre-flighting. (Mine has a noticeable oil stain on the front, and some red paint on the back, where I leaned against a freshly painted firefighting pipe on the island.) I haven't spent a lot of time in USAF O-clubs, but I doubt that the flight suits I saw there had ever been worn for preflighting. (Or at least not for pre-flighting an H-3!!)

 

[onedge]

I would go so far as to buy a polartec vest/jacket IF I could find a new one that fits. I am planning on asking the squadron supply folks but do not at all expect them to get it for me. SO, that leaves shop for myself or bust. The problem is, I cannot find a civillian vendor that has the actual stuff that is issued. Anyone know a place this stuff is available?

 

[Pilot123]

When would you say one rates wearing the leather jacket? Anytime in the program? Complete waiting to wing? Once winged? Looking for thoughts...

 

[Gatordev]

When would you say one rates wearing the leather jacket? Anytime in the program? Complete waiting to wing? Once winged? Looking for thoughts...

When it's cold outside.

 

[A4sForever]

Find a "nice" way to tell the CMC to go fuck himself ... unless it's from the CO, and then you have a problem.

The problem would be that you have a CO who is too gutless to tell his Officers what to do re: patches on jackets and delegates it to the CMC ....

In any case -- Chiefs don't tell Officers how to dress. Neither does your wife, your girlfriend, or your Mommy ...

and for jmetx07 ... you can "legally" wear the leather flight jacket any time you have a 13XX designator.

Or whenever you want ... what ARE they gonna' do?? Send you to war??