I think that is why they are being sold at Fort Myers. Officers at the Pentagon would have a spare $400 to spend and would were Class B often if not daily.
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Army A-2 is officially official
- Thread starter Ed Rooney
- Start date
Ed Rooney
Well-Known Member
Yeah, the Army Chief of Staff is an Aviator, and those guys all have jacket envy with all the other services wearing leather. The Army was the only holdout. The problem is, the Army flight suit is just a Nomex version of the OCP camo uniform, with a few subtle changes. You can't wear the A-2 flying, or jumping.
It's going to look sharp as hell with the AGSU Class B, though.
It's going to look sharp as hell with the AGSU Class B, though.
So do you think it is actually worn sterile or with the 2 piece nametag?
Ed Rooney
Well-Known Member
No clue, but my previous experiences with the Army would lead me to believe that they will ruin a cool thing by doing something equally lame, like making you wear a pin-on plastic nametag, or allowing non-aviation, -airborne or -air assault-winged soldiers wear it.
ausreenactor
Well-Known Member
That's a LOT of money for an OR to spend.
Q: What is the difference between an E-5 and a picnic table?
A: A picnic table can support a family.
By CW3 Tommy Henderson.. I shit you not!.. Great American and patriot. Teller of bad jokes.
ausreenactor
Well-Known Member
Our A-2s got binned in Army because it created an us and them perception. Same happened for our Nomex jackets in the early 90s when the Commandos got them allowed. We had Green Berets too, but they let us have those?
The AGSU does not have any nametag at all on the the Class A or Class B so I think sterile is not out of the question.
Ed Rooney
Well-Known Member
Pebbled Cowhide
ausreenactor
Well-Known Member
Interesting to see the sizes that are selling out on the Exchange page? Unless they went really low quantities in the less common sizes?
I know big Army will mess it up. They took away our pickle suits, took away the CWU jackets, won’t allow us to wear unit patches on the flight suit tops anymore, etc.
Might try to wear my ELC with Bs and see if anyone says anything.
I’m gonna order my AGSUs after Christmas and take a pic in the same pose as my grandfather in his Army Aircorps pinks and greens photo in 1943.
Might try to wear my ELC with Bs and see if anyone says anything.
I’m gonna order my AGSUs after Christmas and take a pic in the same pose as my grandfather in his Army Aircorps pinks and greens photo in 1943.
Ed Rooney
Well-Known Member
I think the AGSU early adopters are getting exploited. Prices are so high. A $40 garrison cap? $22 belt?
ausreenactor
Well-Known Member
This is why the good guys won the War(s)!
Ed Rooney
Well-Known Member
Ed Rooney
Well-Known Member
Did you ever wear the pickle suit? I thought it was gone by about 2005.
I was on flight status, as an observer and a crew chief, in the Guard for 10 years. Ipretty much wore the green flight suit, the CWU-45, and the tanker jacket the entire time. ABDUs started trickling in at the end, but just for the crews who went to Bosnia.
The flight suit could be great, and it could also be a drag. It was hot in the summer, and offered no insulation whatsoever in the winter. It was not a huge problem for most drill weekends or weekday AFTPs, but wearing that thing at Fort Polk for JRTC in July was not fun. I guess BDUs weren’t fun then either.
On the flip side, it was a good uniform for actually flying. It was easy to get in and out of and no one bitched at us for our sleeves or having a BDU cap or a sectional hanging out of a pocket - except at Rucker, of course.
As far as bodily functions, going #1 was easy - just unzip from the bottom and go. #2 was a bit of an adventure. You would have to roll the flight suit inside itself so it would not lay on the floor of the latrine. Those port-a-potties or a cat hole in the field were even worse.
All in all, my impression was that most crew chiefs would rather have a 2-piece, due to being out in the sun in the flight line all day and wanting to take off the top, whereas pilots and observers preferred the traditional coverall flight suit. I lived in both worlds.
I was on flight status, as an observer and a crew chief, in the Guard for 10 years. Ipretty much wore the green flight suit, the CWU-45, and the tanker jacket the entire time. ABDUs started trickling in at the end, but just for the crews who went to Bosnia.
The flight suit could be great, and it could also be a drag. It was hot in the summer, and offered no insulation whatsoever in the winter. It was not a huge problem for most drill weekends or weekday AFTPs, but wearing that thing at Fort Polk for JRTC in July was not fun. I guess BDUs weren’t fun then either.
On the flip side, it was a good uniform for actually flying. It was easy to get in and out of and no one bitched at us for our sleeves or having a BDU cap or a sectional hanging out of a pocket - except at Rucker, of course.
As far as bodily functions, going #1 was easy - just unzip from the bottom and go. #2 was a bit of an adventure. You would have to roll the flight suit inside itself so it would not lay on the floor of the latrine. Those port-a-potties or a cat hole in the field were even worse.
All in all, my impression was that most crew chiefs would rather have a 2-piece, due to being out in the sun in the flight line all day and wanting to take off the top, whereas pilots and observers preferred the traditional coverall flight suit. I lived in both worlds.
Nope never wore one. I joined in 07 and didn’t go through flight school until 2011-12. Had the ACU patterned two piece to start and got the OCP issued when we went to the sandbox in 2016. Every other branch seems to do just fine with the one piece green. Even the Marine corps who says every man a rifleman first. Just a big waste of money since even though the reasoning was to make us look like regular army I always get people commenting on it when I’m not in an AV unit because it looks different.
Ed Rooney
Well-Known Member
Apparently the Air Force can wear the OCP 2-piece in non-ejection seat aircraft. My question is this - do the UAS pilots or space command people who wore nomex flight suits and leather A-2s while in their trailers wear the nomex OCP now? I never understood those guys wearing flight suits.
Jake431
Member
I know the Army has had troubles keeping/getting chopper pilots, perhaps giving them some style could help?
Ed Rooney
Well-Known Member
A rational person would say that, but the Army is not rational.
The Army way is to simultaneously make it difficult for people who want to stay, and for people who want to go. They basically told most of the OH-58D pilots to go pound sand, we don’t need you. Recently, they have increased the service commitment after flight school to 10 years. A rational service, faced with a pilot shortage, would retrain as many OH-58D pilots as possible; but somewhere at Ft Rucker or Redstone, someone has calculated that retraining aviators on a different airframe is not as good as making new aviators stay longer. It’s as if the decision to get rid of the 58D was so bad that they wanted to erase anyone who ever flew it so there would be no institutional memory of the aircraft.
Meanwhile, anyone who is serious about a career as a pilot is avoiding the Army like a plague. GI Bill will basically cover civilian vocational flight training, so the smart kids who want to eventually fly for the airlines are enlisting for 4 years as a mechanic or whatever and attending a civilian flight school.
Of course Covid has screwed up the airlines now, so any young people who want that as a career should be slapped around and then sent to cybersecurity training.
The Army way is to simultaneously make it difficult for people who want to stay, and for people who want to go. They basically told most of the OH-58D pilots to go pound sand, we don’t need you. Recently, they have increased the service commitment after flight school to 10 years. A rational service, faced with a pilot shortage, would retrain as many OH-58D pilots as possible; but somewhere at Ft Rucker or Redstone, someone has calculated that retraining aviators on a different airframe is not as good as making new aviators stay longer. It’s as if the decision to get rid of the 58D was so bad that they wanted to erase anyone who ever flew it so there would be no institutional memory of the aircraft.
Meanwhile, anyone who is serious about a career as a pilot is avoiding the Army like a plague. GI Bill will basically cover civilian vocational flight training, so the smart kids who want to eventually fly for the airlines are enlisting for 4 years as a mechanic or whatever and attending a civilian flight school.
Of course Covid has screwed up the airlines now, so any young people who want that as a career should be slapped around and then sent to cybersecurity training.
Jake431
Member
What's the post service career look like for a helicopter pilot with the airlines, anyway? I can't imagine it's great. If you want to fly helicopters, I can understand why you'd choose Army, since you're all but guaranteed to get your choice, whereas in the Navy/Marines/Coast Guard, you might wind up flying COD even if you ask for attack helicopters. But I never figured there was much airline work for chopper pilots.
