downsizer - a stable belt isn’t an instant combat indicator of “prickness”, rather more someone’s attitude is. The stable belt is a personal expense item and so you don’t have to wear one, you can just go with the nasty nylon green belt (not allowed webbing belts anymore) with your PCS or the cheap blue belt with the brass buckle if you like.
mopardave - the ‘reserved’ thing is a bit of guff really. The RN and the Army have displayed all sorts of things on shirts, jumpers and jackets over the years. The RAF as the junior Service made a fairly strong start on uniforms and then it all went wrong around the 1970s and 1980s. Prior to this the RAF had a ceremonial dress, No 1 and RAF War Service Dress (originally created for Aircrew only in 1939/40, but was so popular it was rolled out to the other Branches and Trades in 1943) - sometimes incorrectly termed Battledress, here it is worn by ACM Tedder:
This was the No 2 Dress until 1975/76 when the “Woolley-Pulley” came along. Prior to this WSD went through a non-hairy variant and then the ‘72 pattern Thunderbird Jacket - all with medal ribbons, flying badges and other qualification badges (MRT, Para, Marksman, FMO, AS, etc…etc…). The dreaded wooley-pulley dispensed with everything in one go, with not even flying badges in the early days, and only a few stalwarts continued to wear the Thunderbird Jacket until the early 1990s when it too was replaced by the General Purpose Jacket (GPJ) - the latter, yet again, sans any medal ribbons, badges or other insignia. Here is the 72 pattern ‘Thunderbird Jacket’:
So really, the bland ness of the RAF uniform is something from the past 30 years or so. The previous 80 years has seen ribbons and badges on a daily basis. Why was that? It was done on the CHEAP, that is why. For Officers, who pay for uniform, they were trying to save a few quid and for the other ranks then the cost of Crown-tailoring with ribbons and badges was saved. So this was nothing more than doing it on the CHEAP and boy are we paying for it now - compared to RAC staff or bus conductors, you can understand why…
At least with the stable belt there is a little bit of colour that identifies us from afar as being in the Air Forces of the Crown!
