Originally Posted by
Doug E Style
I was thinking exactly the same. If you’re that bothered about a little bit of fabric on your shoulders, you need to have a word with yourself.
Stripes are usually an external indication of experience. A skipper on first meeting an FO is going to have a different first impression if they have two stripes compared to three despite it having increasingly less bearing on actual experience. It’s something worthy of discussion when almost every other operator uses two to denote a position such as cadet/second officer or experience <1500/<3000hrs, and given how low commands are going I presume there are now many 2 stripers sitting in the left seat during their upgrades.