Standards
 

Have changed……

Back in the 1970s, an officer who lived in the Mess at Lossiemouth had two suits made by a local tailor - one was orange and the other bright green. One Monday evening (it was compulsory to wear a suit for dining on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays with a sports jacket and trousers permitted on Wednesdays), he arrived in the bar wearing his orange suit. He was immediately counselled by the PMC who ordered him to change. On Tuesday he turned up wearing the green suit and was again reprimanded by the PMC and forbidden to wear the suits again. Wednesday arrived and the said officer was found in the bar wearing the orange jacket and the green trousers. On being scolded by the PMC who reminded him that he was ordered not to wear the suits again, he countered by pointing out that he was not wearing a suit because the jacket and trousers did not match. Of such things, 28 days Orderly Officer are born (although there is not much else to do at Lossiemouth on a winters' evening).

A certain 33 Sqn pilot (I will call him Rex Green) had an old number one jacket tailored down to a battledress style (when we were all in the Thunderbird days). He delighted in flashing the brilliant vermillion lining around the squadron, raising eyebrows* as he went!

CG

* A reserved character was Rex, never raising eyebrows otherwise. (Yeah right!)

Shocking! What next? Female Officers wearing trousers?

A certain RAF navigator of my acquaintance had a suit of canary yellow and one of lime green. Same story as the OPs, but the other end of the U.K.

SAME chap also managed to fall asleep in the suspended ceiling of the Officers Mess bar at RAF Aldergrove. The next morning his presence up there caused the cleaner some consternation!

His bear also flew with him.

lsh

The officer in Question at Lossie was posted to helicopters - I think Chinooks. No doubt the same person who had kept his wardrobe.

Some options here if anyone feels inspired: https://www.opposuits.com/men/suits.html

An ex-colleague had (actually, probably still has) a bright orange suit to show himself off as a proud Dutch bloke. Raised quite a few eyebrows amongst his UK colleagues. Nowhere near as bad as mustard-coloured socks of course....

I remember one of our instructors many years ago, expressing shock horror . "Cadet X has a steel-grey suit..and a red lining to his No1 jacket". I have a grey suit (not steel-grey) and my black going-to-funerals suit has a red lining to the jacket. In honour of the chap whose funeral I bought the suit for. Not the same man. Does anyone remember having to wear a trilby in civvies, so one could raise it to officers and their ladies? Man, I must be getting old.

I have a Tilley hat that I doff to ladies when I am out hiking. Scares the bejazus out of some them. :eek:

Had a boss who on a previous tour as a sqn cdr at Marham in Victor days had remonstrated with one of his flt cdrs. Said sqn cdr was not certain which was the greater offence: washing his own car on his driveway on the patch or failing to wear a hat while doing so.

The Nav in question (nice colour in suits) was on my crew on 8 Sqn for a while before I went rotary. He was also my 'co-pilot'/RHS when we took a Chinook up to 8 Sqn for an open day, with an ex 8 Sqn engineer down the back. The Squadron was more than a bit surprised to find an 8 Sqn crew on the 7 Sqn Chinook - but I can't remember what colour suit he wore in the mess that night.
There was only one M.G.

Drummed into us at Dartmouth [one couldn't "Go Ashore" without one.]. Likewise at Feltwell Comprehensive.

Late night IOT rations for the guys from Dirty Dick's caff across the road ... we would head out, with orders in writing, suitably attired. And then join in with 'Dick' in the kitchen, suitably divested of hats and coats, to generate mass frying to take Banjos various back to the Barrack Block. Bow ties optional. It was a great 'levelling' experience, and a valuable lesson in 'looking after your mates'.

MFCG was on Victors before he went to 8 Sqn. It was definitely yellow and green suits at Lossie and I thought that it was the station commander and not the PMC with whom he had the discussions. After Chinooks he fulfilled an Ops job on a squadron that I was on at a certain Wiltshire base until he retired. And along the way he married a Wing Commander! A phenomenal character and one of the nicest people I have ever met. I must get in touch again ….

If I remember correctly (no guarantee!), when we arrived at OCTU, Jurby, in mid 50's, we were asked if we possessed suitable civilian headgear, if the answer was no (pretty general!), the next day the Station tailor had a queue outside his "shop" and issued suitable headgear (trilby) to all. In hindsight it was quite a novel and amusing experience! Those were the days (I think!!!).

Bill

Our DS at Staff College, an Army Officer, assured us that should we ever see two of his colleagues dressed the same we could be sure that one was an imposter.

When I was DS at Staff College the Army said much the same thing about the RAF.

The RAF officers at Topcliffe c. 1965 certainly wore Trilbys ... there were several such events where attendance was deemed "recommended".
Fortunately, this civvy owned one: his father had deemed it essential when sonny boy left home.
After many mid-life hatless years, and much hair loss, I now rather like a hat with a brim: three of mine are German, such as Adolf Schicklgruber wore, grey, black and a sort of khaki.

Isn't there some excitement over standards of dress at Lossie at the moment? Something about sim drivers wandering around unzipped.

Upper or lower?

Male or female?

Loss of uniform, as distinct from civilian, hat, was a real problem for me when I 'went civvy'. I've always had a poor memory, so I used to write reminder notes and fit them inside my hat - hence constant reminders. Ground instructing with BA and Virgin was non-uniform thus occasional chaos - such as turning up at Sussex House and our lovely Lxxxx asking why I wasn't at the Heathrow sim !!!:eek:
Crawley to Cranebank was quite speedy !! :=

Aargh, those wretched hats! We had to wear them at RAFC whilst Flt Cdts. Compulsory in town in Lincoln, Grantham and Sleaford too - but not Newark!

The sight of a number of shaven-headed Junior Entry marching down to the Cadets' garage hangar to brush it out on Saturday morning was...unusual. Pale blue tracksuits....and hats various.

On being commissioned as APOs, we had a mass hat fire on the JMPG!

BEagle. Funnily enough, I was just remembering the banality of marching smartly in blue tracksuit with trilby or similar on the way up to rugby training, and the thrill of trying to make it back to the Junior Mess in darkness whilst risking being hatless. Always failed - the hat-sensing SNCOs could spot a bare head at half a mile, even in fog! I can still remember overhearing a local in Sleaford saying to his mate "Yer, there goes one of them Nit-hats!" Summed it up very succinctly.

Remember one time he was nav on a VIP trip in Norn Iron.

VIP was a keen golfer; as the aircraft flew over one of NI's many golf courses he remarked:

VIP: "Apparently down there (pointing) is the best hole in Northern Ireland!"

MG: "I beg to differ Sir.........."

Funny what you remember about headwear, in my case it was a fellow OUT being loudly torn off a strip for wearing his cap in the Senior Gunroom at HMP Dartmouth rather than for not wearing a hat 'ashore'. Following the lecture on dress I expected a reprimand for wearing a suit which was clearly too light a shade of grey, it never happened, I was obviously too conservative in my rule breaking. How going everywhere in dark suits, shiny shoes and very short hair stopped the IRA realising we were in 'government service' I never knew.

As to today's standards - they'll be permitting officers to carry their purchases and males to wear black tie in mixed company next.

and brown in town of course

Great dits about the good old days of hats, gentlemen. Keep 'em coming.
I remember clearly when doing the Pre-assessment course at Hornchurch in 1955, the only bloke who wore a trilby was the "snoop" !
My "ratter" , when it was raining, was just about accepted. The deerstalker was definitely out.
The sneaky didn't make many friends I recall.........

What about suede shoes? On Joint Service tour I had an RN Cdr taking a dim view of mine. I thought they were quite natty with sports jacket and flannels.

Not to mention button-down shirts!

I still rue my close encounter with the early zip flies.

A mistake nobody ever makes twice, unless tired and emotional.

40 years ago as an officer candidate in the "unified" Canadian Armed Forces we all had to wear the same green uniform. OK, if you were a Professional Pedestrian but not so great for someone like me who had joined Canada's Navy. The uniform was topped off with a particularly hideous tall green peak cap. In an effort to give it a bit of flair I sewed the sides of the top down to give it a pleasing curl and that "old salt" look. All was well until I was pulled up short by the Base Chief. To say he was not best pleased with me would be a considerable understatement, Oh well I guess I hadn't really wanted weekend leave for the nest month......

Pah ... I was told to get rid of my 30-yo SD Cap by a 3*. Or was he a 4*? Whichever, I seemed to forget due to emotional stress.

Oddly enough I recently bought in a sale a pair of Hacketts finest cords at about quarter price. I think it's the first pair of button flies I've owned since I was an Officer Cadet in hairy mary's in '61/62 !

Ah, buttons! That dates us! In the TV Room at OCTU, remembering that WRAF battledress tops fasten on the other side … nice lass, got married to a Pilot (of course) within a few months of her first posting!

On arrival at a new (fixed wing) posting I was summoned to the Station Commander's office, for a welcome chat. As it was a formal invitation I wore my SD hat (which to be fair had done some tours on Support Helicopters) and smartly saluted the said Group Captain.

First thing he said was that next time I was invited to his office I was to wear my best SD hat. I apologised and truthfully said "But this IS my best hat, Sir!"

"Not any more it isn't!" said he....

Five years after leaving the RAF and joining an airline I gave my SD cap to a neighbour's future Son in Law, who was in RAF and did have a smart enough lid to get married in!

Does anyone remember when the way to give an SD hat that 'curly' look was to leave it overnight in a flying boot - that was in the days when said boots had a top bit that was wide enough to be able to tuck your flying suit leg into it easily....

airsound

I was once on a course with Director Special Projects, a Brigadier, who later became a General. He had been Commanding Officer of the Black Watch RHR as a Lt Col. My background meant I was ’paired’ with him at the formal dinner. I realised the host was going to wind him up.

He was asked about the proposal, at the time, that all Highland regiments should give up their No. 1s (kilt, purse, hose, tabs, etc.) to save money. He spluttered into his pudding. He knew better than anyone that one of the prime reasons why this was always resisted was because of the Queen Mum’s brother. Host nudged me and asked my opinion.

‘Anyone who prepares his head gear by plucking a dead chicken, dying the feathers, and steaming them upside down in an egg cup, should be allowed to do what he wants, as he’s plainly mad’.

General Irwin poured me a large malt.

After 1982, my small, personal rebellion was to wear the top button of my tunic undone (in true WW2 fashion). It was noticed by senior officers on a number of occasions but after a quick glance at my medal ribbons, never remarked upon.

A certain CO of 72 squadron used to have apoplexy if anyone wore flying boots with uniform. He was involved in the development of the “summer” flying boot, which was produced in BROWN leather to remedy the problem (allegedly).

Mog