The blue wool pullover sweater is out — and some airmen aren’t happy about pullover sweaters as an optional uniform item.

They liked the pullover because it was warm and comfortable yet military looking. It’s beyond them why the Air Force would want to dump it for a looser-fitting V-neck made of an acrylic-wool blend, something that looks more suited for Dad sitting in front of the TV.

“We lost something when they did this,” retired Senior Master Sgt. Harold Simms, a former F-16 maintenance superintendent, said of the Air Force’s decision last month.

“Keep the old sweater,” echoed retired Air National Guard Brig. Gen. Fred Larson, a C-130 Hercules pilot. “Get rid of the constant messing around with the uniform.”


All the wear rules and uniform items, especially when they’re not written in the Air Force instruction, make it hard to keep track of what’s allowed. Personnel officials send out a message about each change, but AFI 36-2903 is updated only every few years — sometimes longer. Except for a few tweaks, the instruction reads the same as it did in 2006.

Word about the sweater hasn’t made it to everybody.

“Many Air Force are unaware their 100 percent wool sweaters are no longer legal,” Maj. Derek W. Beck, a member of the Reserve, wrote in an e-mail. “A co-worker saw one being worn” almost a month after the change.

The replacement is actually OK with Simms.

“There’s nothing wrong with the new sweater,” he said. “I just like the old one better and I can’t see any reason why troops can’t choose to wear it.”

The uniform board went with the 50/50 sweater — 50/50 stands for half acrylic, half wool — because it’s easier to wear and easier to take care of, said Maj. Jennifer S. Spires, an Air Force spokeswoman.

A lot of airmen don’t care how easy the new sweater is to keep clean. For them, ditching the old pullover is just another example of a service constantly fighting itself to establish its identity. It reminds them of the new motto, “Aim High … Fly-Fight-Win,” also announced in early October. What, they ask, is inspiring about two tired recruiting mottoes strung together?

The new motto and the new sweater, former airmen say, are appeals to the young at the expense of tradition.

The old pullover, they know, is a genuine Air Force tradition.

“The 100 percent wool sweater design harkens back to at least the World War II British ‘mountain sweater,’ although our design incorporated a V-neck,” Beck wrote. “In other words: This sweater design is as old as the Air Force itself.”

Beck, Simms, Larson and others aren’t upset about letting airmen have another sweater to wear. They’re upset about the Air Force taking away a bit of history, of taking away something they’ve always had.

The Air Force could have OK’d the 50/50 sweater and kept the old pullover. What harm would have been done in letting airmen have two choices?