From left, 1st Lt. Megan Schafer, Staff Sgt. Antwain Wright and Master Sgt. Scott Wagers show off different combinations of the new physical training uniform while jogging during the wear-test phase. The new uniform will be issued to airmen serving in Southwest Asia first and phased into the rest of the force over the next three years. (Efrain Gonzalez / Special to S&S)
ARLINGTON, Va. — The first airmen to get the Air Force’s new physical training uniform will be deployed airmen at the 11 fixed bases within U.S. Central Command’s area of responsibility, including some in Iraq, according to Air Force officials.
Air Force chief of staff Gen. John Jumper announced a new fitness standard for the Air Force in July 2003, and promised a new PT uniform to go with that standard, since the Air Force was the only service without standardized workout gear.
After a year of wear-testing by 300 airmen, Air Force leaders approved this fall the final design of the unisex uniform, which includes dark blue shorts, a gray T-shirt, and a matching, two-piece dark blue nylon running suit with a reflective Air Force logo on the jacket.
The service has yet to set a mandatory wear date for the PT uniforms.
The first shipment of the PT uniforms is on its way to the 18,000 airmen deployed to Southwest Asia who fall under U.S. Central Command Air Forces, or CENTAF, according to 1st Lt. Gary Arasin, a CENTAF spokesman at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C.
CENTAF is the Air Force branch of CENTCOM, the U.S. command responsible for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The reason deployed airmen are getting the PT gear first is because CENTAF’s commander, Lt. Gen. Buck Buchanan, said in June that any airman deployed to an Air Force installation in Southwest Asia would be allowed to wear just one of two outfits: desert camouflage uniforms or workout garb, Arasin said.
Limiting and standardizing the clothing airmen could take on deployments, Buchanan wrote in the policy letter at the time, would “portray a positive military image and … protect the personnel assigned to this command.”
However, because airmen are still allowed to wear whatever they wish to work out in, “people were bringing an entire wardrobe [of athletic gear on deployments] or bringing stuff that was inappropriate, like cut-off” shorts, Arasin said. Some of the clothing was so grungy “that it would be questionable here” in the United States, Arasin said, “and it was completely out of line in a foreign country.”
So “the best way to remedy the situation was to provide PT gear,” that has already been approved by Air Force leaders as modest and appropriate, Arasin said.
Buchanan provided for that solution back in June, saying in his letter that as soon as the official PT uniform was approved, it would be the standard for airmen deployed to CENTCOM.
After approving the PT design, Air Force leaders gave manufacturers the orders to start outfitting CENTAF’s deployed personnel. The first shipment of the new PT uniforms went out at the beginning of October, and should start arriving at the 11 unnamed “fixed bases at forward locations” in mid-November, Arasin said.
Go to www.af.mil/news/wear_policy.pdf (opens a PDF document) for guidelines on wearing the new PT uniform.
