General Mark Welsh just cemented his “rock star” status as Chief of Staff of the US Air Force. Though it took nearly 18 months, General Welsh has finally sent the ban on morale uniform items the way of Blues Monday [emphasis added]:

Morale T-shirts/patches representing individual squadrons that were worn in the past to increase unit pride are now authorized to wear on Fridays. Squadron color T-shirts may be worn with the ABU or flight suit when in-garrison or on-station during unit temporary duty assignments and contingency deployments…

The nuance to the victory here is that in years past, most morale uniform items (colored unit shirts, morale patches, etc.) were unofficial — ie, the regulation didn’t say you couldn’t, so people did — and stretched the limits of the rules as a result. This was then “fixed” by new regulations specifically banning “morale” items. Now, General Welsh has explicitly authorized those same items.

The new AFI even specifically authorizes “tab” patches, which Read more