Uniforms of The United States Air Force - Civil Air Patrol

Civil Air Patrol

Personnel of the Civil Air Patrol (CAP), the all-volunteer civilian auxiliary of the United States Air Force, are permitted to wear certain Air Force uniforms with distinctive CAP markings and insignia. Senior Members (age 18 and older) may only wear Air Force style uniforms if they meet military grooming and slightly modified military weight standards. Cadets (age 12–21) must only meet military grooming standards until their 18th birthday, at which time they must meet both military grooming and military weight standards. Members who don't meet Air Force standards may wear alternate CAP-specific uniforms.

Air Force uniforms authorized for wear by Civil Air Patrol members include Service Dress, Mess Dress (for Senior Members only), the woodland camouflage Battle Dress Uniform (BDU), the green Nomex flight suit, and the CWU-45P green Nomex flight jacket, the latter two items being restricted to aircrew only. CAP distinctive markings include gray "soft rank" shoulder loop insignia for CAP officers for use with the duty uniform, as opposed to the similar dark blue "soft rank" shoulder loops of Air Force officers. This insignia is also worn by CAP officers on the Service Dress coat, whereas Air Force officers wear pin-on metal rank insignia. The CAP Mess Dress uniform is also distinctive in that the parallel braid stripes on shoulder boards for CAP Senior Member officers in the ranks of Major General and below worn on Mess Dress uniforms, and the sleeve braid for all CAP Senior Member officer ranks, are dark blue cloth versus the silver metallic cloth worn by Air Force officers.

Cadet enlisted uniforms also differ in rank placement, with collar pins instead of the sewn sleeve chevrons traditionally worn by enlisted Air Force members. Cadet officers wear dark blue "soft rank" shoulder loops similar to USAF officers on duty uniform shirts, but wear distinctive hard shoulder board insignia on the Service Dress coat in a manner similar to OTS officer trainees and AFROTC and USAFA cadets.

Currently, CAP senior members and cadets also wear the BDU with blue and white name tapes and ultramarine blue and white/yellow rank insignia, similar to what was worn by United States Air Force personnel on the since-discontinued solid green Air Force fatigue uniforms of the 1960s and 1970s. These changes are made to reduce confusion in identifying the military members of the Active Duty Air Force, the Air Force Reserve and the Air National Guard and to differentiate the civilian members of CAP as the U.S. Air Force Auxiliary. With the October 2011 phaseout of the BDU by all U.S. Air Force personnel, the Air Force is in the process of determining the distinctive insignia provisions that will permit CAP to also integrate into the ABU.