Airmen wearing flight suits are now allowed to roll up their sleeves to their elbows -- most of the time.
A Jan. 23 memo from Lt. Gen. Mark Nowland, deputy chief of staff for operations, said that, effective immediately, airmen wearing the flight duty uniform or its desert variant can roll up or pull up their sleeves if they're not performing in-flight duties.
When a pilot, navigator or other air crew member wearing a flight duty uniform pulls up his or her sleeves, Nowland said that they must be held in place with the Velcro strap attached to the flight suit. Sleeves must end at or within one inch of the natural bend of the elbow when the airman's arms hang naturally to the side, he wrote.
But when performing aircrew duties in-flight, Nowland said sleeves must still be rolled down to the wrist.
The memo was first posted on the unofficial Air Force amn/nco/snco Facebook page on Saturday, and the Air Force confirmed Nowland did send the memo.
"The flight suit sleeve policy was updated to align with the Airman Battle Uniform coat (shirt) wear policy," Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek said in an email.
Air Force spokesman Maj. Bryan Lewis said that airmen were already allowed to roll their flight suit sleeves under once, and that the pulling up of sleeves was the major change.
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.
