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Unraveling the confusion over buying ABUs

A staff sergeant at a missile base out west recently found himself down to only two presentable battle dress uniforms, so he decided it was time to buy some new threads. But it wasn’t so easy to do that.

The Air Force is phasing out the BDU in favor of the new airman battle uniform, so the sergeant, who asked not to be identified, figured he might as well upgrade to the latest and greatest.

As at most bases, the military clothing sales store didn’t have any ABUs in stock and didn’t know when they would get any. So the sergeant did what we all do these days and turned to the Internet.

ABU Buying Guide

After receiving assurances from a manufacturer selling ABUs online that its commercial version of the uniform is identical to those sold through Army and Air Force Exchange Services stores, the airman dropped $130 and had his new ABU a few days later.

“When I got it, I compared it to a set a buddy of mine bought through AAFES, and they’re identical,” the staff sergeant said. “I couldn’t tell anything different.”

In fact, the Air Force says, the uniforms, both legally manufactured by Propper International, are identical.

But the one sold through AAFES is manufactured in the U.S. The one sold commercially on Propper’s Web site is made in the Dominican Republic.

Not a big deal to the staff sergeant, but apparently quite a big deal to the woman working at the base alteration shop. When he took his ABUs to have his name and stripes sewed on, the clerk at the shop refused his business.

“She said they were unauthorized illegal uniforms,” he said. “She refused to do them.”

The staff sergeant and the woman at the alteration shop aren’t the only ones confused, and the question of which ABUs are authorized isn’t the only issue. Other reported problems include widespread shortages of both ABUs and BDUs — leaving many airmen who need an extra set of battle uniforms in a quandary — as well as problems with unauthorized, fake ABUs. But Lt. Col. Shawna Morrill, chief of the Air Force’s uniforms and recognition branch, said the issues are isolated and are to be expected.

“That’s part of a transition,” she said. “We’ve had a couple issues ... since we are in a transition [when] both the BDU and the ABU are authorized uniforms.”

What’s authorized — or not, it turns out that “authorized uniform” is a tricky term.

Morrill said the only ABUs authorized to be purchased with government funds are those sold through AAFES.

A law called the Berry Amendment requires that uniforms — like other goods purchased by the military with government funds — be made in the U.S.

That is why ABUs sold through AAFES are made in Puerto Rico — a U.S. territory. When units buy ABUs for their airmen, they must go through AAFES.

But that restriction does not apply to individual airmen using their own money — including their clothing allowances, which are considered personal funds.

The Air Force has issued licenses allowing Propper and five other manufacturers to produce and sell commercial versions of the ABU that do not need to be made in the U.S. These ABUs are identical in material and workmanship to the AAFES uniforms, an Air Force official said.

Airmen are allowed to purchase and wear these uniforms, Morrill said.

It’s a way for airmen to get around the battle uniform shortage if they need an authorized battle uniform — whether ABU or BDU — right now.

But Morrill said buying ABUs through non-AAFES outlets is a buyer-beware situation. “We are telling people ... that [what we] spend our personal funds on is our business,” she said, “so if I go to a [non-AAFES] vendor, I essentially need to be a savvy consumer and make sure it’s a viable uniform. “If there is a problem with the uniform, the Air Force can’t do anything to help you,” she said. “You are on your own. You still have to have the right number of uniforms.”

Morrill said that might be a bigger concern for airmen preparing to deploy than for those at their home stations. “If you’re deploying in it, you’re much smarter to let the unit ... get your ABUs for you through supported channels,” she said.

“For people in offices stateside, [it’s] not as big a deal.”

Perhaps the biggest problem, Morrill said, is that existing supplies of BDUs are running out before AAFES can get ABUs onto the shelves.

ABUs have thus far been available primarily to airmen deploying to the Middle East, and only 30,000 sets have been distributed to 13 or 14 AAFES stores. Morrill said a broad roll-out planned for the fall was delayed because of a backlog of orders to fill for airmen about to deploy. About 66,000 ABUs were distributed in September to airmen deploying with Air and Space Expeditionary Force 9/10, monopolizing most of the available inventory.

But AAFES will send a shipment of about 25,000 ABUs to most of its military clothing sales stores in mid-November, said Maj. Brian Schooley, program manager for Air Force military clothing for AAFES.

That is still likely to fall short of demand, and Schooley could not speculate about when ABUs will be routinely and readily available in stores.

Also, the class of 800 new airmen that entered basic military training Oct. 3 at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, was the first to be issued four sets of ABUs rather than BDUs. They will be the first airmen to spend their entire careers in ABUs.

An ABU milestone to be sure, but it further depletes the number of ABUs available for the everyday airman.

“The emphasis has been on putting it on the backs of the deployers first, and the basic trainees started getting issued it this month ... so the military clothing stores are kind of the tertiary priority for getting the ABUs,” Schooley said.

“That’s part of the reason it’s been kind of slow getting out there for people to buy.”

But between that steady stream of new airmen and the upcoming push by AAFES to get more ABUs in stores, digital tiger-stripes will soon no longer be a rarity on stateside bases.

There also have been isolated reports of substandard, knockoff ABUs produced illegally by unlicensed manufacturers. Even though it’s hard to tell the difference between official or licensed commercial ABUs and fakes, officials from the Air Force, AAFES and Defense Supply Center Philadelphia — responsible for producing the uniforms — say there are important reasons you should avoid the fakes.

Foremost among these is that the workmanship is likely to be shoddy. Defense Supply Center Philadelphia tests and approves the quality of uniforms made by all official suppliers, and licensed commercial versions are made to the same specifications. Fake uniforms may have weak seams, cheap fabric or colors that bleed when washed.

It is also a safety issue. Knock-off uniforms may be made with cheaper fabric that has more polyester content, which could pose a fire hazard, and they are less likely to have the official and licensed ABUs’ protections against being visible to night-vision goggles. The official and licensed uniforms are designed with a low near-infrared signature so they will be harder to see with night-vision.

Other signs of a fake ABU are seams that aren’t doubled up, loose threads, a blurry camouflage pattern and discontinuity in the camouflage pattern between the sleeves and the body section of the blouse.

The best way to avoid a fake ABU is to buy only through AAFES and licensed commercial manufacturers such as Propper.

The Air Force hopes to eliminate some of the confusion in the future by developing a certification system for Air Force-licensed commercial versions of the ABU, Morrill said, but it is still early in that process.

DISCUSS: Getting the new ABUs