Folks find it strange that I travel to and from my Reserve duty in uniform. In this week’s case, I didn’t have an official appointment as soon as I landed; I didn’t have to report to duty as soon as I landed either. Nonetheless, I have found it beneficial in so many ways.<\/p>\n
1.) Air Force Airman Battle Uniforms (ABUs) take up a lot of space in a suitcase. Those boots take up the same space as 2-3 pair of civilian shoes! Wear the boots, bring more civilian shoes with me! A lot of people thank me for my service during these trips. Folks also say “Welcome Home” to me…assuming I’m coming off a rotator flight or something. I used to REALLY be embarrassed by those statements, particularly before I took my own post-9\/11 deployment (albeit a short one). I used to think I didn’t deserve those statements, but since folks only see me as a representation of the entire US Air Force, I tend to take it more as their thanking the Armed Forces in general. Now I just say a simple “Thank YOU” back — since they’re paying my salary and all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Folks find it strange that I travel to and from my Reserve duty in uniform. In this week’s case, I didn’t have an official appointment as soon as I landed; I didn’t have to report to duty as soon as I landed either. Nonetheless, I have found it beneficial in so many ways. 1.) Air […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[],"tags":[13,616],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5ycQ0-9b","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":134,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2008\/05\/greys-anatomy-my-soapbox.html","url_meta":{"origin":569,"position":0},"title":"Grey’s Anatomy — My Soapbox","date":"09 May 08","format":false,"excerpt":"Grey's Anatomy is my favorite show. Now it's going to have to struggle to keep my loyalty.Let's start here.I was very very shocked to see them put one of the gay lovers in a no-kidding Army uniform, complete with 2nd Infantry Division unit patch and combat patch (by the way,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"air force\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3789,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2015\/05\/the-state-of-things.html","url_meta":{"origin":569,"position":1},"title":"The State of Things","date":"21 May 15","format":false,"excerpt":"I've purposefully been elusive about my employment status. Family and close friends know most of what I'm up to, but even they haven't heard the latest. So here's a summary. Tomorrow\u00a0is my last duty\u00a0day in my current employment: as a temporary civilian instructor in the Department of Physics at the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"air force reserve\"","img":{"alt_text":"IMG_2464 (1)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/IMG_2464-1-e1432234561552-1024x799.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":301,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2009\/01\/combat-crocs.html","url_meta":{"origin":569,"position":2},"title":"Combat Crocs?","date":"14 January 09","format":false,"excerpt":"The base has a pretty clear policy about what kinds of shoes you can wear around here. Boots in your uniform, athletic shoes with your physical fitness gear. But there's also a provision for wearing alternate shoes in your physical fitness (PT) gear if they meet certain safety standards: Black\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"air force reserves\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":294,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2009\/01\/are-you-in-the-real-army.html","url_meta":{"origin":569,"position":3},"title":""Are You in the REAL Army???"","date":"06 January 09","format":false,"excerpt":"At the gate in Omaha, a little boy (7-8 years old, I would guess) came up to me and asked,\"Are you in the REAL Army?\" \u00a0My answer was \"Actually, I'm in the Air Force\". And I pointed to my uniform where it reads \"U.S. Air Force\". He said \"Cool!\" and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"air force\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":385,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2009\/08\/what-is-a-military-wife.html","url_meta":{"origin":569,"position":4},"title":"What is a Military Wife?","date":"13 August 09","format":false,"excerpt":"This was sent to me by an Air Force wife who's soon leaving us for (I think) Florida. Or was it New Mexico?**********************************************************************************What is a Military Wife?*By Jane Hubbard HydeA Military wife can be tough to describe.She is a southern belle, a northeastern mets fan, a California 3rd generation re-cycler,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"air force wife\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2138,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2013\/06\/the-dallas-airport-uso.html","url_meta":{"origin":569,"position":5},"title":"The Dallas Airport USO","date":"07 June 13","format":false,"excerpt":"Whenever I fly to Nebraska for my Air Force Reserve duties**, I tend to rotate among the three airlines that fly between my local airports here and Omaha: Delta, American and United. **Once we get to Colorado, flying to my Air Force duties will no longer be my only option.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"air force\"","img":{"alt_text":"It's tradition.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/IMG_6344-e1370577295812-1024x378.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
2.) Airlines that waive baggage check fees for military members take one look at you in a uniform and don’t ask any more questions. Military members don’t get charged to check a bag on a lot of carriers (such as Delta<\/a>). You can produce travel orders and get the waiver even in civilian clothes, but one can just save the time by wearing the uniform.
3.) In the security line, most TSA personnel won’t make a military member look foolish by stripping off his\/her coat and boots in front of everyone. Unless you have steel-toed boots, but then they ought to let you go through the aircrew line. Again, it saves time.
4.) When the airline loses your luggage and won’t deliver it until the following morning<\/a>, you can report to your first day of duty in a uniform, instead of in the civilian clothing you wore on the flight…and probably slept in that night.
5.) There’s nothing to be ashamed of and I’m not wrong in wearing them. The Chief of Staff of the Air Force set guidance in December 2008 allowing official travel on civilian commercial airlines in ABUs. Some don’t agree with that guidance for assorted reasons, but since it’s allowed, it’s just easier for me.<\/p>\n