Stand by for another 5Mb spam-mail from them then… sigh…
actually we could get it - we’d just walk into a surplus store and buy it, or pop down to our local station/barracks and rob their bins, and produce a gaunt, tear-stained cadet and try and prick their concience in to giving us some freebees.
much later on it was issued to Sqns, but we could get hold of it long before that.
MTP is different - it appears unlikely that we’ll be able to ‘procure’ it through the normal (for us) channels, and it also appears unlikely that we’ll be able to buy it commercialy.
hence cadets in threadbare DPM’s that don’t fit, a DPM jacket with Alta Vista trousers, maybe some lightweights kicking about, and perhaps something from the desert.
the problem, as noted about, is that there was always going to be a DPM - MTP change-over problem given the MOD purchace and disposal policy, but HQAC made no attempt whtsoever to come up with a solution. unless, of course, you are cynical enough to believe that HQAC’s intention all along was to engineer a situation where the wearing of ‘combats’ became all but impossible, and therefore the activities tht require the wearing of ‘combats’ would similarly fall by the wayside.
of course, thats ridiculous given HQAC’s and RHQ’s long-standing efforts to make shooting and feildcraft easier to do and more widespread throughout the Corps. oh, hang on…[/quote]
I remember when CS95 first came out we had to wear OG’s as we were not allowed to wear it even if you did buy it it took at least 5 to 6 years before we were allowed and finally got hold of it (2001ish)I remember people going on about not having enough greens in the system exactly the same way as they are with MTP.
£55 for a smock, £25 for trousers and £21 for a jacket, all grade 1? This is why I call it “Cadet Ripoff”.
i don’t know where you were, but i started wearing DPM when i joined the ATC in 1987. i wasn’t aware of anyone not being allowed to wear it for feildwork/shooting etc… local throbber problem perhaps?
[quote=“angus” post=9093]i don’t know where you were, but i started wearing DPM when i joined the ATC in 1987. [/quote]He’s talking about CS95, not previous patterns of DPM uniform.
Yep thats what I mean we always had DPM trousers and jackets but with OG shirts, LW trousers and jumpers etc. but we couldnt wear CS95’s
when i started as a Cadet i too was in OG shirts with DPM trousers…the last of the pre-CS95 stuff was being issued then…
Stand by for another 5Mb spam-mail from them then… sigh…[/quote]
As if on cue…my inbox has just been graced by Rip-Off Direct, telling me about the MTP that the ATC doesn’t (yet) need to know about…
we did, as soon as they became ‘availble’, either commercially or through the disposals process, we wore CS95 in exacly the same way as we wore legacy kit - mixed up with '68 pattern and '85 pattern. the CS95 shirts were marginally more regulated so as to try and effect some semblance of uniformity when either in public or at wing events, but that was it - trousers, smocks, fleeces, waterproofs; all got flung into the mix.
I joined the ACF in 2001 and even then we weren’t issued 95s. Those of us with too much pocket money to spend bought some CS95 odds and ends. I remember tipping up to my first annual camp in a CS95 ripstop jacket when everyone else was wearing the old “94s”. For us it was the height of ally! 
I left the ATC to join the RAF in 2001 that was the first time I got my hands on CS95’s. 95 till 2001 that’s six years without having CS95’s issued through cadet channels at least. I would think same sort of time scale if not longer for MTP.
that is a worrying long time to consider using the kit we have currently without provision for guaranteed replacement…
There is a real misconception here. CS95 will never be replaced by the ATC. Because no-one was ever issued it! How can they replace what we officially don’t have?
The good news is, because the MOD has now decided to allow MTP to be released on the surplus market, there is now no longer the problem of obtaining new clothing in the future which the more sensible among us have been fearing, there is an option, and we, the world renowned scroungers of the ATC and RAFVR(T) can carry on as we always have, operating in the shadows using our chief weapons of fear, surprise and chocolate biscuits.
The issue has now changed. Whereas before last week the prohibition in 1358C on MTP made sense because obtaining MTP was ostensibly an offence. It is now purely a dress issue. When CS95 came out, phasing it in could be done gradually as DPM camouflage was a constant throughout. MTP cannot be phased in gradually in the same discreet way because mixed dress will be a darn sight more noticeable.
The question is therefore how do we do it? Unit by unit to me seems the most sensible way if we are to avoid mixed dress in an obvious manner. Once you’ve “acquired” enough to kit out your squadron. (And let’s face it, some could do that next week if they tried hard enough.) Then you can transfer over. If done on an individual basis, it should be made clear that you cannot mix MTP & DPM on the same person.
i guess a bit like the system used to roll out the L98A2 working from the north of the country south…if HQAC/Wings can secure X number of garments, at a time these are distributed out to the parishes, confirmed to be adequate stock then the next allocation is considered