...the USAF has gone to a new camo, a digital tiger stripe. . I am not a big wearer of camo, but if I were, this looks better to me than the digital that the USMC and US Army went to...

It wouldn't be my first choice.

Yeah, but silly me, I don't really want to hide, I just like pockets...

I don't ever wear camo, but if I did, I'd probably look at some of the civilian patterns developed for hunters. Something appropriate to my location.

Is it me, or do the new uniforms look like those godawfull baggy pajama pants with the garish colours from the 90s? And why do airmen need cammies in the first place? I mean, your working on a B 52 in the middle of an airstrip. Men used to push B 17s over Germany wearing ties.

"...why do airmen need cammies in the first place?...

Good question. My guess would be that since the other services have their own camo, the super wingnuts (as in the Generals with the farts and darts on their cap brims) wanted the AF to have its own too...

I do wear camouflage on occasion-Flecktarn for the most part.
If you want to see what the Army should have went with-look up Multicam
I think that the Army choice was made due to cost-pixels-ie:squares are much easier to produce on clothing that blotches and circles and three color camouflage is less expensive than 5 or 6 colors.
I still like the Marine Camouflage though.

Some (very few) AF guys and gals do have jobs that expose them to a strong possibility of ground combat. Naturally, the pukes in the rear blew it as far as choosing truly effective camoflage goes. Otherwise, it is just more utilitarian workwear.

Jeff

Pockets are fricken awesome!

When I was younger I had a flight jacket I wore ALL the time I stored all kinds of gear in EVERY pocket! I had bbs, darts, knives, and more, it was awesome!

I'm a storage freak! Even my bedroom, garage, truck, etc... tons of storage areas!

My first and last foray into paintball fighting revealed an assembly of cammie clad and green faced Rambos in more patterns than a stained glass window at Notre Dame. I wasn't about to get my Flektarn wrecked and wore this grey-green work shirt and pants and sort of rubbed dirt over my face. My 'group commander' held these tactical meetings between each session. I was usually the last to join, finding some relatively rare native plant as yet unstomped or indian artifact unseen on the ground. The one way conversation for 6 such briefings went " where is Kav, he's always the last to--- dammit! Chris! stop sneaking up behind me like that."

The project started in 2002 and has taken 5 years to complete, here is some camo I knocked up this evening on photoshop, anyone willing to make me a multimillion dollar offer for the rights,

What's funny is that the company has an apology to the airmen that will be using the uniform.

From the site:

"As determined by AF Leadership, advanced Battle features like easy entry slanted chest, arm, and leg cargo pockets, elbow and knee padding pockets, improved neck closure to keep debris out and to protect from body armor, gusseted shoulders for ease of movement, and most importantly... an authentic Battle ready advanced pixilated Tiger Stripe pattern and colorway are not needed for the 21st century U.S. Air Force.

"We're sorry. We wished we had the opportunity to give you an authentic Battle uniform with all the relevant features plus an effective camouflage design. At the very least you could have had a uniform with a State-of-the-Art pixilated Tiger Stripe pattern and colorway."

I actuall saw a set on a AF guy passing through DIA. They didn't look to shabby in real life.

"My first and last foray into paintball fighting revealed an assembly of cammie clad and green faced Rambos in more patterns than a stained glass window at Notre Dame. I wasn't about to get my Flektarn wrecked and wore this grey-green work shirt and pants and sort of rubbed dirt over my face."

Well whatever makes you guys happy I guess... I play paintball on a regular basis (speed, woods, and scenario) and I have yet to see anyone use face paint or rub dirt on their face. Before you swear off paintball may-be you should try it again only with a different group.

Ditto. Why in the world are you rubbing dirt on your face?? There's going to be a mask over it anyway. And you can't tell me that camo won't help in many of the situations? I always like the guys that wear their "Sponsored" paintball jerseys: usually black or yellow, loud, obnoxious, with a $400 gun. My $100 wacks them just as nicely, and I don't pour out $50 worth of paint per game. Honestly, those guys with the trigger-happy paint guns should just go to Home Depot and pick up a few gallons, then slosh it over the field. It'd probably be cheaper and more accurate!

Back to the topic at hand, at least the AF cammies are going to be more "camo" than the Navy's new duds:
http://media.hamptonroads.com/images/news/2006/03mar/NewNavyUniform.jpg

Interesting. It looks like in the OP's link that the AF was presented with some innovative options and a much more distinctive digital camo and they vetoed most of the options and went with a camo pattern that is not really digital.

I thought the most interesting part was that there were going to be 237 size combinations. That seems like a logistical nightmare - as the link noted.