Uniform lights

From USAFA Folklore

From 19__ to 19___, in the dormitories near each CQ Desk a set of four small Uniform Lights were mounted horizontally on a panel mounted in the ceiling. The lights indicated the uniform of the day:

• A = Service Alpha: Blue uniform with blouse and wheel hat (or banana boat for women)
• B = Service Bravo: Blue uniform with blouse and flight cap
• C = Service Charlie: Blue uniform with wheel hat (or banana boat for women)
• D = Service Delta: Blue uniform with flight cap

Additional items, such as athletic jackets or gloves were covered by the announcement of the uniform of the day by the Command Post.

Actually, before the four small lights, there were light bars mounted on the ceilings in the hallways, and the minute callers and other doolies would meander out into the hallway, take a quick look at the bank of lights, and try and decypher the uniform of the day from the lights. There were two horizontal rows of lights. The upper row colors represented the following:

• Red = Parade dress (Fatigues BCT)
• White = Service Alpha
• Blue = Service Bravo
• Amber = Service Charlie
• Green = Service Delta
• Pink = Summer: Service Foxtrot; Winter: Watch caps

The lower row of light colors represented the following uniforms:

• Pink = Under arms
• Green = Overshoes
• Amber = Athletic jacket
• Blue = Raincoat
• White = Parka
• Red = Overcoat

Source: "Rules of Conduct for Basic Cadets" (approx 1965-66)

[edit] Personal Accounts

• At the time my class ('76) entered, the dual banks of uniform lights were looked at by all as essentially decorative. The upperclassmen, like some ancient race who had lost the secrets of the height of their civilization, knew that they were "uniform lights" but were unable to decypher their meaning or purpose. The lights would come on at unusual hours and no one paid the slightest attention. In fact, except for formations, cadets wore whatever they thought appropriate, and it was not at all unusual to see mixes of parkas, A-jackets, gloves or not, on cadets crossing the Terrazzo. This changed when the Commandant Hoyt S. Vandenberg Jr. decided to re-institute their use in 1975. He went so far as to post "bridge trolls" on the two bridges connecting the cadet area with the academic area to enforce the UOD. - Quatermass '76