I am putting a paper together on wearing long sleeve tshirts for swat teams vs. the bdu type shirt.  This will primarily address the summer months.

If you live in a hot climate, on a SWAT/SRT unit, let me hear from you.

I am attempting to convince our Team Command and representing chiefs, of the more prudent idea of wearing long sleeve t's during the summer months than the bdu shirt.  It is too hot here in Houston to do other wise. But for some reason it's not sinking in that team members can get into serious trouble by having all the weight, clothing and activity in this suffocating hot weather.

Thanks!

Pakrat

Nothing wrong with a long sleeve t or even short sleeve t instead of a BDU shirt. You are not getting any fire protection from a regular BDU shirt anyway. Nomex flight suit would be better. You'll have body armor and a load bearing vest over it all I assume. Do you wear elbow pads? You should also have a camel back on each team member if a hot environment is an issue.

Our TAC gear  consists of black BDU pants and black long sleeve t-shirt with "POLICE" on front, back and outboard of each sleeve.  Very comfortable in Florida heat.  Much better than the friggin polyster crap we wear as duty crap.

Our Narcotics unit uses long sleeve t-shirts with "police" on the sleeves, to avoid the vest covering the identifing markings.  Our entry team got singed in Federal CT. (a very special thanks to the DEA for that whole mess) because the suspect, "thought that black clad armed intruders were breaking into his house."  He saw this through the video cameras monitoring the back of his house.  Our entry team can wear either BDU shirt or long sleeve t-shirt

We wear woodland camo only for manhunts and ops out in the county. Our callout uniform is the nomex. Until we leave for our FAP we leave the suits around our waists in the summer. For training we wear woodland and t shirts.

Hi Pak,

You seen the lightweight nomex-flavored t-shirts out there?  They're not too bad here in the central part of Texas (unless it's one of those days where it's like the surface of the sun...with humidity...outside).  I forget who the mfr is, but I think that GT's carries them.  As mentioned, you lose the fire-retandant with a plain t.  If you've gotta go BDU pants, go with ripstops in the summer.  I really like the 5.11's myself for all-season wear.

Tell em that it should be mandatory to carry a hydration system in the summer here and that everyone should "tank up" before all training and ops.  No excuses.  You sweat or leak it off soon enough and having lightweight cotton clothing can help (albeit a little).

-SARguy

I appreciate all the help.  I have found quite a number of teams in Texas who wear tshirts.  If any more of you guys wear them instead of BDU type shirt, I'd love to hear from you.

Thanks again.

Pakrat

No flame intened here, but BDUs too hot? I have to chuckle at that one.  5 years in Panama wearing BDUs, many times I wished I could just opt for a long sleeve T-shirt.  If you are wearing "Issue" BDUs with armor and a tac vest then I would say go with the LS tee, but if you can get the modified tuck in BDUs(pockets moved to the sleeves, go with that and a cammelback compatable vest.  For me the LS tee just does not provide the scrape/ding protection, have the professional look or the intimidation factor that in many cases can be very important.

Just my 02 cents

Exactly the opposite (and in Texas). BDUs, sleeves down for protection. I want it. Most of the places we go are so downright nasty I wouldn't mind a full-body condom.

My doctor always wants to know why I am getting these wierd illnesses that she can't quite diagnose. And then she remembers what I do for a living...

Ah yes...the grunge.  A way of life in some respects.  

The last one looked and acted just like Chicken Pox (which I had as a kid). They couldn't figure out what the heck was going on. She finally gave up and prescribed massive doses of steroids, which cleared it up in a couple of days.

I couldn't prove that I got it work, so I couldn't use Worker's Comp. Where the heck else would I have gotten some weird crap like that? I have also since passed it along to a few other people (despite the fact that I was more or less quarantined for a week). Yee-haw, I'm a one-man epidemic.

One thing I can tell you is that I operate on a tac team in the Phoenix area. Doesnt get much hotter. We use Light grey short t's for summer training with tan BDU pants. Our callout uniforms consist of Navy BDU pants and a black short or long sleeve T. If you want you have the option of wearing nomex coveralls. Most of us don't unless we do an explosive entry (120 degrees out). The only good thing is that the pager always goes off at 0-dark-30 when the sun inst blazing. The Phoenix area teams are good about providing relief to teams on long callouts. Just fill the camelbacks and keep the hose dragers near - they have all the good treats.  

On our Special Operations Group, we use nomex flight suits, black long sleeve mock t-shirts, or BDUs (cammo or black).

Our SRT tends to follow the same guidlines, leaning more towards the nomex and black t-shirts.