Honor guard

[Fireboykirk]

Howdy Rabble,
I'm looking for some advise. My fire department Honor Guard wants to transition to a kilted unit. It has fallen to me to find the correct uniform. I have some thoughts on the style, but I have to find the best price possible.

Any suggestions?

[Mike_Oettle]

Regarding the uniform, there are other members here better able to advise. But I can recommend that they wear one of the many firefighters’ tartans. There is sure to be one appropriate for the honour guard’s use, starting with Firefighter’s Memorial.
You could of course design your own, but that will put you into a higher cost bracket.
Regards,
Mike

[Fireboykirk]

I agree. We will probably go with the Sportkilt firefighter Works kilt. It has a lot of bang for the buck. I would love an 8yd wool, but there is no way we could afford that at this point.

[Steve Ashton]

If I may suggest.

The Firefighters Memorial Tartan was designed by Kelly Stewart/Roeger of USA Kilts.

"USA Kilts is donating 15% of every kilt made (that’s a majority of our labor costs per kilt) to the Leary Firefighters Foundation."

You simply can't find a better price for a quality garment than -

http://www.usakilts.com/firefighters...ardl-kilt.html

[Fireboykirk]

Thank you sir. I welcome suggestions.

I'm going back and forth between USAkilts and Sportkilt. Both donate back to the cause and they have strong points. I like the straps on the Sportkilt at that price range but love the precision and pleats of USAkilts.

[Bill aka Mole]

I currently own a Sportkilt in National FF Memorial and a USA Kilt in Firefighters Memorial. The biggest difference, after the content and weight of the fabric, is the depth of the pleats on USA kilt's 8 yard kilt. My missus says that the swing is better on the USA kilt due to both the weight and amount of fabric involved. Just her observation. Good luck!

[OC Richard]

My fire department Honor Guard wants to transition to a kilted unit. It has fallen to me to find the correct uniform.

I don't think there's any "correct" uniform. It's an American thing, this mixing of Police uniform and Fire uniform with Highland Dress, and there's no long history or tradition to go on.

The Police Pipe Bands in the UK wear the same ordinary civilian Highland Dress as any civilian pipe band would. And, in the UK, Police and Fire pipe bands ordinarily have non-police and non-firefighter members.

It's really interesting to watch the New York City St Patrick's Day Parade, and see hundreds of pipe bands from every imaginable department of public employees, not only Fire and Police but the NYC Sanitation Department Pipe Band, the NYC Port Authority Pipe Band, and on and on.

Many of these pipe bands have created their own unique "take" on Highland Dress. For example, many of these "back East" bands wear kilts made of the same fabric as the trousers the department wears, complete with whatever stripe of trim the trousers have going down the side of the leg, going down the side of the kilt where the fringe would otherwise be. (So, these kilts are extremely dark plain blue.) Here they are



The easiest option, and one many Fire bands go with, is to wear the ordinary uniform shirt with

-Glengarry with either department badge or the inexpensive generic Fire Dept cap badges from J Higgins

-kilt in whatever tartan (I've seen Fire bands in all sorts of tartans including Black Watch and Royal Stewart, or a tartan commemorating a particular fallen firefighter, or in plain green or blue or black kilts)

-belt (you can get kilt belts with rather inexpensive buckles having a generic Fire Dept badge from J Higgins)

-sporran (most Fire bands go with horsehair sporrans, and Firefighter versions of these are available from J Higgins and L&M)

-spats and hosetops (I've seen Fire bands wear plain dark blue hose, plain dark green hose, tartan hosetops, and diced hosetops)

Here is a page from J Higgins showing the belt buckle, cap badge, and sporran (our band wears these cap badges or our Glengarries)

http://www.jhiggins.net/sf_proddetai...O7VUWNNEE7D72P

If you don't want to go the horsehair sporran route, here are Day sporrans and Pipe Band sporrans with the Fire Dept badge from L&M

http://www.landmhighland.com/index.p...ort=20a&page=1

Good luck!

(PS I play in the Long Beach Fire Department Pipe Band)

[Fireboykirk]

Thank you Richard. Many good thoughts. I am just waiting for the Chiefs decision on how many we can dress now and then again in the next budget year. Waiting....PATIENTLY!!!

We have decided to go with our standard uniform shirts, glengarry, Maltese cap badge, red hackle, white gauntlet gloves, kilt belt and buckle(plain, but affordable) The Firefighter Memorial tartan from USA kilts, horse hair sporran, black hose, and spats.

We have plans to move up to a dress tunic, when we can raise more money, for more formal occasions, ie...funerals. We do those frequently in our large retirement community. Lots of retired firefighters from up north end up in our pleasant climate.

Our chief has also given us the go ahead to start forming a drum and pipe corps. Very exciting. I'll have lots of questions when that happens.

Thanks every body. I'll post pics when it all comes together.

Kirk

[OC Richard]

We have decided to go with our standard uniform shirts, glengarry, Maltese cap badge, red hackle, white gauntlet gloves, kilt belt and buckle(plain, but affordable) The Firefighter Memorial tartan from USA kilts, horse hair sporran, black hose, and spats.

We have plans to move up to a dress tunic...

Sounds great!

About dress tunics, I myself prefer the look of ordinary police/fire tunics with the kilt (over Highland regimental doublets) for a fire or police pipe band.

Here they are! The "Ike Jacket" (which started out as the British "battle dress" jacket) looks fantastic with the kilt... hard to beat this look!



The jacket with the closed collar, what I would call a "stand collar", is available in different lengths, the short length suitable for wearing with the kilt, and looks great if you want a higher degree of formality.



Here's the Marlow White site:

http://www.marlowwhite.com/first-res...ess-coats.html

Or if you want to go "all out" with the Highland regimental thing, J Higgins makes a fire-specific model of doublet (warning: the "shells" have been put on backwards in this photo!)





Here is the link to this doublet on the Higgins site

http://www.jhiggins.net/sf_proddetai...G2WBLUGV86ES5D

By the way, a common thing in US fire honour guards/pipe bands is to use misspelt or otherwise nonsensical Gaelic mottoes.

One is "Fir na Tine" which is supposed to mean "men of fire" but in the Gaelic it appears to mean men composed of fire, like in a science fiction movie, not men who fight fires. In Irish "tine" isn't used for this sort of thing anyhow; the word for fire/conflagration is "doitean" (the thing we call a Fire Department is called an Briogaid Doiteain, the Fire Brigade).

In Scots Gaelic they don't use any word for "fire" in this regard, rather the word for snuffing out a fire, "smaladh" (as in an t-Seirbheis Smalaidh, the Fire Service, literally the Snuffing-Out Service).

Firefighters are called Luchd-Smalaidh (literally Fire-Putting-Out Folk).

The other one often seen is "Onoir Do Na Marbh" (or misspelt "Onior Do Na Mardh" etc). It should read, as I understand, Onaraich Do Mairbh (Scots) Onoraigh Do Mairbh (Irish) ("Honour Thy Dead") which use the non-native word for "honour" or, using the native word, Urramaich Do Mairbh/Urramaigh Do Mairbh.

[BCAC]

Thank you Richard. Many good thoughts. I am just waiting for the Chiefs decision on how many we can dress now and then again in the next budget year. Waiting....PATIENTLY!!!

We have decided to go with our standard uniform shirts, glengarry, Maltese cap badge, red hackle, white gauntlet gloves, kilt belt and buckle(plain, but affordable) The Firefighter Memorial tartan from USA kilts, horse hair sporran, black hose, and spats.

We have plans to move up to a dress tunic, when we can raise more money, for more formal occasions, ie...funerals. We do those frequently in our large retirement community. Lots of retired firefighters from up north end up in our pleasant climate.

Our chief has also given us the go ahead to start forming a drum and pipe corps. Very exciting. I'll have lots of questions when that happens.

Thanks every body. I'll post pics when it all comes together.

Kirk

My bold.

Crikey! It must be hard playing the pipes with those on!