ARES/RACES Yellow Shirt Information

The standard Ventura County ARES/RACES Uniform is a yellow shirt with insignias on both shirt sleeves, operator's name over the right shirt pocket, and ARES/RACES patch over the left pocket.

The yellow shirt is to be worn by ARES/RACES members to all ARES/RACES activities involving local and county governments, law enforcement, hospitals, Red Cross, and the general public so that people know who we are. A yellow shirt was specifically selected because those wearing the shirts are easily spotted in a crowd or at an emergency site. During an emergency you will commonly hear emergency personnel being directed to "go see the people in yellow shirts, they will help you with your communication needs". The yellow ARES/RACES shirt has become a recognized uniform by those that we serve.

Obtaining the yellow shirts in recent years has been a challenge. The information which follows was originally compiled by Joe Krigbaum, K6NE (http://www.rain.org/~jkrigbam/Yellow-Shirt.html), and has been edited based on the recent experience of Area 2 members in obtaining shirts.

Yellow shirts meeting our ARES/RACES requirements can be obtained from Uniform Warehouse at 1243 Los Angeles Ave, in Saticoy. Their phone number is 805-659-1655. They can also be reached by FAX at 805-647-2784. Frank is the proprietor and is very willing to help us get the shirts that we need. K6NE recommends that you speak directly with Frank when obtaining a yellow shirt from them. They have our ARES/RACES breast patch artwork available, and can embroider your name patch. They will also sew all patches, including our shirt sleeve insignias, on the shirt for you. However, you must provide them with the two sleeve insignias. Those can be obtain from our District Emergency Coordinator Dave Gilmore, AA6VH (aa6vh@arrl.net), or from Rich Harmison, W6HWK (w6hwk@arrl.net). The ARES insignia patch for the right sleeve is $3.50 and the Ventura County ARES/RACES insignia patch for the left sleeve is $5.75, a total of $9.25 for the pair.

A picture of a shirt showing the layout of the patches is provided below. K6NE recommends that you make a copy of the picture and take it with you when go to order a shirt.

If any of you in Area 2 have problems obtaining shirts, or experience a situation different than describe above, please let me know so that we can get the problems resolved and keep this information up to date.

Thanks,

Ken Larson KJ6RZ
ARES/RACES Area 2 EC