Description

(Recovered Field Note – Agent T.W. Dunlap)

SUBJECT: BATF-F Cold-Weather Field Hoodie (Order #MKE-02)

INTENDED USE: Northern Deployment – Milwaukee Investigations

STATUS: Surplus Equipment; Reissued for Civilian Preparedness

For the sake of whatever poor soul eventually inherits my case files, I’m recording the origin of these hoodies.

I requisitioned them in advance of the Milwaukee investigations, yes, those investigations, the ones Headquarters still pretends never happened. I was dispatched alone, as always, expected to handle field operations that should have required four agents, minimum. I requested cold-weather gear in anticipation of extended night surveillance near the lakefront. No one approved additional personnel. They never did.

Instead, they sent the hoodies.

The shipment arrived weeks after I returned from Milwaukee, frostbitten, exhausted, and carrying evidence no one had the courage to look at. With no team to issue them to, no support to follow up the investigation, and no instructions for redistribution, the crate was moved to my office where it sat, unopened, for years.

I didn’t have the heart to send them back.
And the Bureau didn’t have the interest to ask.

These hoodies were meant for agents who never arrived, for investigations no one believed in, for nights no one wanted to admit had happened. If you’re holding one now, it’s because time has a strange way of redistributing the tools we should’ve used when we needed them most.

They’re warm. Durable. Built for fieldwork in places where the shadows feel heavier than they should. I can only hope they serve whoever wears them better than the Bureau served me.

SPECIFICATIONS (from original requisition paperwork):

• 80% ring-spun cotton, 20% polyester

• Fabric weight: 9.5 oz/yd² — suitable for extended exposure to cold environments

• Ring-spun cotton face for durability

• Relaxed fit — necessary for long nights outdoors and longer nights waiting for backup that never arrives

• Color-matched drawcord

• Front pouch pocket sized for radios, notebooks, or handwarmers

• Blank product sourced from El Salvador

• Stored for years due to administrative neglect, not disuse

Fit Note:
Comfort Colors hoodies run a touch more fitted than some styles. Order your usual size for a relaxed but not baggy fit, or size up for maximum comfort, layering, and post-campfire lounging.

FRONT MARK – Field Identifier

A modest BATF-F insignia over the left chest.
Originally intended to identify field agents on assignment even if I remained the only field agent the Bureau ever bothered to assign.

BACK MARK – Bureau Crest (Cold-Weather Issue)

The full Bureau emblem, traditionally worn during operations requiring visibility and authority.
Neither helped me much when I was out there alone, but both were standard issue.
This is the last surviving batch.

LEFT SLEEVE – BF-01 Classification Mark

Along the left sleeve runs the BF-01 identifier, the Bureau’s internal code for encounters involving the entity I spent nearly three decades trying to catalogue. I requested this addition during the Milwaukee investigations, believing that clear classification markings might one day help a full team coordinate in the field.

No team was ever assigned to me.
But I had the hoodies prepared anyway.

The mark contains a coded reference that leads to the reporting archive, a place where stories accumulate even when official reports do not. If you wear this hoodie, let the sleeve remind you that the work continues, even when the Bureau looks the other way.

FINAL REMARK

These hoodies were ordered for an operation the Bureau buried, worn by no one, and forgotten until now.
If you come into possession of one, wear it with the seriousness the work deserves and with the awareness that someone once tried to do this job alone.

– Agent T.W. Dunlap
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Folklore
Field Investigator, 1968–2008
(Active status disputed; case files incomplete)