By That is what US troops have been saying for years and it appears a greater push is being made now to finally get rid of them:
They’re hot, sweaty and do nothing to keep the sun out of your eyes during a long formation.
Those are just a few of the reasons the Army should stop making soldiers wear wool berets outdoors, a group of delegates said Friday at the 8th Army’s annual Army Family Action Plan conference.
“Everyone is affected by the beret,” said Sgt. Brad Stuckey, spokesman for a group that studied family-support issues. “This is an issue that your average soldier feels very strongly about.”
The group recommended that soldiers be required to wear lighter, cotton-nylon blend patrol caps instead. They block the sun, absorb sweat and are somewhat water resistant, Stuckey said. [Stars & Stripes]
I would have no problem seeing the end of the black beret, but with the man who dumped these berets on the Army, Eric Shinseki now a member of the Obama administration, it is probably something that will not be changed.
To this day I still hear soldiers curse Shinseki over his decision to make everyone wear the black berets. Here is a useless fact for everyone, I was actually in the first unit to don the beret when the 1st Brigade 2ID changed over to the beret in June 2001. There was even a ceremony at Camp Casey in honor of the change over. You should have heard the Sergeant Majors griping over not only the fact we were switching to berets, but the fact they had to organize a brigade size ceremony in honor of wearing them.
3:38 pm on April 22nd, 2009 1
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April 22nd, 2009 at 5:30 pm
I spotted a couple night bakers, and even a queer!
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5:38 pm on April 22nd, 2009 2
That’s the beauty of a beret, as long as the flash is in the right place, more or less, you’re free to make it as ridiculous as you please.
I’ve been trying to find a copy of it, but a cartoonist at Bragg 30 years ago did a great gag on how you wear your beret shows how hard-core you or you unit is. He started with the extreme (“Ranger/painted-on look; shave & paint head in color of beret, nail on unit crest”) to the silly (“Soviet Navy / Soviet Navy Cook”).
Going back to patrol caps is a step in the right direction. The last big sweep of headgear was back in the 1970’s, when all sorts of units were pushing for, and locally authorizing their own unit-specific berets or headgear. It kind of got out of hand. I think the Cav was wearing Stetsons, and at least one unit was considering the Fez.
But for awhile, I think that even the 82nd lost the maroon beret, and had to push to get it back.
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6:39 pm on April 22nd, 2009 3
G.I., you were “among” the first. I was over on Camp Hovey donning mine the very same day.
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April 23rd, 2009 at 6:07 am
In first brigade we had the CNN camera crew that made it the official first unit to don the beret.
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April 23rd, 2009 at 5:27 pm
The first Monday in June, 2001, Schweinfurt Germany units doned their “distintive headgear” for an in-ranks inspection prior to the official ceremony. I hadn’t worn a beret in a few years (I was LRSD for a while), and mine looked kinda silly too. One of my platoon sergeants, who had spent a million years in the 82nd, looked at his guys and says “I’ll take a large pepperonni, an order of bread sticks, and a 2-liter diet coke.” My three lieutenants, in spite of a lecture the night prior, looked like they were Belgian paratroopers.
The irony is, back in the early 80s when I was a Joe (no pun intended), I thought it would be cool if we all wore barets. Now that I’m older and wiser, I see the folly of my ways.
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April 24th, 2009 at 5:44 am
CNN was there? Oh yeah? Well Uncle Russ was at mine. The Ragin’ Cagin’ trumps CNN any day.
Take that!
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April 24th, 2009 at 5:46 am
Er… Ragin’ “Cajun.” Sheesh… I haven’t even started drinking yet.
8:58 pm on April 22nd, 2009 4
The beret is a good replacement for the garrison cap with the dress uniforms, the color goes well with them. But it SUCKS as a piece of the regular duty uniform. Those things should be be about function not fashion. The push to get the beret out was just an attempt to make the Army look “cooler” and it kinda failed miserably.
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11:19 pm on April 22nd, 2009 5
I was in Yongsan on “beret day” back in ‘01…but I was wearing my Navy Whites as we looked on. Showing support,” the Admiral told us. “Expressing our pity” was our term.
Best line I heard that day was from a Navy Chief as we walked by the formation just before festivities: “Bet y’all wish you were in the Navy right now, eh?”
During the ceremony, the really short CSM was helping the much taller USFK Commander put his beret on. Really comical….
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1:04 am on April 23rd, 2009 6
Burma Bob,
They still can wear the steson if your in a Cav unit or have the “order of the spur”.
GI,
I was in Fort hood 1st Cav for the change and it was hot as H3ll. Blazing sun and a black beret don’t work together well. I think it would still work as a class A/B uniform hat but with everyone running around Camp Casey in soft hats all day already it’s no longer a everyday work hat.
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April 23rd, 2009 at 6:08 am
I agree that the beret is good with the dress uniforms and should be kept for those. For every day wear with the ACU’s it should be the patrol cap and I see more and more units allowing their soldiers to wear the patrol cap around their unit areas.
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April 23rd, 2009 at 9:12 am
Yep, I remember well the Texas sun on the black wool. But I agree: for class A it looks sharp. Just stupid for everyday wear. Been retired since 2005, still have mine. To remind me of the mentality of the organization during my last years.
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2:54 am on April 23rd, 2009 7
Do you think that GEN Shinseki really cares about what headgear the Army wears today? He has more than enough to worry about in the VA. Also, the Eighth Army AFAP is not any kind of movement towards getting rid of the beret. Stars and Stripes is full of it.
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April 23rd, 2009 at 6:03 am
Do you think the President is going to do something like repeal the beret decision that embarrasses the guy he picked to lead the VA?
Hardly anyone I know likes the beret decision and eventually as more time goes by the decision will eventually be repealed, just not any time soon.
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April 23rd, 2009 at 1:39 pm
Are Army uniforms left to presidential decree? “Mr. President, you’re the busiest and most important man in the world, but I need 10 minutes of your time to talk about a hat…”
Army regulations are modified at the discretion of the Secretary of the Army. He is informed on these decisions by the CSA and the Army Staff. Uniforms are managed under the direction of the SMA. The problem is that the current SMA doesn’t do anything other than sit in the Pentagon and look at PowerPoint on suicide, sexual assault, and the Army Blue service uniform.
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7:57 am on April 23rd, 2009 8
I was in the FIELD on that day, we actually stop bridging the Han and put on the berets. Unfreaking believable….I threw up in my mouth…
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9:06 am on April 23rd, 2009 9
The only thing a beret has going for it, very easy to put into a pocket.
I wore those damn things when I was a security policeman in the Air Force, glad we got rid of them as I hated them. Give me a hat any day over those things.
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9:36 am on April 23rd, 2009 10
I wore the maroon beret but that was optional during the work day, you could switch to a soft cap after formation. We never trained or jumped with berets. I thought the black berets should have stayed exclusive to the Rangers, it was complete BS when it became standard issue.
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2:09 am on April 24th, 2009 11
I agree with the above who say use the beret with the dress uniform. Beats the hell out of the piss cutter. But yeah, patrol cap with BDUs is the way to go, no doubt.
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9:28 pm on April 24th, 2009 12
Proper rejection of the beret can be found here:
http://justbarkingmad.com/?p=5747#more-5747
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