They still don’t like berets
My first experience with online activism was back in 2000 when then-General Shinseki decided to arm the Army with it’s greatest weapon – the black beret. My friends over at paratrooper.net and I raised a pretty good stink and we followed the battle right to the halls of Congress.
Actually, Shinseki appeared before the Small Business Committee (ahead of a subpoena) because he’d short-circuited normal purchasing procedures and bought the first load from China at about the same time the Chinese knocked down one of our reconnaissance flights over international waters. Of course, 9-11 took center stage and our concerns shifted towards more important issues.
But here we are nine years later, Shinseki, who couldn’t even get a hat issued to his soldiers without getting a subpoena to explain it to Congress, is running our Veterans Affairs Department. Well the Stars and Stripes newspaper headlines this morning that some troops still don’t like the beret;
Soldiers had a list of complaints about the black beret. Among them:
* It doesn’t match the Army Combat Uniform, which has no black in its pattern.
* It has to be shaved, washed and dried on a lampshade or hat stand to hold its shape.
* It can cost nearly twice as much as a patrol cap, and there’s no standard way to wear it.“You have seven people wearing it seven different ways,” said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jon Butler.
Honestly, I could never figure the whole thing out. The only reason I could see that Shinseki wanted the black beret was because he’d been a tanker in Augsburg (tankers used to wear the black beret which at the time was unauthorized) when the 1st Ranger Battalion came to town for REFORGER in 1975 and the few nights we were allowed in the enlisted club on Sheridan Kaserne, a brawl over the beret ensued.
Then a few years later (I think it was 1978) the new Army Chief of Staff, General Bernard Rogers, did away with all unauthorized headgear (even the maroon beret for Airborne troops) and the tankers lost their black beret. I guess we’re all lucky that Shinseki wasn’t in the 172d Infantry Brigade in Alaska – they wore a beret that looked like it was made from those nasty-looking green blankets that the Army issues.
But the Army ought to take a survey and make a decision based on what the troops want – for a change.
Category: Support the troops
Are you sure about that? Most troops aren’t known for their Sartorial splendor 😛
I am not in the service anymore so I don’t really have a dog in this fight. I think the beret looks OK and looks much better than that stupid ass cover that we used to wear with the Army Green uniform. I remember the same complaints when the army adopted the BDUs however. I was a PFC at the time and our 1st Sgt used to constantly go on a tear because we looked like rag bags instead of being all starched and pretty.
Everyone always has some complaint about uniforms I am sure that if you look hard enough there is someone who thinks that the only proper uniform is the stuff the Romans wore when they were fighting the Visigoths.
Hatred of the beret still runs high. My list includes:
-provides no protection from the rain vs the patrol cap
-takes two hands to put on correctly, meaning you have to stop at the door, put down whatever you are carrying, and get the damn thing on
-most soldiers don’t know how to properly form and shape one
-most young soldiers don’t care how to form and shape one
I can see wearing the beret with Class A’s, or for formal events, otherwise the black beret is still a bad idea
I can take or leave the beret. What chaps my ass is that the first load came from frikkin’ China. You might think that the American military could at least have all their uniforms and equipment made in the USA?
I will remain convinced, unto the hour of my death, that ALL of these uniform changes (like the idiotic Navy DCU in shades of blue) come about because one of the board members has a relative in the clothing business.
respects,
It was a good fight, Jonn. Unfortunately, spending money on feel-good trash without thought as to the repercussions is a staple of this administration; Shinseki’s appointment was more than a bit apropos.
I agree with everyting Dave Thul said. Any headgear that takes two hands to put on and provides no protection from the environment is just plain stupid. Perhaps that is why we don’t wear the beret on deployment? Sadly, the Army is the same today as it was in 2001, as far as uniforms go. I am no fan of how they are destroying the dress blues.
The Missus and I visited the oldest son at Ft. Drum in the summer of 2001 and he was not fond of the beret. I even told the First Shirt at his maintenance battalion that berets only belong to Special Forces and Rangers. My dad was a Green Beret when I was a kid. Dad passed away before this occured. So his input on General Shinseki isn’t available but I think the old para would not be impressed.
In my Naval career we went through a multitude of uniform changes. From Zumwalt’s soat and tie dress uniform for all hands to the salt and peppers back to the jumper whites and blues. We still had the Johnny Cash’s with a combination cap which itself was replaced by the white hat. Black shirt/with tie and ribbons and black trousers with fore and aft creases. Looked pretty stupid until the black piss cutter was brought on line. I had already retired by then.
Now the Navy has the three tone blue cammies as a working uniform and a disgusting replacement for the Winter Blues(Johnny Cash) and Summer(Tropical) Whites. When the utility working uniform came on line, it made sailors look like undercar mechanics at Sears. I even told a Second Class Petty Officer at NAS fort Worth one day that was what he looked like. Being retired does have it’s fun moments.
A young BM2 recruiter here in Wichita said the reason for the service uniform change was so they didin’t have t lug around all that s*** in the seabag. I told him that I had already been there and sympathy was in Webster’s.
To see the new Navy service uniform for E-1 to E-6 go to the Navy Personnel Command website. Make sure you do not have a drink in close proximity to the keyboard.
Is there some unwritten rule that every other country’s field uniforms are better then ours?
As much as I hate to say it, we look more like NOD soldiers from the first version of Command and Conquer.
We take our uniform cues from Europe, always have, always will. The one rank in the center of the chest? British/Italian thing, digital camo, well think Canada. The Berets, thats British and French. Personally, I believe that there should be only three berets: Maroon, tan, and Green. And that new ASU? So much for Soldier input, the only input that the Uniform Board had was from Pentagon POGUES. It looks completely retarded. I like the Bloodstripe idea, having grown up in a Marine household, but go with the Pinks and Tans like every freaking Soldier I know suggests!
Shinseki’s “decision” to beret every Soldier may have been impacted by his REFORGER experience, but officially he stated it had more to do with attending a parade at Bragg and noticing how 7th SFG(A) was more confident, more proud and generally just b*a* f* Troops.
Shinsuckkey stated that made a profound impact on him and he realized that 7th SFG(A) were such great Soldiers because they had a beret which made them feel elite. He felt he could replicate the feeling of eliteness and create a whole Army of confident Soldiers by giving everyone a beret, even if he had to steal it from the Rangers since he couldn’t come up with an original color.
Shitsuckey was resolute in his decision to strip Soldiers of the brim of a hat that protected their eyes from the sun, even after he had become convinced that it was an ignorant decision, due to the backlash not only from the Rangers, but also the SF community and Airborne Troops, and half the LEGs themselves.
But being one to learn from past mistakes, he also changed the color of the Army dress uniform by a shade so subtle that one could tell only if looking at the tag or placing an old and new uniform side by side. Since the beret had been purchased on the Army dime, he made the Troops pick up the tab for the dress uniform change.
Still, he learned from his mistakes, so when a new boot was suggested, that would be authorized for all, issued to new trainees, he said NO WAY. The new boot would have replaced Viet Nam era footwear trends with a custom fitted 21st centurty footwear and have little discernable difference and the same cost as the old footwear.
Shitsucky is now in charge of the VA and has been screwing the troops as a policy for so long that it only seemed natural to him to propose, endorse, and hold true to course when it came to forcing Vets to pay for their own health care.
I know that John worked with the Ret. General, and I get the sense that he never would have liked him if he were a retard pogue.
But given his beret decision, and the recent push to bill private insurance for service connected issues, I get real nervous about what is coming from the VA.
John, do you think he changed at some point, or was he always a politician?
The Adjutant General for the WA State National Guard issued a policy memo in 2006 that our duty uniform, except for out-of-state travel and ceremonial duties, is the ACU with patrol cap.
As a practical matter, we have been wearing berets whenever we need to go on Fort Lewis, since there are command sergeants major there who post their company 1SGs at the entrances of the PX on the weekends specifically to turn away Guard soldiers not wearing berets. It’s really hard to argue with joes who wonder why the CSMs don’t have anything better to do with their time. It was the same thing in Afghanistan–a weekly meeting on BAF to discuss the latest uniform violations they were seeing.
Sig
After 9/11, I spent 4 years in the Georgia State Defense Force, a part of the Georgia DOD (basically unpaid, unarmed, NG troops that can’t be Nationalized). Being modled after the National Guard and under the command of the State’s Adjunct General, we used Army uniform regs. We had to wear the damn berets and we NCO’s spent the majority of our time trying to get the newbies berets squared away and not looking like a french pastery chef’s hat. In the summer it was sweltering, and in the winter it provided no protection for your ears. I used to laugh that I may have had to wear a “dog dish” on my head for 6 years in the Navy, but I never had to wear a girl scout hat until I joined the GSDF.
what exactly does completely retarded look like? can’t say I get why anyone uses that cruel word.
Because, Ellen, that word is entirely accurate in this sense of its use. Go bother somewhere else with your PC crap.
“ellen”…Go piss up a rope! You are STILL a poster child.
It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It looks like ass on 90% of the Army. (ever seen a non-typical combat arms gendered soldier try to wear one…correctly?) It serves no purpose – is it to make us all equal?
The only time Rangers wear one is when they have too. (Otherwise we always wore the patrol cap)
Stupid General.
Stupid choice.
Stupid looking soldiers.
don’t even get me started on ‘ACUs’