Posted on 06/14/2011 10:41:17 AM PDT by STARWISE
The U.S. Army said Monday that it was abandoning the beret, after a failed 10-year experiment.
The black beret, which proved deeply unpopular with American soldiers, will be replaced by a patrol cap for everyday wear, U.S. Army spokesman Col. Tom Collins said.
The move came after outgoing Army chief of staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, asked the Army's sergeant major "to go out and talk to soldiers across the force and see what was on their minds," Collins told AFP. "One of the things that soldiers consistently brought up was the desire to wear the patrol cap as part of their duty uniform," he said.
*snip*
One soldier put it more bluntly.
"I hate wearing a wet sock on my head," Chief Warrant Officer Mark Vino, at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state, told the Army Times. "Plus it makes head/skin break out."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
bttt
Prolly not. They are going to continue to use the beret for dress uniforms and all soldiers will still be issued one black beret.
Thank you and God bless you for your service.
Be safe ...
Shi*headski is running Veterans Affairs now, so I guess Veterans will get a free beret to offset the increase in cost of their “free” health care for life.
Wow .. what a family of devoted military. Thank you .. God bless you all, and may He keep yours and all our brave military in His loving protection.
I never liked those sartorially repulsive party hats. Good riddance.
As usual it takes the politically correct 10 years to realize a mistake that conservatives KNEW was a mistake from day one. I remember this story from 10 years ago and cannot believe it has been that long.
1) The beret will still be part of the Army's dress uniform, but will no longer be worn in the field as soldiers complained that it was impractical, he said.
2) The decision does not affect units that have long worn berets as a mark of distinction, including the Rangers' black beret, Army special forces' green beret and Airborne's maroon version.
This was L-O-N-G overdue and came too late for me - I retired in January (maxed age). Before that I usually wore my soft cap but kept the beret handy. Post commander was constantly reminding people that the beret was mandatory unless one was engaged in field training.
“Uh, sir, I just came out of the field.” Switchy-swap.
IIRC, Shinseki was chosen by Hillary. So was his predecessor Shalikashvili. Geez.....
FWIW, my wife is also military and retires later this year. She outranks me (in many ways, especially common sense). I met her in the parking lot one day wearing my soft cap and she reminded me that was against regulation. (Old tanker joke): I replied, “You’re right, dear, guess I need to put it in travellock.” I rotated it 180 degrees.
Not amused......
;^)
The U.S. Army Special Forces “Green Berets” will (I am sure) keep their Green Beret)... there never should have been a generalized black on in the first place. We Green Berets were proud of our unique headgear... distinctive ...
LOL ... thank you BOTH for your service.
Behind every man ..... ;)
Yes! And thank you for your service.
That is all news to me ... but the gals probably heavily identified with the Green Berets in more than one way...
Happy Birthday USA Army! Happy Birthday USA Flag!
Col Jeff Cooper called this silly thing out in one of his columns more than 15 years ago...
and he was absolutely correct!
On a milblog I frequent someone said that the beret was also in response in female soldiers complaining about what the previous headgear did to their hair. Ever hear that?
Didn’t hear that one, but Shinseki was, and still is, one self-serving POS! I recall when his initial announcement about the black berets was made and marvelled at how utterly STUPID one ki$$-a$$ Army general could possibly be! Unfortunately, this dumba$$ is still hanging around the VA now, making more empty promises and hollow slogans.
JC
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