It was more than Shinseki changing the Army to black berets. He spent millions of dollars buying new berets at a time when the military was having a hard time finding adequate funding to have pistol ammunition for our troops to train. Not only that, but he decided that the new berets had to be implemented right away. Because the purchase time-frame was so short, no company in the U.S. could make them in accordance with Army specifications (they would have needed several months to re-tool), so they were made overseas (China, IIRC). So he made bad decisions, just like he is doing at the VA.
Yep, and no one wanted them. The Rangers were offended, the common soldiers didn’t like them, and none of the command structure understood the need for them. It was Shinseki’s vanity, pure and simple.