{"id":9807,"date":"2009-04-18T07:12:06","date_gmt":"2009-04-18T12:12:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=9807"},"modified":"2009-04-18T07:12:06","modified_gmt":"2009-04-18T12:12:06","slug":"they-still-dont-like-berets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=9807","title":{"rendered":"They still don’t like berets"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/a> and I raised a pretty good stink and we followed the battle right to the halls of Congress. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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<\/a> newspaper headlines this morning that some troops still don’t like the beret; <\/p>\n

Soldiers had a list of complaints about the black beret. Among them:<\/p>\n

* It doesn\u2019t match the Army Combat Uniform, which has no black in its pattern.
\n * It has to be shaved, washed and dried on a lampshade or hat stand to hold its shape.
\n * It can cost nearly twice as much as a patrol cap, and there\u2019s no standard way to wear it.<\/p>\n

“You have seven people wearing it seven different ways,” said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jon Butler. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

But the Army ought to take a survey and make a decision based on what the troops want – for a change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My first experience with online activism was back in 2000 when then-General Shinseki decided to arm … They still don’t like berets<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-support-the-troops"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9807\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}