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14 June 2011 Last updated at 02:32 ET
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US Army abandons 'impractical' black berets
File picture of US army soldier wearing a black beret The beret will go back to being worn by a few select units only
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The US Army says it is getting rid of the black woollen berets worn by its soldiers after many of them complained it was too impractical to wear.

One soldier told the US Army Times it was like wearing a "wet sock" on his head.

A US army spokesman said the beret, which was introduced 10 years ago, would be replaced by a patrol cap and worn by soldiers in the field.

The change will apply to more than a million soldiers in the United States.

It will also bring a cost benefit - the patrol cap comes in at almost half the price.
Poor shielding

Units that have long worn berets as a mark of distinction, such as army special forces, Rangers and Airborne, will not be affected.

"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.

US Army spokesman Col Tom Collins told Agence France-Presse: "[The beret] does not have a visor and doesn't shield the sun, doesn't absorb sweat well."

But the beret will remain standard headgear for soldiers when they wear their dress uniform for more formal events.

Col Collins also told AFP that from July dress uniform would replace camouflage for soldiers serving in the Pentagon.

Combat uniforms were adopted for all armed services personnel to reflect the war footing following the 9/11 attacks.

I nevered like the idea of giving it to supply clerks and cooks ect.it had to be earned in my day.fwiw the cav also wore the black berets and stetsons and spurs again these were earned not a freebies.
my fav

I always liked the Stetsons the Air Cav wore. The black berets just totally pissed me off from day one, in my day they were earned not issued and to hear some REMF call it a wet sock........... well let's just say we had a way of dealing with clueless disrespectful bar stool warmers in my day. But than again that was before the whole world had become so concerned with being so PC we decided it was more important to make everyone feel good instead of rewarding those who excelled.

And Charlie still DON"T SURF!!!!!!!

....would you rather have the Dixie Cups we wore...???


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Not being Navy I kinda liked the Dixie Cups

We hated them. Probably the stupidest looking cover out there. Although they did teach us how to use them as a flotation device in boot.......that and as a 'vomit recovery tool.......to recycle & eat it again later.......don't want to starve wile the sharks are nibbling your toes

I think they should go back to these




or these



OR........ any one of these would do

A fez should be the official YW hat! SW

I liked the stile that elvis is wearing. We wore those while I was in missile security but when I transferred to base police we had to wear dress uniforms with a white cover on the hat.

Rad

I thought the Dixie Cup was a good match for the dress Crackerjacks but I hated it with my work uni. Working in the Engineering spaces there were many things to make them dirty and nasty looking and that meant having to buy a new one frequently. Was happy when they let us use Ships Hats on base.

Once I hit the fleet it was ball caps. Actually we could wear Cincinnati Reds hats (as I was on the USS Cincinnati) Probably wasn't official off the pier but I didn't give a crap

Waffen SS in Croatia? SW

These were issued in my seabag at boot camp.
They weren't approved to be worn any more but they were issued so we had to keep them in the proper order for inspections.

I'm for the Fez!! It wwill look good with my Carcano
Wes

I didn't mind the Dixie Cup. Ship's ball caps were a blessing for work, though. An old Australian sailor (a crew member of the cruiser, Canberra) asked me why we did not wear the white hats at an angle, to lend a 'jaunty air' to our image. I had to explain that we were instructed to wear them squared, or parallel to the ground, lest we be harrassed by the SP. 'Liberty Cuffs' were also bad juju.

Liberty cuffs? Like an embroidered dragon or similar under the cuffs of the dress blues?

We had a lot of leeway in Viet Nam, but it was a zero tolerance world back in the states. SW

Hi 'Hogger! Yes, they were cuffs embroidered on the inside and turned out on liberty. I remember when my brother was tweeked when Special Forces could not wear their Corcoran jump boots with Class 'A' uniforms. He could wear the Green Beret, of course, but the boot thing was an irritation. They looked sharp when well shined and trousers bloused properly.