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Doodads and Army Duds [Updated with a fun puzzle!]
I had long thought the doodads festooning veteran organizational caps to be a bit silly and something of the past. This Veterans Day, I took another look and came to a different conclusion. Looking at veterans’ uniforms in a parade and watching the pudgy weasel almost popping out of his blue Army Service Uniform in Congress, I discovered two things.
The first realization was of a linkage between military and veteran customs. Look at any military member’s uniform and you will see a shorthand career biography. If you take the time to look up the various ribbons, badges, insignia, patches, crests and whatnot, you get a glimpse into where they served and some tokens of what they did.*
It should be no surprise that veterans would carry over the military habit of visible tokens on their uniform. On closer examination, those “funny” caps have been serving the same function as a uniform jacket. Since the cap is the whole of a veterans organization uniform, that is where various tokens of a veteran’s service are displayed.
The VFW caps you see above were being auctioned off. You can see the former wearer had led a post in Iowa back in the late 1960s. He was a life member, and was involved in a number of recruiting drives for the organization, as well as other efforts to sustain and improve the organization. So the various badges seem to say. This was almost certainly a World War II veteran, a Korean War veteran, or both.
The second realization was that time quickly separates us from the current generation. I realized that this Wednesday in digging up an official link to current Army uniforms. I was surprised, although not greatly, to find that the uniform was changing again.
I was an Army brat in the mid-1970s and early 1980s, before joining and serving from 1986 through 2006. The Army started with olive drab fatigues (pickle suit), khakis, green Class A (business suit), and dress blues. They transitioned in the 1980s to Battle Dress Uniform (BDU), eliminated khakis, and defined a “Class B” (take off the jacket and add a black windbreaker or sweater as needed outdours) out of the Class A. Then, in the last 15 years, we saw the supposed simplification of the supply chain and soldiers’ closets by eliminating the Class A (green) uniform and making the basic design of the dress blues much more durable. This became the Army Service Uniform, and served as both business and formal attire (add straight black bow tie for the evening).
As you can see from LTC V’s appearance, if you will, this is really a bit much for regular business attire. Besides, A new crop of Command Sergeants Major need to make their own mark. The Army is going old school, bringing back the classic World War II Army Greens, with some updates, in 2020!
Ladies and gentlemen, back to the future, I give you the 2020 Army Greens!
Wait a minute! This really is big: brown shoes. The Army hasn’t worn brown shoes since before Vietnam. But don’t go re-dyeing your low quarters, you still need the black shoes for the ASU, for formal events.
What do you think? I’m kind of liking this look, especially if we get some old fashioned military discipline and values back in the headquarters where these snazzy duds will be mostly worn. Hooah?
* Here is a decoder key, following AR-600-8-22, for the “fruit salad” on soldiers’ chests:
For extra fun, here is a practical exercise in ribbon and badge reading. Can anyone spot the puzzling part?
I’m not sure how to understand that statement. :)
In every SF unit I’ve been in, the results of every range iteration were published and posted (depending on what cycle you’re in, that can be daily). So if you suck at shooting, the whole unit knows—and informal remediation (usually in the form of profane, toxic male humor) ensued. I used to find it awesome to score expert but be in the middle of the pack because so many studs had perfect scores.
2nd Infantry Division commanding general took a Quarterly Training Brief in a theater from the brigade to which I was attached. This was when original gangster Kim was still in charge, early 1991. Everyone was reporting units meeting the standard on weapons qualification. He pushed back:
Not attending mandatory sexual harassment training.
File under: Answers you never hear at a divisional readiness review.
I thought I was headed for an Expert badge—I was on an uncanny roll until we got to the nighttime range. ( I wound up with Sharpshooter.) My drill sergeant suggested there be a notation in my file about not being allowed to have a weapon after sundown.
How often did you have to qualify?
I was a med tech. After basic, I never held any weapons. Sound policy.
I once drew a .45 pistol with a slide buffer so worn, it rattled.
I pointed this problem out to the armorer. He took the pistol. Gave it a vigorous shake and handed it back.
“You got one of the good ones.”
I was so glad to switch to the Beretta M9 for exactly that reason. The M1911 I first qualified with had a barrel that rattled when the slide was home. There was a very noticeable clunk if you rotated it from side to side.
Every year, until the year I retired, my pistol shooting got better and better. I was very proud of my last qualification score (364 out of 400, which is by no means a record, but I was quite pleased). My poor M1911 skills in 1985 were more on me than the condition of the firearm.
We had classroom training on aiming, safety, and how to dismantle and clean the gun. Then we went to the range and fired a few rounds, zeroed the sights, then repeated. Then we fired rounds in each position for practice, total, 50 rounds. The. We did it again with 50 rounds to qualify. You didn’t see a gun for 2 years if you qualified, 3 years if you were an expert. Judging from the nicks in the beams, many didn’t. Such it is today when so few grow up shooting. I was taught to shoot as a kid and had no issues. I shot archery so breath control wasn’t an issue.
All the military ranges did not have dividers so all the noise wasn’t baffled. Also, the hot brass from the person on your left pelted you. Here is a worthwhile tip for ladies lying in the prone position…if you can’t get the left-most lane, button the top button on your shirt. If you don’t, hot brass will find its way in, take the path of least resistance (your cleavage), and bury itself in your bra. 😳
The past is present today! See General Miller in his retro WWII duds:
I remember that well. The other fun part of the M1911 was the slide buffer spring cap. Try reassembling in the dark in the field in the winter. When your frozen or greasy thumb slips, the search is on.