First off I don't like the fact that the Rangers lost their traditional black berets. That was stupid.

That said, I can sorta understand the why. If everyone in your military is wearing Black Berets and it wasn't announced their was a change, that would make the enemy think there is a lot mess of Rangers about to drop a world of pain on them.

I'd have given the Army personnel the tan one, although it does have a 'desert' vibe to it...

In an ideal world:

Green Berets should be green.

Rangers should have black.

Air Force Security has the blue.

Airborne Troops have the maroon.


Big Brawler has the pink...


Is the red beret worn by Air Force Rescue or something like that?



Some Russian troops have a light blue beret.

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The crimson red beret in the Air Force is for Combat Controllers, the maroon ones are for Pararescue (PJs). We also have combat weather that wear gray berets, survival instructors that wear, well, I guess it's kind of grayish-green (pewter green?) and TACP that wear black. And we're the only service that doesn't have Warrant Officers (just to keep the thread on topic...sort of )

-Doc (a crusty old Tech Sergeant)

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S-all-right Chief. I love seeing where things go, I guess I get upset over the Torp thing because I was a Diver and know a lot about it, so when THEY get it wrong, it bothers me. So I feel your pain over Flint.

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Wait, what!? How does a dog fly a plane?

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Yeah. People need to realize that the beret is a sissy hat. It doesn't make you look cool, it makes you look French.
Special Forces can get away with wearing them, because those guys are just that bad-ass. They make the hat look good, not the other way around. Army needs to go back to their fitted ball caps, and the other services need to go back to whatever they were wearing.

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I like the traditional beret, its just the new stretched out way that trips me up.

I honestly think if I was 18, it would keep me from joining that branch, lol.

DJ, the desert beret would have been too obvious. When my wife was in Basic, she once asked why they even have the western europe or jungle flage anymore, neither of those theaters are going to see any real action, statistically,

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I don't feel sorry for them, because they took the black beret from the Armored Cavalry.


...which was the original headgear of the Army Ranger corps. When the switch came, the Rangers returned to the tan"Darby" beret, which had been modeled after British uniform berets, not French ones



I think that the SF should have green, Rangers have tan, Combat Arms troops in airborne units should have maroon, ACR's should have black, riggers should have their red baseball caps, and everyone else should go back to patrol caps. But hey, that's just me.

I think we need a wiki article that has pics or just a general description of what group wears what.

I'd hate to have some Bad @$$ looking custom negated by a Girl Scout hat...

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Nothing wrong with berets. They just need to be shaped and worn in the right way! And the size has to be measured.
Wrong examples (sorry Cooley):

I especially dislike that "material behind flat stiffener":

And one a helicopter could land on:


But on-topic, I use the ranks from the original filecards.

Tim 121RVC

I cannot stand when somebody wear a beret and looks like it is "time to make the pizzas"

Like Chief said, a beret requries work in shaping and shaving....or if you are lazy, get one pre-shaved and pre-shaped, but even then I like to shape it a bit more.

Propre fit is essential to not look doofish.

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Actually, that one is pretty close to exactly how you're supposed to wear them. The "flat material behind stiffener" is the way the guys at Bragg (Airborne and SF) have been wearing them for as long as I can remember - and they're pretty much the experts on berets.

I'm wondering where the red flash is from, though - I haven't seen that one before. Wonder if it's just a Photoshopped blue one (the standard color for those of us without regimental flashes.) Or maybe it's fairly new and I'm just out of the loop.

Oh, and look closely and you'll notice that the guy with the decent beret is a Warrant Officer

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Well Played Chief!

Actually, the original individual selected to pose was an officer.....

But he had a meeting to go to...........

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*sigh* - sad that nobody else is in on the joke

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hehe, how is it a joke, officers are meant for meetings, right?

I gotta find the picture of the giant beret. The new army commercials have them, they are stretched all to hell.

"I'm an army of one, I'm army strong. . ."blah, if that hat falls off, we'll have traction for the tank,

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Ouch...that hurts!
No! officers are not meant for meetings, but there are certain units and times when it seems like that is all we did.

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