What constitutes being "old school" in the military?

Yellow PT shorts and MRE's came in after I got out. The WW2 barracks at North Ft Lewis were okay, but the concrete block barracks at Ft Gordon were more comfortable.

Old School is running in black boots and fatigues, holding an M14 Rifle above your head! Then afterwards cleaning up, and then spit shining those same boots for inspection!

The food we ate was called " C-Rations" ( C= CRAP)

My "GUN" was an "M-1" Garand made in Springfield, Massachusetts.

LCpl Odell Taylor - There's room for both of us in that category, Lance Corporal. I think in my previous post, I forgot to include 60mm mortar -- ashamed, I guess, that's the one I failed to qualify with. Just couldn't center that bubble. One other memory: when I told a more recent vet that I had been SPC 3d Class, E-4, he told me no such rank had ever existed and I must be either lying or forgetting. Comments, anyone?

SFC (Join to see) - The list just gets longer and now folks from 2000 are getting old!

LCpl Odell Taylor - Thanks for that information – I wish I could remember that jerk's name, but we only had a passing acquaintance ten or more years ago.

Max the 5 event APFT

CPT (Join to see) - Brown shoe Army is even older than old school

Nothing smells better than Brasso in the morning. Smells like victory!!

I volunteered to be a fireman, thinking traditional "FIREMAN" only to find out it meant putting coal in the pot belly stove all night long. Lived in a prisoner of war barracks at Fort Gordon for my Basic Training. I believe I qualify as "OLD SCHOOL".

CPT (Join to see) - I agree with SP5 Butts, "Brown Shoe Army" is older than oldest! LOL! I don't go back that far. BPED 26 Jun 67.

Our DI’s actually encouraged us to acquire Johnson’s from the Church on Sunday.

HeLL yeah!! We put a fuzzy toilet seat cover over the buffer to shine up our melted Johnson's wax...

Ft McClellan and every duty station, even Walter wonderful the civilians did the floors like that.

We were some buffing MFers!!! Our rooms, hallways, CO & 1SG office. Wire coat hangers wrapped around the can and constructing a handle, lite it and burn for a few then strategically dropping in on the floor. Buff buff until a dull shine, wool blanket square or an old t-shirt. Highly shined floors. We did this until I think 92-93 then no more wax.

I brought this up as a safety issue cause if there was a fire, that wax would burn clear and create a hallway of fire and not see it. My parents were bus drivers for the district and during the summers they worked doing all these repair, cleaning and such. They ended up using this special type of wax that met OSHA requirements.

PT in the banana suit just phased out when I came in, 84. We wore our BDUs and running shoes. Summer was BDU pants and t-shirt. Winter was full BDUs and whatever under them to keep warm during runs, only authorized head gear was the pile cap and gloves. Then the greys came out. Then the idiocy of wearing a PT reflective vest then belt on a closed off road with road guards at each barriers because they didn't want us to get run over. Fort Hood was insane in this. Along changed in 94' with calling cadence while running. Which, we tankers, sang them all. I was calling cadence one morning with the company. I remember it was the Roll Me Over. Next thing I know I get snatched from formation and put to parade rest. My company just kept running. Got my ass chewed by a CSM and told not to sing such songs as they were sexist and discriminating.

I remember wall to wall counseling. We also had turret counseling or wood line counseling. All kept at PLT level. As it should be, instead of running to 1SG and CO trying to "burn" a Soldier. Germany, at 18, drank. NCOs took care of any issues unless it was really bad. Or sobered one up doing the Airborne Shuffle. Soldier/s puked and did the circling thing till they were ready to run. LOL. Even in the late 80s, while at Hood, we had company parties. 18-20 yo, could drink and we took care of it. Not any longer.

TSgt (Join to see) - LMAO!!!! Too funny!!!!

Anonymous, could you still hit recruits and subordinates when you were talking about before the changes in the USMC?

A skill that folks are in short supply, how to give a good ass chewing

OH how I could tell you the issues of being a tank platoon Sgt as a SSG. They gunner they gave me was a tanker but spent most of his time in Support PLT. He made SGT and I was given him. He stepped on his dik hard all the time. Sleeping on guard duty x2 back to back nights. First time, missed Stand to. I woke up with the CO shaking the hell out of me. He was a seriously a sh*tbag. I tried like hell to get rid of him, demote him.
One FTX we were going after a Scout Hummer and I was screaming traverse left, i didn't have time to grab the over ride. Gun tube smacked into 3 trees. My load and me just braced for the turret ring to blow up and tube damage. Thank the tanker Gods bc those 3 trees were so rotten they exploded like corkboard. back in the motorpool, we were doing some after ops PMCS. That POS had the audacity to tell me the reason he didn't know his left from right was because he had dyslexia. I snapped. I grabbed the cheater pipe and commenced climbing up the tank to beat him. My loader and driver grabbed me as the gunner hauled ass.
I wrote him a counseling statement and made a "Left Hand Can". A 7.62 ammo can half full of nuts and bolts. Painted it bright yellow with Left Hand Can written on the sides. Told him he WILL carry this can with him in the BN AO. He went crying to the 1SG and 1SG told me I couldn't do it cause it's seen as degrading an NCO. I replied that he would learn his left from his right. My turn for "corrective counseling" with the 1SG. LOL

Don’t know what a “reflector belt” is. Was on my way to ‘Nam in Feb ‘66. Old school?

By that standard, God bless Group lol

SP5 Charles Gould -
Neither Have I... Never Heard Of a Reflector Belt.../.. USAF 61 - 65....
Joined ON My 17th Birthday. When I Received My 10 Day Early Out, I Was Still 20... Had To Wait A Few Days Before Purchasing A Beer, LEGAL.. But Having Previously Lived In Panama, Were Drinking Laws Are A Joke, I'd Been Drinking Socially Since I Was 14...
BTW,,. Best Rum In Those Areas....But If Ya Want A Good Rum Stateside, It'll Have To Be Meyers's Dark Rum........But Don't Get Rid Of Your Bacardi, That Stuff Is Still Good For Setting Camp Fires.

We did wear fatigue and boots. Maybe we got to take off our blouses???

Oh yeah!!! Paper maps and a lensatic compass with RADIUM in the dial (just like your watch) so you could see it at night.

i used those a lot and read and spoke a little German and those German maps were well done in a way only a few of us could decipher and occasionally i spoke landmarknese, and used some scout learning like the sun rise up direction and moss on the trees and etc.

Lol this isn't taught anymore? I started off Army in 99 and re-learned this while cross training into AF intel (1N0) school in 2011. I will never forget how many people bombed PLDC (whatever its called now, Warrior school?) for not knowing how to do land navigation. See how thats helping the Russians right now haha

I was a lithographic photographer & platemaker with Co. B, 652nd Engineer BN (TOPO), Ft. Shafter, HI in the 70's. Made tons of topographic maps while stationed there.

We never set up shelter halfs. You slept on the ground in your position with your weapon(s).

Woke up to sparkling ice crystals on the inside from us breathing out through the night on more than one occasion.

Used them in basic once. PLDC we set them up but too cold to stay in them, PLDC Baumholder, January. NTC every time. ( rotations there).

GP Mini

I love the bumper sticker that read "FRONT TOWARD ENEMY"

PO2 Joan MacNeill - read that on a claymore

I always thought they planted trees outside the gas chamber doors on purpose. It seems like everywhere you go, there is a big tree smack dab in front of the chamber exit door. We definitely had one at Fort Jackson.
Once your eyes, finally cleared, it was funny to watch everyone else smack into the tree as they ran out, knowing you weren't the only one who plowed into it.
After going through the chamber, I could recognize that gas smell instantly just driving 4 blocks away from any of those buildings. It's a smell, and experience, I will never forget....especially the non-stop streams of snot

...ever put the clamore "clacker" in your pocket as you went into the wire to set/sight your mine. (Newbies could do some pretty dumb s_ _ _ some times!)

I learned some of the banned cadences from old Clint Eastwood movies haha

How about thinking Bill Mauldin's Willy and Joe were your brothers

Rember all except helicopters. Went in with jeep M1a and the n the Ford m151's. All trucks were standard except the GMC duce and half. Learned how to drive tractor tarailer in the woods and highway. Was all good experience.

I didn't experience women service members till I got to my MOS school. One day during unit PT, they called out one of the women to call cadence. That was, EASILY, the dirtiest, most foul mouthed cadence I have EVER, heard!!!! I don't really remember its details, just that it was the dirtiest cadence I have ever heard, (until I heard the cadence in Clint Eastwood's movie Heartbreak Ridge). This was in late summer 1990, just as Desert Shield was getting started.