What constitutes being "old school" in the military?

PRC-77

If you are in the military ...moving lines are a way of life. "Old school" is usually associated with a tale about how things were better, harder, meaner or just a simpler, righter way, of doing something....10 years or 10 minutes ago, depending on the age of the ears receiving the message.

Realizing core pieces of the culture you "grew up in" are gone, and there isn't room for your "old ways" anymore in the new environment, so it's time to retire. Yeah, buzzkill I know.

Don't know about old school, but I was definitely "Old Corps", I went thru Parris Island before the Ribbon Creek incident. When I enlisted, Old Corps was generally anyone on their second or later enlistment. The real Old Salts were the ones with as many hash marks as stripes, and in the 50's that wasn't at all unusual.

old school predates gps and cellphones. the last to wear green the last to shine boots. the last to smoke a cigarette on a refueling jet with jp4 leaking from the jet powered apu nearby. A whole flight/platoon exceeds rules of valor and has no records to gain awards. Old school is not found for decades. Old school is the casual words that get added to the dictionary, just by saying the word. Old school knows anything you go through has already happened in the past. Old school does not mention touching the face of God.

Everything listed from above except we had C-rations in a can with a 2 pack of gum, crackers & eggs were the best. Every now and again a pack from the older days would show-up with a 4 pack of cigarettes which was always nice....Bones....

As a Medic in-country July '66, our duty uniform required us to wear the white armband with Red Cross. It was the first thing I happened to loose somewhere (at the kind suggestion of an NCO) and for some reason, could never get a replacement through supply! Imagine that! That was Old School!

And if you "double-timed" in a pair of combat boots. If your PT uniform was a t-shirt, fatigue pants, and combat boots. If you ate C-rations from the Korean War in the 1960s. If your fatigues were starched and you wore "greens " with a tan shirt and wore TWs during the summer. :-)

Blood rank, wings etc..., pennying doors, keeping P38 on your key ring, having the MPs follow your drunk ass drive home, 1/8” drill bit to high-speed shine brass, edge dressing. Only one I didn’t do was the driving home drunk from the NCO club, that was my fathers Sr. NCO era - LOL! Just to name a few that I recall...

There are very few left. They would be pretty collar soldiers from Vietnam era . The army had much more loyality, honor, commitment and Aspire De Core. Very Honorable soldiers especially the draftees.