What constitutes being "old school" in the military?

My Dad was in WW II and left the military in 1945. I enlisted in the Army in 1972, 27 years later. I thought my Dad was ancient - all the weapons, communications, and many vehicles had changed. I’ve now been out for 36 years - since 1983.
I had the M-16A1, M-113, M-901 ITV, and M-60 Machine Gun. The only thing stil on active duty is Ma Deuce, the M-2 50 cal machine gun. Starched fatigues, spit shined boots and a 5 event PT Test. I think I qualify for Old School.

It’s probably been said already in the thousands of comments, but you had to sleep with another guy in that shelter HALF.

Anything before Desert Storm,when they army got cut back and new rules came into play .

In the Marine Corps we talk about being "Old Corps". I always defined "Old Corps" as ending the day before you enlisted or were commissioned.

Doing PT in OD green fatigues with the white name tape, stripes on shoulders and U S Army in Gold letters.

Add C-ration with lucky stripe cigarettes to the list! 1976-1996!

You mean they actually issued Banana suits? I thought those were a military urban legend.
Old school for me is post Vietnam Era starting when I enlisted in December of 1975. Cotton fatigues, raised peak tropical fatigue cap, and boondockers. Spaghetti straps for the mountain bag and canvas web gear.

Used a latrine without stalls; kneeling at one end making sure the seats were aligned and rested at the same height
Watching new troops doing jobs that their mother did like pouring the entire box of detergent into a washing machine flooding the barracks.
Having salesmen selling enclopedias using the line that they were needed to be promoted. All 23 volumes.

9-12-1966 t0 11-14-1966, we PT'd in T-shirts and bloused fatigues. Spit-shined boot toes only to be worn off the next hour or so. Even rubbed shoe polish on the soles to make them look clean and new for footlocker inspection. No Corfam shoes for class "A's" - had to shine them puppies up from scratch! Basic at Ft. Ord (B-3-3- Short Round) was in the new concrete barracks. Steel pot helmets and liners always when under arms - the M-14 was the rifle at the time and as far as I could tell, everyone was issued rifles made by T.R.W. with ugly Birch stocks. We ate C-Rations in the field when away from the convenience of the mess hall. Had one free day from training and we were treated to a jeep trailer full of iced down 3.2. beer. Only training corporals were in attendance which was a good thing too. Advanced MOS training was at Ft. Gordon, GA beginning in November through December part partly into January of 1967. It felt like Antarctica. We were housed in squad tents (6-8 guys) around the sides with a fuel oil stove in the center for heat. One wall locker with broken handles and locks. During that time, being on fire watch really meant you-were-on-fire-watch. A hand-crank air raid siren was pole mounted in your area of patrol and it was well oiled. About every three or four days, guys would be down at supply drawing out new clothing and equipment and moving into new tents. Several weeks later, our living conditions were greatly enhanced when we were moved into old two story WWII wooden barracks with sheets of plywood haphazardly placed around on the floors because of the large holes in the floor. The entire outside area looked like the set of a WWII basic training movie. Only 3.2 beer served at the recreation hall - trainee's could not get the hard stuff - that white tag above your name tag was a dead giveaway. At the end of the training cycle, all of us, or course, would be heading over seas, which meant - shots. A hundred or so of us lined up at the orderly room with our shot records in hand and walked a gauntlet of corpsmen (well they said they were corpsmen) armed with needles and pneumatic shot dispensers looking much like a paint gun. The scene at the Oakland Army Terminal looked and felt like what it would have been like in WWII. Groups were assigned specific numbered bunks situated in giant warehouses associated with your name and a number. Formations every day where you stood in your zone and on your number for an hour or so three times a day waiting for shipment orders to come through. The daily humor was everyone mooing like a cow while waiting for the announcements to be made over loud speaker. Getting to your first duty station is another experience - especially when you are flatly told in timeless fashion ever since the Crusades: "Forget everything you learned back in the world - you gotta do it this way now." Getting paid with MPC which could only be spent on post. You could convert some to Piaster, Baht, Won or Yen - wherever you were, but you could only convert so much for a night out on the back skids. Well, I've learned over the years, that the Old School becomes the New School and on and on and on. The school curriculum is memorialized in remembrances like posted here in these forums. The guys in my time never heard of BDU's, MRE's, Camel Back, load vest, QCB's on the M-2, Raufoss Rounds, ACOG's, SAW's, MK-19's, M-4's, MRAPS, Humvee's, Squad Drones, AT-4's and wearing ear plugs and special sunglasses as part of the uniform. An M-16 had crappy rear sights and triangular shaped forward hand guards an unlined barrel with a three prong muzzle break that was used as a bush catcher. An angle head flashlight could be attached to the bottom of the forward hand guard with 100 MPH tape and the body used as a forward handgrip. Only aviation types had 9mm guns (mostly Swedish K's) or Browning Hi-Powers picked up or passed on by those rotating out. You got your ammo from the Aussies. Beretta was a shotgun and the designation M-9 was as clerical error . If you had a .45 pistol, you guarded it with your life. We wore boxer shorts and washed our socks out as often as we could. Five years from now everything today will be Old School and referred to as, "How we used to do it back in the day," or "What we used to use or carry." It's an ongoing process and will be for ever. I think it would be fun to lay a P-38 on a training table and tell the platoon, "Figure it out!" That's my story and I'm stickin' to it. . .

If you ever used a buffer to polish the company, battalion or brigade floors.

If you ever got cussed out and headbutted by a drill sergeant

Put your patrol cap on the pt mat after using stayflo in the washer

Ever got or given out wall to wall punishment

Got drunk at the NCO Club

Remember when the PX was better than Walmart

Actually called cadence with Jody calls

Used EMNU to keep your rank subdued

Had “field” uniforms and garrison uniforms (BDUs of course)