What constitutes being "old school" in the military?

Yes to all of that... and no stress card. Suck it up buttercup.

Old School. Not a great time - When Recruiters were forced to fill quotas, When Drill Sergeant could man handle "trainee's" and mass punish large groups for fun, when NCO's could shut you down for being "squared away", before NCOES, before promotion boards, before DFAC, when every step was guarded.
Kids are smarter now, people are kinder. Maybe Old School is not your school. Get R done Your way within the New Military.
FREE YOUR MIND !

You mean they don’t do this stuff anymore lol

Long before STRESS CARDS!!!

Your fatigues had buttons and not zippers. They also were not permanent press.

That line is generational and ever changing.

if you ate c rats, spit shined boots, ran pt in combat boots, rode in jeep, your jungle fatigues were od green, wore a steel pot, I think you would qualify as old school

My definition would be if you have ever survived a change in uniform. Say, for example, going from the bdus to the digital pattern or from the class A's to the asu's.

NCO's were all Vietnam Era...
"Shark" Attacks as they call it now in BCT
Spit Shined EVERYTHING
Pressed Uniforms
Crappy Grey PT's
Vietnam Era LBE
Woodland Pattern Heavy for field, Light for Garrison....
M16A1's then FINALLY M16A2's
.45 ACP then FINALLY M9's
Crappy "Brown" MRE's
Humping every piece of gear you owned, EVERY F'n FTX/TX known to man
Qualifying once a month
Zero'ing every week
More Field Time than Garrison Time
F**K was used as noun, verb, adjective, and every other spot appropriate
No Privacy, 50 bunk squad bays, finally got 2/3 man rooms eventually
Did I say, SPIT SHINED EVERYTHING!
Trained like we were Rangers/SF, yet we were only Light Infantry
4 year contract, spent 34 months out of 48 in the field....
Stick shifts on everything
No Females in the f'n way EVER...
Red Card? WTF is that...
Yelled @ constantly...
Treated like sh*t if you were a dumbass
No Coddling Given
No F'ks Given


Tons more....but yeah, old school was, sink or swim, do or die....No one was going to save your ass. Learn your J-O-B or be drummed out!!

The grand use of a P38.