What constitutes being "old school" in the military?

When one on of your basic training trainees gets commissioned and retired before you do.When you run into one of your trainees from basic and he's a MSG. When you get asked about how it was with General Washington. A concerned Seabee asks if he needs to get you a defibrillator while you are running around the FOB.

E6 and above or O5 and above.

If you served in the last century before cell phones existed, saw C-Rats being phased out and being replaced with MREs, had to heat the water for rehydrating your MRE in your steel pot with a sterno stove, saw your steel pot replaced with Kevlar Helmets and not given an alternate pot to heat water for your MRE (cold water just don't cut it), did PT in a black ARMY t-shirt and bloused fatigue trousers while running in your "PT Jumpboots", drove an M151-A1 with an M-60 mount between the front seats, saw your fatigues replaced with BDUs and were ordered to ignore AR-670 and iron pleats into said BDUs, strip and reassemble your M-16-A1 and your M1911 in less than 2 minutes, and knew how to land nav on paper maps while determining ground elevation from those lines on the map. This is my "Old School"

Served on a ship that had actual boilers and steam engines, not nuclear and/or uses gas turbine
Served on a ship that had no air conditioning
Served on a ship that got 20 feet from the pier and broke down
Knows what the F111 and F14 are
Knows what an FF and DE are
Had and used full analog dials, knobs and controls and use reel to reel and cassette tapes to load systems bios/OS on ships and punch cards on shore.
Served during a time that cell phones and internet had never been invented yet
Knows what HAM radio telephone calls are at sea back to your parents or family
Knows what a blanket party is
Knows what becoming a Shellback REALLY means and how a real passing is done
Knows what a Nuke Cruiser is

I joined in Jan ‘75; we wore cotton fituges with baseball caps, did PT in Cbt Boots without shirts before yellow PT uniforms and Saucer Caps with our Dress Greens. Gamma Goats, jeeps,
Mogas. 5/4s & 3/4T Powerwagons and M48A5 and M60A3 Tanks abounded. I think the line be set in the mid 80’s when we switched to the first came fituges. A lot of changes happened around that time.

Old school is relative, lots of changes since I ETS’d 45 years ago.
Break starch everyday
Spit shined boots and boot blousers
Steel pots
Web gear
P-38’s
C-rats ( included a 4 pack of cigarettes)
M-16A1 rifles had full auto selector
Basic and AIT was at Ft Bliss, TX for ADA
chaparral, hawk missles, Vulcan guns.
It would be laughable if you ever thought of saying your feelings were hurt, then there would be yelling followed by pt until you were too tired to worry about feelings. Feelings wasn’t in anyone’s terminology back then. Political correctness hadn’t been invented yet either. Back in the day it was about being prepared and trained for war.
I remember pulling guard duty at the motor pool at Ft Lewis, 1/67 ADA. It was a boring night. I kept hoping to come across someone so I could say halt, who goes there? Advance to be recognized. lol, nothing ever happened. All the military vehicles I drove were manual transmissions except for the m880 dodge 4x4. Yup, duece and a half, 5 ton and 1/4 ton ford jeeps.
Remember singing cadence, a yellow bird, lol.

I’ve heard stories about today’s army. They may have better equipment but hearing about feelings, whiners and political correctness makes me sick.
Just remember one thing… you’re not there to die for your country, you’re there to make the other mf die for his country!

I agree with the post, did all of those in the Marines. Semper Fi

I’m Old School Military. I took basic at Ft Dix in 196) and left for Vietnam In January 1968. Just in time for Tet.
Yes I’m old school man’s very proud of it.

First Company on base to have COMPUTERS. With NO WINDOWS, and dot matrix printers. Drove 5-ton MANUAL transmission trucks. "This side towards enemy. Off color cadence. Flew in Hueys and Cobras. Did correspondence courses. Drove ambulance, with no air-conditioning. Possibly tests and dogs on New Years Eve and Day. The clicking of their toenails as we waited in the day room. The call out of names for those receiving Article 15's, for their revelry. Push-ups and push-ups, so, so, many push-ups. Cattle car rides, and I could go on.... Great memories, some were "old school", and some were "new school" (for their time). But, we all SERVED, and that's what counts.

Did PT in your fatigues, wearing your combat boots. In basic and AIT lived in WWII barracks, pulled KP, cleaned the grease trap outside the mess hall, drilled with a real rifle the M1 Grand 8 1/2 pounds if I remember the nomenclature, policing the area, field stripping cigarettes, going to the local “beer bar”. Basic training concluded with a 26 mile, 13 miles out and back march, full field pack, rifle, steel helmet. WACS. Five days at the rifle range, in addition to your own MOS, everyone had a secondary of 11B. Drivers Ed on the jeep, 3/4 ton truck. Over night bivouac, putting up and sleeping in a pup tent, pressing my class A’s, and spit shining low quarters and two pair of combat boots. Keeping both your wall locker and foot locker squared away. Memorizing your individual service number (not your SS)