What constitutes being "old school" in the military?

Old School... to me...as a senior petty officer... it means following the rules/regs and not caring whether or not a decision makes the questioning junior happy or not. I have seen to many times juniors questioning directions from their seniors, because they were not prepared or didnt want to perform an assigned task or follow a specific order because they simply didnt want to. At what point does one "cave" on this sort of crap? Since the end of my time in the service...I still work for the DoD...I have seen political correctness take over in a way I see seriously degrading our military. My opinion of political correctness is that it is a load of Bovine Fecal Matter, and used by both males & females to try and circumvent their way around what they are told. Threats of EEO/harassment complaints, in order to get what they want, and rather than fight it their seniors just give in rather than fight or risk their reputations being sullied even by false accusations. I hope this makes some type of sense?

I had BDUs, look how old school I am.

MAJ Robert (Bob) Petrarca And realizing that the M16 that was made by the lowest bidder also had parts built by Mattel, who built the toys you played with as a kid.

CMSgt James Nolan I remember going to the travel office to get our advances for per diem and travel. No such thing as a GTCC.

I feel I am old school, there are not a whole lot of us around that have a Southwest Asia Service Medal and Liberation of Kuwait Medal.

Going to the supply warehouse at least twice a year to inspect your 782 gear.
Being able to drink in the club on base, even if you were not of age outside the gate.
Flying in a C130, C141 or C5 wherever we went, none of this commercial flying like today.
We were issued the actual winter weather parka (with the furry hood), I did not like giving that back when I transfered.
You still smoked inside, and that included the hospital.
Air conditioning? What was air conditioning?
Wearing those ugly "chocolate chip" desert BDU's with huge collars, and doing a drug deal as soon as possible to get the tri-colors.
While deployed standing in line with everyone else to make a phone call home, "over".
Going to Dhahran with 5 C-Bags full of #10 coffee cans, and coming back with 3 aircraft pallets full of equipment we needed.

Can some one tell me when they stopped bayonet training in basic? I had some new soldiers ask me if I used bayonets in basic. I thought this was still being done. There is something about running through the woods with a sharp piece of steel strapped to the end of your rifle stabbing anything that moves that seems like a rite of passage. It also helped to weed out the weaker soldiers.

Personally, I think "old school" is more of a state of mind, rather than a matter of dates. I think if you care more about getting the job done right and less about power point presentations, you're old school. If you don't mind getting your Crow tacked on (you have to make sure it doesn't fly away after all) you're old school. If you don't get your boxers in a bunch over a joke, you're old school. If you stand up for what's right, even when it's not convenient, you're old school. If you care more about speaking the truth, rather than politically correctness, you're old school.

I dunno about old old school but I had a Chief who went to boot camp with Noah. So I knew an old school sailor at least. Oddly as prisoner escorts we wore those steel pot helmets painted a real pretty white. The Navy was probably the last holdout for those.

Reading a lot of posts on this topic and I would agree that it is an evolving term. When the Army changes uniforms again (hopefully soon) then the ACU generation will be "old school." I still have many sets of BDUs laying around! My dad came enlisted in 1972 as a field artilleryman and retired a LTC in 2001 (SDARNG) but didn't ever get mobilized except for a pretty cool exercise where they took his battalion (he was the S4 so very involved with the deal) of howitzers to South Korea for a month long FTX in '88. These days, man, with all the deployment activity and combat, well, my brother (E6) and I (O3) have seen a lot more ground than our father ever did and we still don't have the time in service he did (combined). We have active duty and National Guard time but yeah, Africa, Kuwait, Korea, Iraq, all sorts of duty stations across the US.

For me, old school means "Tough/Hard-ass Army." Everything seems to have gotten softer and softer throughout the years. I don't believe in stress cards, cell phone privileges, or these new barracks for IET soldiers. Other than the technology we train with, I don't see any reason for the way the "new army" is. When you hear a SSG complain that she has to share a barracks room with 3-4 other females *gasp* instead of staying in a hotel off post for a week long Conference/Dining In... Or that the other trainees in Ft Benning took video with their cells phones of your brother doing a power slide in a Bradley... Or not being able to punish your soldiers with push ups? Yea, that's new school and I'm not into it.

Polishing boots might be a start...or shoes for that matter?

Basic with an M-14, shelter halves, Mummy fart sacks, spit shined boots/low quarters, white name tags, US/RA, PCPT, ..............