What constitutes being "old school" in the military?

Totally right!

I was before yellow shorts... Mine was fatigue pants, un-bloused black boots and ate K/C-rats for starters. 69-89. Old school enough for you?

Well I know i’am old school. My PT uniform was white t shirt unblowsed od green fatigues. And black combat boots. Our PT test consisted of horizontal ladder run dodging jump inverted crab, walk forward, N backwards, push-ups, sit ups and a 2 mile run that was a PT test. Now in my opinion old school in the military was if you were from the old way of the military. Nowadays I guess the DOD changes policy so much. I guess anything over 12-15 years in makes you a present time old school. If that makes sense

Cochran jump boots spit shine to a mirror finish, green fatigues starch so the could stand by themselves, LBE and green rucks, 1/4 ton jeep with no tops in the winter, aluminum canteens, a serial number that was not you SSAN, M-14 just before the M-16, steel pots and last but not least aluminum mess kits. The good old days.

It is all about perspective. I would say the only things is 10 years.
Brown boots...
Black boots...
Sneakers at PT...
Stress cards in Basic...
Not smoking in the military...
Not cursing at your Airborne Troopers...
Not saying LEG anymore...
Gay service... (Omg it was a crime when i joined Dishonorable discharge)...
Brown boots back again...
Trans military...
Drone military...
Pilotless aviation (epically hellos and Navy)...
Spaceforce...
Trans not allowed in the military...
I honestly can't imagine what will come next...
But, all but brown boots I saw in my service (post Hondorus)...
I got out at the last 3 months of 02.
One thing that never changes...
Once you are there most become family from another and remember one another for life.
KoREa?
Hondorus?
Panama?
gUlF W@R 1?
Bosnia?
Fall of Russia?
Kosovo?
War on terror?
Ukraine?
And every war that every was. Service members always form a 2nd family.

I think the lifespan of the military values and norms migrate a bit after 8-10 years of presidents and/or congress. I think it has always been that way through human history with the exception of military technology advances.

I thought a lot about this while serving. However, I might have been wrong.

Just my $0.02 and what I learned/noticed while serving and learning about military history during and since then.
Sgt(p) medically retired.

I agree with the Maj. Petrarca, I would ad ate C-rations from the 1940s as we Marines did in the 60s

If you ever:
used a toothbrush to clean the door sill plates going into a building
used the legs cut off pantyhose to buff your dress shoes for inspection after spit shining with Kiwi paste shoe polish
used the floor of the barracks for an ironing board to iron a razor pleat into dress and duty uniforms and used a wool blanket as an ironing pad
used Brasso on ANY metal surface that could be used as a mirror
cleaned toilets or urinals with a sponge and bare hands
used the black "Property of U.S. Government" pen
used a ticker tape machine to order supplies for your unit
looked up cross reference part numbers on a microfiche file and machine

'Old School' can be found in my reflection in the mirror.
And it doesn't matter one whit what anybody else thinks.

Getting your Retired "Indef" ID Card

When you wore one piece fatigues wore clodhoppers and carried an M-1 Garand 1955