What constitutes being "old school" in the military?

If you had cold beer machines in dayroom.

Old school? Having fire watch in a two-story WWII barracks during the winter months, and having latrine duty afterward. Learning to properly blouse boot trousers without help from a rubber blousing rubber. Or how to clean your tin canteen and look for pinholes. Having oversized pistol belts that never seemed to adjust and fit. Flaming the old coal boilers for heat and keeping them burning during the night so everyone stayed warm, and falling asleep atop the coal and when the Sergeant came about, lied telling him you didn't fall asleep on duty and you looking like you took a bath in coal from head to toe.

When your poncho liner "woobie" is older than the LT that just arrived...

Yes... That has literally happened.

Taking an MSTS ship to the war in vietnam. In July of 65 Johnson sent thousands of Americans to Vietnam. I was on the MSTS MANN operated by the Merchant Marine. Their were 3000 troops on the ship that was supposed to hold 1500. We left from oakland Army terminal while their were riots going on in Watts a section of the city of LA. In front of the oakland Army Terminal Hippies were demonstrating on the street in front of the Army terminal. The girls were carrying signs that said"Make love not War". We sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge out to sea, A tanker passed us coming into port. A loud Speaker on the tanker said "If your going to VietNam Givem Hell" 18 days later we Were in Vietnam Making a landing At QuiNhon. We tool a Mike boat to shore the front end dropped down and we hit the beach. What bothered me was that when we landed we didn't have our weapons. I spent 4 yrs in the Marine Corp, we didn't go anywhere without our weapons. The Army saw it different. WE were the 205th Ord. PLt. (Ammo) sent to set up ASP,s for !st Air Cav on their operations into the Jungle. Semper Fi.

Don't forget about using a buffer to make the floors look like glass.
Johnson & Johnson paste wax
Lite it on fire, drop spots of melted wax on floor
continue to buff until is shiny
use a piece of wool blanket, brown t-shirt to get that highly blinding shine that makes the 1SG walk around all day with a grin and a stiffy.

Don't forget the ALERTS.
Turret counseling/back deck counseling/wood line counseling
Buy beer from the coke machine
The first set of MRE's in the dark bags
2 beer limit during lunch

Oh, who the heck knows? When I was still affiliated with the Navy, they reinvented the service every 3 to 5 years -- each time someone above me labeled it as being "the new Navy". It didn't take too long before the next version of the "new Navy" had an awful lot of features in common with the Navy that had been declared obsolete a few iterations back. So, "old school" seems to rely on which version of the service was in effect when you first put on the uniform

I would say that if you ever had to carry a code book on a rope around your neck when on a field problem show you could communicate on the radio you would definitely be considered "Old School". Especially if you had to shack and unshack grid coordinates to locate movement points, which was a science all unto itself.

Having an ash tray on your desk at work. Almost everyone in my unit did, "back in the day".

Hazing allowed versus hazing not allowed and by not allowed I mean actually punished when it happens.

Graduating from boot camp yesterday!