Why is the boonie cap so demonized in the army?

I wore mine folded up sides string tied up and over. My jump wings pinning the strap up. When confronted I just pointed to my wings and said " I wear it cause I got these and I can."

Don't want comments then don't ask. 1. If you are in the field then you should be training, so unless you are special (LRSC, Sniper/Recon) then you should be in battle rattle!. You should always train as you would fight. The is the upmost reason, of course they fact the folks abuse it to hell and back by trying to customize it.

Same thing happened to us on a deployment. Snow, wind chill ~ 0 degrees Fahrenheit, and a Specialist came in with frostbite on the ears. He asked if he could wear his green or black stocking cap issued at the mobilization station. I told him "absolutely" and everyone working outside today and tonight needs to wear it. As the XO, I told my SNCO that was now the headgear of choice and no more government property called "ears" were to be destroyed due to extreme cold. I asked him to make it happen and spread the word through the Chain of Command. You would have thought I'd passed gas in church. The CSM came in and asked me "who authorized this?" I told him I had and we weren't getting Soldiers injured by being stupid. I further said if they Army didn't want us wearing it, they wouldn't have issued it and it was just plain common sense. After over 30 years in, I knew better than to bank on common sense. The CSM ran to the milquetoast CO and the CO came down and said "XO, be nice to the CSM" in his best whining voice. Needless to say, the TF CSM found out in a matter of minutes and the whole TF was wearing stocking caps. Mike Charlie. The same thing happened with boonie hats when the weather got hot. It makes you wonder how some people get promoted. Caveat: my apologies to all of my friends who are great CSM's and "get it." It's about taking care of our charges to get the mission done.

In RC East, I had a SGM that walked around with a thermometer and raised hell if we were wearing the Felt PT cap if it wasn't the AR prescribed temperature. He caught me one morning and wanted to see my 1SG, I took him to the grumpy AF Chief, he got more than he wanted as far as conversation! #priceless

From my experience, Soldiers won’t wear the Boonie properly. They have to be constantly corrected. When Soldiers are corrected, they quickly get an attitude about it. Most of the Soldiers that remain loyal to the proper wear of the Boonie were Drill Sergeants. It’s a shame because I think it’s a great cover in the extreme heat. I’m retired now so I wear it when I cut my grass.

The US military, and the Army in particular, have "personalized" headgear throughout history. To most of the command element, it's viewed as unprofessional. In the ranks, it's a source of pride and a statement. I'm good with it not being worn on post while in garrison. In the field and especially at the front, why not let these boys and girls have this one thing?

I still like mine, it is a survival cap & good for tropical sun shade I wondered why it was issued & never used once. I liked the mosquito netting too, used with it.

For my time in Vietnam with the 101st Airborne I never even saw or heard of a boonie hat. We were out in the bush 24/7 and even slept with the steel pot on. And on occasion used the old steel pot [helmet] to cook up some Boonie Rat Stew. Mmmmmmm good.

Well, I wasn't all that far up the food-chain as a Major, so my opinion doesn't amount to much. We had the Boonie Hats in the 60s - 70s and no one in my units ever got too uptight about how they were worn. We figured: Dress uniform - make it strac. Field uniform - make it practical.