Unit Pride
Unit Pride
Posted on Jan 6, 2018
Should Army units with a solid history be allowed to wear distinctive head gear?
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We have units that wear Tri-Corner Hats, Berets, and Stetsons, and Campaign Stetsons, but we have other units that have performed Courageous Acts, with long lineage far older than many of the afore mentioned units, who do not get the same opportunity to wear distinctive headgear. Units Come to mind the Wisconsin "Iron Brigade," The 69th Irish Brigade of New York, Or the oldest units in the History if the Army...The Florida National Guard orginally Spanish Militia is older than all other Units of Any branch of service, yet nothing of significance for a unit that is older than the Guard itself.
Dress Uniform
Unit Pride
Military History
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 14
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Yes it helps unify the Army because the other services are laughing at all the time the Army spends trying to decide what to wear to the dance.
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SPC John Parmenter
During my Active Duty time, Soldiers of each unit wore a DUI on front of their blocked (later baseball) caps while in garrison. That practice encouraged unit pride while not getting carried away with fluff & feathers.
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I'm a Marine so I don't have a dog in this argument. As long as we Marines get to wear the Eagle, Globe and Anchor on our headgear, I'll be happy. But I remember at Camp Pendleton back in the 1970s when the Marine Corps was having green berets (like the UK's Royal Marines wear) wear-tested for possible adoption. The ones doing it were almost laughed off base. And most Marines realized that the Royal Marines go through many months of gruelling commando training to earn their green berets, whereas U.S. Marines, not so much. I agree that in the British Army, some units have unique headgear (bearskin busbies, Highland bonnets, cavalry helmets and breastplates, feather bonnets, shakos and the like), but that is a tradition that goes back 200 years or more. In the U.S. Army, do they want to go back to 1812 shakos? Civil War kepis? Are the taxpayers supposed to pay for that? Elite units (green berets and rangers) have berets, cavalry units like to wear spurs and 1870s campaign caps, but really, if just looking different is what it takes to build esprit de corps, what about being educated about unit history, or taking pride in the unit's colors - what is that worth? Just ask a Marine sometime.
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Sgt Dale Briggs
In Anglico we had a British Marine Color Sgt Attached. Never could figure out what he did though other than to drink coffee, he never hit Co Pt or went to the field, but we thought the beret a bit strange. No beret, it's just wierd.
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Maj John Bell
Sgt Dale Briggs - All I can say is that Color Sergeant was on the ROAD (Retired on Active Duty) if he wasn't performing the duties of his billet in the exemplary manner one would expect had a US Marine SNCO been in the same billet. Every service occasionally promotes someone to a rank above their worth.
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1SG Dean Mcbride (MPER) (CPHR)
Not pertinent to the original question... However, adding to Major Bell's comment --- Goggle "The Peter Principle". The principle asserts that "members of a hierarchy are promoted until they reach the level at which they are no longer competent." In other words, everyone is promoted to their highest level of incompetence. This applies to the military as well as to corporate America.
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