Why do US Army soldiers wear baseball caps instead of berets like soldiers in other branches of the military?

EDIT. Looking back over this answer, I should clarify that General Shinseki was not a bad general. As far as I know, he was a very good general and an excellent Chief of Staff. He wanted to bring back the esprit de corps of the Army of the Seventies, but absolutely no one anticipated the backlash the black beret would bring about.

I am not certain where the black beret now falls into the mix. The Army has since changed its dress uniform back to the World War II style Pinks and Greens. This is another sordid tale, but I have wasted enough time today already. With the advent of the Pinks and Greens, it may be once again relegated to another footnote in history. Maybe someone out there who is more current than I am will fill us in.

But something else was happening. The line troops were tired of the beret, and the grumbling picked up again. Yes, it is indeed impractical, and we don’t want it anymore. Let the special guys wear a sweaty sock on their heads. We want the patrol cap back.

Hi everybody! I have been looking at posts on narcs and narc abuse on here and if has really helped me out a lot. I am currently struggling with my situation and need some advice/support. I met a narc last year, everything seemed to good to be true. Love bombing, always texting calling and taking me on dates. Everything changed when someone warned me about him out in public in front of him and who he is. This caused a conflict with us and the love bombing seized. he would tell me that everything is okay and i can come and talk. He would set a time limit on me and kick me out after that. he would then text me like everything was fine and we hung out again and after that he completely ghosted me for one week. He came back and texted me a week later laughing about the ghosting and acting like nothing had happened. he continued to text me ( not like in the beginning) make plans with me, then on the day of the plans he would just ghost me. One day he would act interested the next silence. i contacted him a month later and he acted like nothing happened. He was on a vacation and sent me a picture of another woman ( someone he allegedly met on the trip) to strike a reaction but i never gave him one. After the trip he came to my place and was extremely rude, accusing me of going on dates with a bunch of men. The next day he accused me of being an alcoholic and that he wanted nothing to do with me but said well maybe we can be "friends" then ghosted me i assumed at this point it was over and i would never hear from him again. He contacted me on the holiday a month later acting like everything was great. We ended up hanging out a month or so later and when we hung out it went well, i thought things were going in the right direction. after we hung out.. silence. I would try to text him and if he replied it would be very short then he just stopped replying. He ghosted me for almost three months. I thought he was done this time and of course he popped up again like nothing happened. At this point i was getting sick of if so i questioned him as to why he dissapeared and always does this. Of course he had some sob story about a injury and family member dying of cancer. I felt pity for him and he gave me an apology.. so i took him back stupidly. things seemed to be going smooth for a couple months, of course until his family member died and his injury got better he never contacted me and was distant. Menawhile, i was there for him during the difficult time for him. He lied to me about the funeral and never wanted to chat. I was chasing him and he would always claim nothing was wrong but when i said i thought he used me when he was down he could not handle it and would always tell me he didnt care and to go away. I would get so upset i would try texting him to work it out he would barelt respond and if he did he would not be nice about it. we did hang out a couple times after that, he would ignore me after. One day i was like hey i think you are seeing someone else, and i was like well ixam seeing someone so no problem if you are he said " buy bye good luck with your new guy stop contacting me" i was devastated and tried to get into contact with him for weeks then i just gave up and accepted it was over. He ended up contacting me a month later acting like everything was fine. He wanted to go out and have drinks i told him i would. He and i both seemed to have a great time. He ends up ignoring me again. I kept texting him trying to figure out what was wrong. He kept saying everything was fine and i said ok can we hang out again? He said maybe i was like why? He just kept saying maybe … our last conversation we had… i said what is wrong ? He said nothing is wrong everything is fine. I asked him why he keeps saying maybe. He said " maybe but i dont want to see you right now" i said why? He saix " im just not feeling it, if i wanted to date i would" i said why did you contact me less then a week ago wanting to go out? He said i didnt.. even though he did. So i said should i just move on or what? He said whatever you want to do. So i said that he was really confusing me and asked him if he had anything more to say before i move on? My messages were turning green so i panicked he blocked me and reacted irrationally. I said " omg did you block me? My messages are not going through. Even texted him on my work phone asking what was up. And called him twice ( please dont judge me i know it is pathetic i never was this type of girl before him) so he replied and said " Ok I'll block you now" then immedietly blocked me. He has never blocked me before since I have met him he will just ghost. Is this ths final discard aka " grand finale? Did i just push him too far? this has upset me so much its hard to even function.

Somewhere in the early 2000’s, Army Chief of Staff General Eric Shinseki reinstated the beret for the entire Army. It was a pretty good idea I suppose, but apparently not very well thought out. The new beret was black, the same color as the Ranger beret. The Rangers complained. “Dammit, we’re not special anymore!” So in an appeasement effort, the Ranger beret was changed to an earth color.

And that, my fellow Americans, is why you don’t see many berets in the U.S. Army.

This went on for several years. Another of General Shinseki’s objectives had been to update the old Vietnam era dress uniform we were still wearing, but after the infamous beret backlash, he wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pole. That uniform would not change for another generation (see below).

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EDIT. I did not make it quite clear that maroon beret is not unique to the 82nd Airborne Division. All airborne units in the US Army (and most other armies in the free world) wear maroon berets.

Okay, this is verrrrrrry complicated. Back in the Seventies, everybody in the Army who was assigned to Special Forces, Ranger, airborne units, or a division, wore a beret with his duty uniform. Every division sported its own color, which made parades quite colorful. About 1977 or 1978 , the Powers That Be came to the conclusion that this had gone too far. They shut it down, all except the Rangers (black) and the Special Forces (green). They even ditched the famous cavalry Stetson worn by the 1st Cavalry Division. The reason: berets brought a financial hardship on the soldiers. There were other stated reasons as well, but none of those made much sense either. I never heard anybody complain about having to mortgage his house to buy a hat, but you don’t argue with the Chief of Staff. The real reason was this: somebody high up in the chain of command simply did not like berets.

To make matters worse, when the contract to make all those berets came up for bidding, it went to the Chinese. Not long after, a Chinese fighter collided with an American intel-gathering aircraft, which made an emergency landing on Chinese soil. Soldiers are known for sarcastic humor, and this was no exception. “So, he says, the pilot stepped out of the plane and said, ‘We’re here for the berets.’”

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But things got worse, much worse. All those “special” guys pitched a royal fit. Again, “We’re not special anymore!” Again the Army Times erupted in a mass wave of emotion. This time the argument was that the beret was not practical. It soaked up rain and sweat, it took both hands to put it on, it didn’t keep the sun out of your eyes, and most soldiers didn’t know how to properly wear it. All of this was true, but apparently these negative characteristics affected only line troops. Definitely not the elite forces, who unanimously agreed that they should be the only ones to wear it.

So, what happened? Sometime after General Shinseki’s departure (I don’t remember the year, but it was after I retired in 2008), the Army went back to wearing the patrol cap with the duty uniform (at that time, the Army Combat Uniform (ACU)). The now hated beret was retained for wear with the dress uniform. There were some caveats, such as parades, but the number of berets you saw on a post drastically dropped overnight.

A few years later, the 82nd got their maroon berets back, and they held a ceremony in which the beloved maroon beret was disinterred. At least these guys were now happy.

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The Army Times erupted in emotional editorial articles and letters, with soldiers complaining bitterly about losing their beloved berets. The 82nd Airborne Division actually held a funeral and buried a maroon beret, complete with a tombstone, at its headquarters at Fort Bragg, NC. You never saw such an emotional display over a hat.