Dark Blue Berets return

[Loachman]

Try turning in one of the old black air mattresses that had not been used for about twenty-five years (since I bought my Thermorest pad, long before the knock-offs were issued) and had turned crispy.

 

[dimsum]

The beret was only worn with Greens and we had a baseball cap to wear with work dress.

So we *were* able to wear a ball cap with operational dress back in the day?  Those same people thinking it's unprofessional (except when the RCN does it) now?

:

 

[FJAG]

So we *were* able to wear a ball cap with operational dress back in the day?  Those same people thinking it's unprofessional (except when the RCN does it) now?

:

I wouldn't call it "operational dress". It looked like what a gas station attendant wore back in the days when they had them and was supposed to be for "working" around the base--an almost coverall outfit. Unfortunately we started gussying it up so as to "look sharp" in it which made it impractical as a true "working" outfit. I mostly wore mine in an office environment where we also wore the pants bloused with combat boots and linden green short sleeved shirts (instead of the blueish-green one). Subsequently we wore the Corcoran boots with work dress pants and the coat of many colours as "Garrison Dress"

It got quite confusing for a while.

;D

 

[Blackadder1916]

So we *were* able to wear a ball cap with operational dress back in the day?  Those same people thinking it's unprofessional (except when the RCN does it) now?

:

This is a CWO in 1972 in work dress and wearing the ball cap. Cap badges were not supposed to be worn on the ball cap, but there was a lot of "gussying it up" in those early days in an attempt to make it recognizable as a military uniform.  The ball cap did not last long;  the "Elmer Fudd" cap (a winter version of the cap) lasted much longer and was, IMO, a useful piece of kit.

The photo is from https://www.armycadethistory.com/Argonaut/Argonaut_camp_RSMs.htm

 

[Good2Golf]

As I recall, i wore mine into the early 2000s, until I was issued CADPAT everything.

Mine remains in my closet, ready to be returned when I finally release, in order to make junior Sup Techs in clothing stores say "What the hell is that?"

Yup, it was still issued while OG107 was worn. :nod:  Of all the funky late-70s/early-80s stuff I returned to Clo Strs on release, I felt worst about giving back my ‘boonie cap’ (what I called it, due to a cousin in the 82nd calling it that the first time he visited me on base and saw it...he got me hooked on a woobie and real rain gear too, at a time when Canada just had that think rubber-coated crap rain gear that smelled like a cross between puke and dog crap...)

I also returned a steel pot helmet painted black with white ‘BDF’ underneath the cam cover, a fully-functioning Black Betty that Loachman refers to (but mine was in awesome shape - loved it!) and the piece de resistance was a couple of the old OG107 intermediate coats with the corduroy collar. 

At least they let me keep my vibram’d Mk. IIIs. ;D