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US Army berets - blue, black, green, maroon, tan...


BEAST
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In actuality, he did earn those awards as a recruiter in Vietnam. He was assigned to the 1st Administration Company of the 1st Infantry Division as an Army Career Counselor (MOS 00E4E) and was wounded in a rocket attack on his base camp at Lai Khe. Also note that in the photo he is wearing the ribbons of the Coast Guard Commendation and Good Conduct Medals from a previous stint in the Coast Guard.

 

Here is a link to his website: http://sgthack.com/

 

He seems to have had a very interesting career.

 

 

Well I'll Be.

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Based on photographic evidence, I'm starting to think that some NG and Reserve units (to wit:  armor) got away with wearing berets into the 1980s.

Well from my first hand experience I can tell you that the national guard did a lot of "non reg" things during that time frame. ;)

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Major General Don Starry, commander of the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment in Vietnam, wearing a black beret most likely while serving as commanding general of the Armor Center and School at Fort Knox from 1973 to 1976. It's hard to make out if he's wearing anything other than his rank on the beret.

 

This appears to be an official Army photo so it shows the degree of acceptance of berets during this time time period.

post-1761-0-34476200-1452798131.jpg

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  • 4 weeks later...
MilRGRHistory

Here is what I suspect to be an early beret from just after the formation of 1st and 2nd Ranger BNs. Originally, the flash did not have marks denoting the separate BNs. This beret came from an auction in Atlanta.

 

post-153545-0-33088100-1454889226.jpg

post-153545-0-55825100-1454889232.jpg

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MilRGRHistory

Here is my most recent beret pick-up. Confusing as it had an SF DUI attached to it which I removed. Another USMF forum posted a picture of a green beret of the same manufacturer saying this is a French manufactured beret? Because of the tab, I associate this with 1960s Ranger Department. Any additional information is welcomed.

 

post-153545-0-20880200-1454889535.jpg

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  • 1 month later...

Wayne Smith of Company E 15th Infantry Regiment 3rd Infantry Division on R&R in Seoul, Korea in 1951 wearing a black beret with unidentified insignia.

post-1761-0-85561800-1458045648.jpg

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Wayne Smith of Company E 15th Infantry Regiment 3rd Infantry Division on R&R in Seoul, Korea in 1951 wearing a black beret with unidentified insignia.

If this wasn't IDed with name and unit, first guess would of been a Frenchman of the French Battalion.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I have my own theory, but what do you chaps think of this one:

 

attachicon.gifred beret.jpg

Guess on my part but an airborne qualified soldier assigned to the 5th Special Forces Group?

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ROTC or JRROTC???

 

With the new Army Service Uniforms for JROTC we are issued Grey berets with a black flash with a orange border.

When we had the Greens 2 years ago we had School-based colored berets (Blue and Gold) for Color Guard but I honestly don't remember the flash we had.

 

D

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I picked this up (the red beret above), hoping that perhaps it's an army beret from the 70s; the beret does have two vents on the left side, so it's likely from that time. Red berets were worn by certain army units, chief among them artillery units such as those at Ft Sill, Oklahoma. The seller found this one at a Tulsa, Oklahoma flea market.

 

I initially presumed that this may be from ROTC/JROTC or a military school however they seem to have their own flashes. I wonder if an army unit may have adopted this 5th SFG flash since it was discontinued in 1970.

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I'm speaking of red, as opposed to maroon. Also, certain units at Ft Campbell wore red berets. Anyway, there's also this (below), the recollections of MG Becton, on his time as CG of the 1st Cavalry Division:

 

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I'm speaking of red, as opposed to maroon. Also, certain units at Ft Campbell wore red berets. Anyway, there's also this (below), the recollections of MG Becton, on his time as CG of the 1st Cavalry Division:

 

attachicon.gifcav berets info.jpg

Now that's a very good point M, perhaps it might be for one of these or those units in the 70s, the Flash, being a heretofore undocumented one for one of these units.

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I have my own theory, but what do you chaps think of this one:

 

attachicon.gifred beret.jpg

 

I found this while searching for militaria on the Goodwill website. Here is an actual maroon beret with what looks like a merrowed edged 5th Special Forces group flash. Maybe your beret was an older version of their current beret for the Valley Forge Military Academy.

 

 

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post-1389-0-66494700-1460226501.jpg

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I found this while searching for militaria on the Goodwill website. Here is an actual maroon beret with what looks like a merrowed edged 5th Special Forces group flash. Maybe your beret was an older version of their current beret for the Valley Forge Military Academy.

 

 

 

Well...that's a new wrinkle. Oh well...

 

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firefighter

 

I found this while searching for militaria on the Goodwill website. Here is an actual maroon beret with what looks like a merrowed edged 5th Special Forces group flash. Maybe your beret was an older version of their current beret for the Valley Forge Military Academy.

 

 

 

Great catch.I would never have guessed a military academy. PATCHES, That was a great movie, a lot of goof young actors.

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