Castus
Member
- Reaction score
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- Points
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Military headdress has changed over time. And it needs to continue evolving.
Headdress itself in civilian/private life is now a casual accessory that's not required and purely optional. No one wears a fedora or top hat anymore. On a routine basis.
The RCN has used ball cap since before my 24 year career commenced and the world has kept turning and sailors have kept being sailors.
I'm sure our more junior brethren in the CA and RCAF will be just fine as well.
The same argument that indicates that it needs continue evolving can be used in the reverse, because it is entirely subjective. I am honest that I am subjective. I will add one more thing - modern society has completely lost any sense of aesthetics. Older forms of head dress are more aesthetic. People ought to be wearing fedoras and top hats, at least on formal occasions.
Want to get rid of berets? Fine. Make our uniforms better fitting and better looking, and add a better looking head dress. There are many of them that aren't baseball caps.
Regarding the RCN, their uniform at least looks better with a baseball cap than CADPAT. The aesthetics match with NCDs and a baseball cap, at least tenuously. They do not match with CADPAT.
Lots of militaries use berets, and lots use other forms of headress that are similar to ball caps. Some have both, and use berets for more formal occasions, so that argument doesn't hold much water.
I agree we should have a work/garrison dress, but the CAF dropped work dress because it was too expensive to have each member maintain three sets of uniforms. CADPAT/NCDs are expensive, but issuing everyone CADPAT/NCD and work dress is more expensive.
Since we are mostly wearing practical non-ceremonial uniforms, we should also be wearing practical hats.
Nothing screams competence and professionalism like wearing a dark wool hat and squinting in the sun at 32°C in downtown Ottawa...
I am glad we agree that there ought to be a garrison dress of some sort. Note that I don't believe we need shin high boots which need to be spit polished, which would be a waste of time on a daily basis. We are very capable of having a casual look which is easy to maintain - perhaps a pair of nice Alt-Berg low cut shoes, something that can be easily maintained with brush polish, is military enough with a decent grip that one can do at least some work in them, but that aren't full on boots? Leave those for the field. In any case, allegedly the Kiwis did a study which indicated that wearing full combat boots every day weakened stabiliser muscles in the ankles and around the legs and increased incidence of ankle injury. Such is the rumour, anyways.
What makes you think it’s not being enforced?
Are you certain you know what today’s standard is?
Hint: It’s not Gerard Butler-level Spartan fitness…to attain that would be those very same officers andNCOsSr. NCMs personally enforcing levels above the institutional standard.
I work at a large HQ with many people and observe the extremely lax fitness standards. I understand that this is different in field units, but for better or worse, the preponderence of the military does not operate in them. Furthermore - it is more difficult to be stringent with subordinates and peers in such an HQ. I don't really wish to silhouette myself any more than I have.