A story near and dear to my heart. The Beret is totally less than useless.
I can't forget our Batt SGM before and after our Iraq AT. He wanted us to wear the Beret with the DCUs!!! (not in Iraq, but at Ft Lewis for the MOB and De-MOB).
Before going to Iraq, most of us sent our Berets home to have one less item of useless gear to loose. So, when we returned to FT L, we had to go purchase new Berets.
We were the ONLY unit I ever saw wearing the Black Beret with DCUs.
We were special, like the special olympics.
While I avoided wearing a black beret with my DCU, I did have to wear an non-USA-colored (sort of like powder-blue, but different) one. Luckily, that was only for ceremonial purposes. Day to day, however, all the multinational contingents wore the same brimmed headgear. Officially called a "Stetson," it could be worn a hundred different ways; each style with its own soldier-generated name.
I can't help but think that the adoption of the beret in the first place way back when was that it was meant to be more of a fashion statement than anything else. We always associate that the Green Berets (thanks to John Wayne), and that's probably where they should have stayed. I can say that if you had two, you could probably come up with a killer game of mini-jai alai.
Yes, they're very non-functional. Seems to me the patrol cap, or better yet just a baseball cap that could be even worn backwards for when you need to have that "fashion statement" look, or feel the need to break into Bubba mode.
I say this becomes fodder for an episode of Project Runway. They could re-do the cap issue and also re-do the awful dress blues. I mean, how tacky can one get with that ugly stripe and the mismatched shades of blue.
None of it works. Both would make Tim Gunn cross his arms and say, "I'm worried."
Somewhere I have a Rising Sun hat badge and I can probably source some Emu feathers.
I'm not sure either would really improve the Rasberet but it could be worth a try - want to make a fashion statement?