Beret's

[Fizzy]

Re: Beret's

On a slightly unrelated note, what's the guy on the left armed with?

G&G UMG with a large Maglite gaffa taped to it

[druid799]

Re: Beret's

Still the case, any one in or attached to 16AA Brigade will wear the Maroon Beret. Same as the clerk in Hereford will wear the Beige beret.

It's the Wings which are the qualification and are earned by doing P Coy.

As far as I'm aware, it's only Marines /All Arms Commandos that earn their beret.

Fairy muff , I was with PFA and and back then you got your cherry after P , but then after some tear inducing calculating I realised that was nearly 30yrs ago ! F**k I'm old !

[Gadge Europa]

Re: Beret's

It's gone full circle. It's how it used to be back when airborne forces were created in the UK.

Everyone in each 6000 man division got a maroon beret from the guy who did the dishes in the officers mess to the guy who did pathfinding ahead of the assault gliders...

The only ones wearing a different colour beret were *some* of the armoured recce squadron guys in 6th airborne. The wore a mix of red and black berets according to personal choice from pics i've seen.

[druid799]

Re: Beret's

It's gone full circle. It's how it used to be back when airborne forces were created in the UK.
Everyone in each 6000 man division got a maroon beret from the guy who did the dishes in the officers mess to the guy who did pathfinding ahead of the assault gliders...
The only ones wearing a different colour beret were *some* of the armoured recce squadron guys in 6th airborne. The wore a mix of red and black berets according to personal choice from pics i've seen.

Well f**k that's a bit sad , use to mean somthing , you'd earned it so to be honest I would be a bit unhappy to see some one tooling around with one , but in that case it now means nothing
stick one on sunshine and go for it !

[Gadge Europa]

Re: Beret's

But you know I mean all those guys who fought at Arnhem and didnt do Pcoy didnt 'earn' their beret. Most of them were transferred en masse from line infantry units, it's just gone full circle to how it was originally.

Surely it 'meant something' when the guys took pegasus bridge, or merville battery or held out for nine days at arnhem bridge or dropped into Suez etc?

But nobody had to 'earn it' then, you just had to be good at the job and not get RTU'd.

[LukeCDC]

Re: Beret's

When my hair is short i tend to wear my old cadet Para beret to the field, complete with cap badge, once a kid who had just joined the TA got it a bit hauty and asked why i was wearing it, but that was the only time, theres a guy who i used to see up at AP who would wear a red beret, i have no idea why, im no military expert that could identify what unit he was dressing as, but i didn't bother me so i never asked ( although i did think it funny when i could see a red beret poking up over a barricade :-) ).

L

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[Gadge Europa]

Re: Beret's

I always thought cadet para berets were dark blue but with a para cap badge.

My friend was a cadet para at charterhouse school CCF and they had dark blue berets but with para insig.

Usually cadet berets are different from the usual thing , IIRC when i used to be an AI for the QRL they had to wear a red patch behind the 'or glory' motto to stop them being mistaken for serving soldiers.

[RitchieTheBrit]

Re: Beret's

I was part of 16AA for the last few years I was in. We kept our beret, along with most other units I saw. The paras were kicking off back then because because everyone in 16AA wore the Pegasus patch on the shoulder, something they claimed the other units hadn't won.

Guess they forgot our forerunners were the Glider Pilot Regt. and our beret colour was taken from the Pegasus Bridge...

[LukeCDC]

Re: Beret's

People do tend to have short memories

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[druid799]

Re: Beret's

But you know I mean all those guys who fought at Arnhem and didnt do Pcoy didnt 'earn' their beret. Most of them were transferred en masse from line infantry units, it's just gone full circle to how it was originally.

Surely it 'meant something' when the guys took pegasus bridge, or merville battery or held out for nine days at arnhem bridge or dropped into Suez etc?

But nobody had to 'earn it' then, you just had to be good at the job and not get RTU'd.

I'd say its stretching it a bit to include someone getting 'issued' his cherry today with the paras of WW2 , those men were a totally different ball game , one day there in there original Reg next day there parachute , they were given there berets to mark them apart (and they rapidly came to see it them selves as the mark of being an elite soldier), but it was all new back then , to say they were playing it by ear would be an understatement !
As it evolved over time it became something you earned , like your wings .
So yea I can totally see where your coming from but but still think your way of the mark to compare the two groups .

[Gadge Europa]

Re: Beret's

Not really.

1944, you could be in the int corp, be assigned to glider landing in 1st or 6th Div and get a red beret with pretty much no additional training, no Pcoy , no jumps needed.

2014 you could be in a int corp unit of some sort, be assigned to 16AA and get a red beret with no additional training, no pcoy, no jumps needed.

I use Int corp as an example of the top of my head but it could easily be any non 'teeth' arm that doesnt require heli assault or jump training... like pay corps...

[chappythewonderbadger]

Re: Beret's

It's not red its Maroon, PARA not Monkeys!!

[LukeCDC]

Re: Beret's

It's not red its Maroon, PARA not Monkeys!!

Im confused....what are you on about??

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[chappythewonderbadger]

Re: Beret's

PARAs wear a Maroon Beret http://webarchive.nationalarchives.g...hpow_2para.jpg

Monkeys (RMP) wear a red beret (Scarlet) http://www.ukemergency.co.uk/photo/p1260534.jpg

[Hawke]

Re: Beret's

I wear a mud brown beret . I'm walting as a 1970s Brownie (Elf six)