Army’s Beret Plan Hits Another Snag

The Army’s plan to boost morale by making the black beret the top of the uniform for 474,000 men and women has run into some controversy.

The latest came when defense contractors enlisted the sewing machines of China, India, Sri Lanka and Romania to meet the demand of the Army chief of staff, Gen. Eric K. Shinseki, that the new cover be ready for wearing on June 14, the Army’s 226th birthday.

Spokesmen for the Army and the Pentagon Defense Logistics Agency said Friday that to meet the deadline most of the black berets will be manufactured outside the United States. The move required a Pentagon waiver of a federal law that requires most defense products be made within the United States.

Turning to foreign suppliers has rankled members of Congress who oversee the military. The Army’s main cap supplier, Bancroft Cap Corp., of Cabot, Ark., was able to supply quickly only a fraction of the new black berets, Army officials said.

Steve Lamar, of the American Apparel and Footwear Assn., said many berets could have been made in the United States had it not been for what he called the Army’s arbitrary deadline. “This is a mistake,” he said, noting the decline of the U.S. textile industry that is now largely dependent on government contracts.

Eventually, all 1.4 million men and women in active, reserve and National Guard units will be equipped with two berets each at a cost of $26.6 million. That is about $9 a beret.

Until Shinseki’s new policy, the black beret was awarded only to soldiers who successfully completed 54 days of grueling desert, mountain and swamp survival training at Ranger School, and this has stirred grumbling in the ranks of the U.S. Army Rangers.

“You have to earn the black beret,” said a senior Ranger officer who spoke on condition of anonymity. “The black beret used to mean something. Now they’re just giving it to everyone, including women.”

There are only men in the three battalions of elite Ranger infantry.

In speeches and testimony before Congress, Shinseki said the beret, worn by most European military forces, would serve to boost pride and morale in the service.

Berets have come and gone in the ranks of the U.S. military over the decades.

One of the most celebrated berets was the green one authorized by President Kennedy for the Army Special Operations Forces. The Green Berets often operated as an arm of the CIA during clandestine missions in Vietnam, Laos, Somalia and Haiti as well as in Africa and Latin America.

Since then, the Rangers adopted the black beret; all members of the XVIII Airborne Corps wear maroon berets, and the Air Force special operations forces wear red berets.

Pentagon officials said President Bush heard some complaints about the new beret while visiting military bases last month. But the griping was unlikely to change Army plans.