Get my t-shirts at: www.bunkerbranding.com/pages/ryan-mcbeth Join my Substack at: ryanmcbeth.substack.com/ Get an American made check rig or plate carrier: dynamicprinciples.us/ This is a follow-up video to my video about Strykers being set to Ukraine: ua-cam.com/users/shortsxNaKLGWfv7s?feature=share General Eric Shinseki served his country with honor and distinction. His ideas helped create the Infantry Brigade Combat Team which helped make deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan more efficient. However in his rush to use the black beret as the symbol of a lighter, more deployable force, he used Chinese suppliers, in violation of the Berry Act. Watch all of my long form videos: ua-cam.com/play/PLt670_P7pOGmLWZG78JlM-rG2ZrpPziOy.html Twitter: @ryanmcbeth Join the conversation: discord.gg/pKuGDHZHrz Want to send me something? Ryan McBeth Productions LLC 8705 Colesville Rd. Suite 249 Silver Spring, MD 20910 USA References: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/442nd_Infantry_Regiment_(United_States) Army historical summaries. history.army.mil/books/dahsum/1990-91/ch08.htm history.army.mil/html/bookshelves/resmat/desert-storm/index.html www.silverhawkauthor.com/post/authors-military-service-in-bosnia-herzegovina-sfor-co-canic-sarajevo-21-june-to-30-dec-1997 www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2001-08-26-0108260232-story.html www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/budget/fy2001/dot-e/army/01iav.html man.fas.org/dod-101/sys/land/docs/man-la-mav-001118.htm www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/litany-of-problems-reported-with-armys-stryker-vehicle/ nation.time.com/2011/06/14/so-long-black-beret Rights: "De Minister van Defensie schudt de hand van de commandant SFOR, US general Eric K. Shinseki." is marked with CC0 1.0. "Voldemort vs Dumbledore" by Cryptonaut is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. ua-cam.com/video/a_xchyIeCQw/v-deo.html ua-cam.com/video/RhpgCaPoBaE/v-deo.html "Bosnia 1998-10-29" by U.S. Army Europe is marked with Public Domain Mark 1.0. General Shinseki in Vietnam - Portsmouth Herald "442ND A MOST DECORATED GROUP OF U.S.SOLDIERS" by roberthuffstutter is licensed under CC BY 2.0. "442nd R.C.T." by Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. Infantry Brigade Combat Team: By CrucibleX - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24685687 Ranger Games A Story of Soldiers, Family and an Inexplicable Crime Ben Blum · 2017
I remember in the run-up to the second gulf war when Shinseki was called to testify before a congressional committee. When asked how many troops it would take to occupy and pacify Iraq after an invasion he said, "About 250,000." Naturally W.Bush scooted the general out of town and away from cameras while that administration pressed on, selling a very different story.
green berret was the usual one for german infantry in last century, black for the tanks - remember the Blitzkrieg guys back from the dawn of WW2 , those where the gernan Panzerdivision guys - in black of cause.
if you think there's any way in hell i would let anyone else touch let alone wear my kepi blanc, Non. I would literally kill or die for that. I had no idea about the U.S. beret controversy.
@@typxxilps Berets for infantry in Heer is a postwar thing. Though the Panzerwaffe indeed used berets during WWII they were actually somewhat larger than a beret and were indeed black.
When I was a cadet, I was asked to play cello at a West Point Alumni reception at which (then newly-appointed) VA Secretary Shinseki was a guest of honor. After I was done, General Shinseki came up to me and complimented my playing, really laying it on thick, with poetic license... and "how great it was to have such talent in the Corps of Cadets." Afterward, the Superintendent thanked me for my performance giving me his coin, and I stated to him I was glad Gen Shinseki liked my playing. Gen Hagenbeck looked at me with a comical look and replied: "Cadet, General Shinseki's deaf!" I looked at Shinseki who was conversing with the CG of USARPAC and the CG was yelling slowly in his ear (so he could hear). I later found out he needed hearing aides in both ears, dating from his time as an artillery spotter in Vietnam. Shinseki couldn't hear my playing at all. He was a great schmoozer.
It's quite possible that he could hear the lower frequencies given out by the Cello as generally people lose the high frequencies first. Because cello music is mostly in lower frequencies he may have been able to hear everything which would have been very special for him.
I believe his hearing loss was from the land mind when he lost his foot, and well combat plain and simple.. in vietnam up till 2000 ear plugs/hearing protection was looked down on in the infantry/combat arms... my story Shinseki was my division commander at Fort Hood in 1995. There was a Brigade change of command and I was detail out to the protocol office in 1st CAV Div HQ. I spent a week prior calling Medal of Honor awardees, retired Generals, Full Birds, one thing I learned talking to all those men.... They were just that men! They put their pants on one leg at a time just like everyone else (the first Medal of Honor Awardee told me that when I couldnt get words out). So the day of the change of command (I want to say Jan 95), I was in Class A's with trench coat (only time I ever wore it) and gloves. I was an usher and I would escort the MG Shinseki, Col Casey (3rd BDE Commander, Future Army Chief of Staff), and the Division CSM from the steps at the grand stand to their seats. When MG Shinseki came up, I saulted and gave a loud and thunders HEADHUNTERS SIR!.. He smirked and returned my salute and he noticed that I was shivering (it was 25 degrees at Fort Hood), and asked me if I was cold... the young dumb PV2 with 6 months in, that had been talking with higher ranks for a week, gave an honest answer... I said "Hell yes Sir!", the Division CSM snapped his head around and death stared me like I had just slapped his mom in the face. I went to parade rest, and said "Sgt Major, he was a man before he was a general, he puts his pants on just like I do one leg at a time." The all three laughed at the young ballys PV2. 3 months later the division CSM want a new driver and it came down to my roommate and Me. My roommate got the job cause at the time I was dipping and CSM didnt want a smoker or dipper.
@@soup31314 Haha, the CSM! One thing I disagree with Ryan on was that Rangers weren't upset about the whole beret thing. A lot of people were fussy about it but the only person I can remember ever genuinely being upset was a Ranger CSM.
@@Prfactist Plenty of Ranger's were pissed off... I was stationed in Darmstadt, Germany at the time, and we had an entire Ranger BN stationed with us. We heard all the pissing and moaning that came from them! There were even articles in the Army Times were there were plenty of interviews of Rangers that were upset about it! It wasn't until the Army finally allowed the Rangers to adopt a new color that all the griping went away. The main argument was that the Rangers had to EARN their beret, and the Army was just going to give it a away to other troops. It was all about the fact that the beret distinguished them from other troops. In hindsight, it would have been better if the Army would have let the Rangers keep the Black Beret, and given another color (such as the Tan Beret) to the general rank and file!
Ryan, from 1992-1994 I was a very young captain, straight out of tank company command in the 2ID. Assigned to the Army Staff, I was struggling to become a competent staff officer in that highly competitive environment. BG Shinseki was the boss of that 35 person staff section in G-3 training. He was the most honorable officer that I would ever meet. I remember several times when he would walk into our office wearing a PT uniform with his running shoe on his prosthetic leg and calmly ask, “Would any of you like to join me for a run?” Not an order, but a question. We quickly got into PTs and ran around the reflecting pool at the Lincoln Memorial or past Arlington Cemetery with him. I will never forget the respect and admiration that I feel for the man, Ric Shinseki. I don’t care about hats, just honorable soldiers and leaders who made me a better soldier by showing me their integrity.
When I was a 17-year-old conscript our RSM, who was close to retirement, got angry over something, well angrier then normal, and sent us on a 5Km run. When we got back there was no sign of him. About 10 minutes later he came puffing in, he had done the run himself. What a legend, we loved to hate that guy.
I served through that entire period, and well remember our feelings over the change to black berets, and other changes. We were so cotton picking happy when we were finally able to go back to the field cap, with the visor. The beret was just much MREs trouble than it was worth.
Gen Shinseki I believe used custom shoes from Hersey custom shoe in Fitchburg MA -- a few miles from where I live. Still in business. Fitchburg is a little like a small version of Detroit, but in North Central Massachusetts.
Shenseki's greatest step for me was when he was the lone general that stood against Rumsfelds war plan for 03 telling them 1 Division was not enough. Shenseki was absolutely correct. He had the foresight of SASO after the major combat operations. He put his career on the line and stuck to his guns as a great officer should. He lost his position for doing the right thing.
@@spcrusch that's a terrible idea. The Army now is looking at bringing back those jobs. Your formation is too big to try and condense everything into 2 jobs.
If you are a civilian of sufficient age, with no Army people in your extended family, you know Shinseki's name for just this one thing. Generally love this channel, but highly disappointed that Ryan completely omitted any mention of what could be considered Shinseki's finest hour.
My dad worked in Army Acquisitions from the 70s all the way to 2002. He played a roll in bring pretty much every missile the Army uses into service. He said that Shenseki was given kind of a raw deal at the end of his career because he he refused to toe the Rumsfeild/Wolfowitz line regarding troop numbers for the invasion of Iraq. My dad had tremendous respect for Shenseki.
They should have listened to Shenseki. But the Bush people did not care. They said long before Bush got into office that they were going to change things in Iraq. Over 4400 Americans that they admit to died because of Bush and companies lies. Oh well.
@dennissullivan1651 The VA got overwhelmed by all those people who went again and again and again to Iraq and the Afghan. Just like back in 1968 when the WWII vets had to deal with their PTSD and then those coming home from Vietnam with their PTSD.
@@evinchester7820 yup and people were shouting from the rooftops that this would be a problem when stop loss and multiple tours back to back to back became the process but here we are.
@@evinchester7820 It wasn't "overwhelmed"; it was *allowed* to be overwhelmed by a Dubya admin that didn't give two shits about much of anything besides selling their unjustifiable invasion and looting of Iraq. Acknowledging that the VA system was already too underfunded to meet the needs of vets and that the waves of new casualties Operation Iraqi Liberation (OIL) would only make that problem worse would destroy Dubya's lying selling-point of "this war won't really cost us anything". And people didn't just "go again and again and again" to America's wars of choice; they were forced to do so, because, again, doing the jobs right (assuming Dubya ever cared about his claimed goal of "spreading democracy", which he didn't, as evidenced by the laughable neophytes neo-cons put in charge of Iraq and Afghanistan while they looted those nations) would require numbers only a draft could meet, and Dubya couldn't sell that, so he abused the shit out of the largely-minority volunteer force in ways from which it still has not recovered, and probably never entirely will. These were possibly some of the most cynical and exploitative military operations in American history. At least, I sure fucking hope they were and will be, because we're scraping-up the dirt under the bottom of the barrel here. The operations couldn't have been more cruelly absurd if they were fucking Kafka novels.
I served from 85 - 88 in the 1/15 Infantry stationed in Kitzingen, FRG. Shinseki (then a colonel) was our 2nd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division commander. We had a lot of respect for him. I remember we had a brigade run and Shinseki was right in front of the entire brigade. You could tell he had half a foot because his boot bent at a sharp angle when he walked. But he didn't have a noticeable limp and he ran us into the ground that day. Maybe in your time soldiers hated change, but in my day, we loved it. Our pay sharply increased, we went from wearing a permapress Viet Nam era "picklesuit" and baseball cap to BDUs and a cap you can fold. We went from M60s and M113s to M1s and Bradley IFVs. And most of all, the public view of the military skyrocketed. I still remember coming home to attend OCS after my first tour in Germany and a fellow passenger on the plane thanked me for my service. That never happened when I first joined in 1981. We just got stares in the airports. Sad that a stellar military career Shinseki had can be overlooked over headgear.
I was with 3-4 CAV from 88 to 91, when he was ADC M and he threw me under the bus for transferring loaders between two M3s without permission. He was so focused on so called "crew stability" he made the effort to call out me, a platoon leader, for screwing up "his numbers". Personally, I wouldn't piss on that little shit if he was on fire.
Canadian (military) here. The Stryker Regiment out of Seattle is insanely good. We worked with them on exercise and it was crazy how good their performance was. Our self-directed Op For launched an ambush on our supply convoy and the Stryker's attacked the ambush party with an attack of their own in under 5 minutes from the time the original ambush commenced. They weren't the force protection or even on the same net. Their HQ element must have been monitoring comms and picked up on the contact report. Also, the problem with tracks is that you can 'throw' track by having an inexperienced driver and they're alot of maintenance. There are a lot of advantages in modern battlespaces for wheeled vehicles
@@Briselance True, but the Strykers not meant to be a heavy war machine, even if they get used that way. The whole point of the Stryker is to have a low maintenance armored vehicle that's light enough to be rapidly deployed with infantry anywhere in the world. There's a reason the Bradley's still around, and it's because the Bradley and Stryker have different jobs with the Bradley filling the "Heavy War Machine" IFV role.
TBH the Stryker brigade at Ft Lewis is the original one, as in, the brigade originally given the Stryker for T&E. Of all units in the army, they have the most experience with the platform. Although I'm a former Marine and therefore only have peripheral experience with the soldiers at Ft Lewis, my general experience with the 1st strykers is that they are a professional, highly capable unit.
US Army infantry are trained to be very aggressive. My company in Iraq had to scramble for a situation a lot like you described, only for real, and some dudes were running out of the barracks wearing just a T-shirt and their body armor. Nobody took headcount or organized, they just jetted.
He also got rid of the motto "be all you can be," which everyone liked, and replaced it with the motto "an Army of one," which nobody understood and was quite frankly antithetical to the concept of teamwork-- an army fights as a team. While I remember people being fussy about the berets, I feel like most people who had a negative opinion of Shinseki had a lot more on their minds than just the beret issue.
@@MyFiddlePlayer " I felt so sorry for our soldiers having to wear them." Umm, they train to kill other humans, and to give their lives for the person next to them. They train to endure cold, heat, and all kinds of discomfort and pain in the service of the nation. And as a result, if they survive, they often come out several kinds of f-ed up in the head and body. If you only feel sorry because they had to 'look stupid in a beret', you're not really paying attention.
Knew some one who had been Gen Shinseki's aid, and he had tremendous respect for him. It's a complicated story, with real, complicated legacies. Often people are stereotyped as all good or all bad. Thanks for sharing all of it. P.S. I remember hating on the black beret decision, but when I got to know a friend who spent years in the Rangers, he never even mentioned it.
I'm not a military person and value your insight. I'd heard of Gen. Sinseki before, but not the black beret story. This quote attributed to him is a great life lesson: "'If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance a lot less.”
There's a potential problem with that. When the change is irrelevant, or deprecating, that is far worse. The beret was at least irrelevant, but more likely a morale killer.
"Predictions are difficult, especially about the future." - some famous guy. Change is indeed necessary, but knowing how to change is very difficult. Unfortunately people will remember your failures long after they've forgotten your successes.
In 1994 Shinseki was my Division Commander. We were doing an NTC rotation, in was in an accident with 1 real world fatality. MG Shinseki is the one who helped me out of the back of the FLA when we got to the ER. I was pretty fucked up on my right side and didn't salute him. He put a hand on my shoulder and said not to worry about it. He just automatically had my respect.
I'm getting the impression that Shinseki was one of those genuinely great guys who had nothing but the absolute best intentions and even some pretty great ideas, but due partly to failures of people beneath him and some misunderstandings on his own part, wasn't able to fully acheieve everything he wanted.
@@RaptorJesus that pretty much sums up my personal feelings on him. His failures as the head of the VA I don't think were fully his fault. People needed to be fired but even he didn't have the authority. Firing people for cause when they are with the Government is damn near impossible.
@@mikebrase5161 He failed to fix a extremely broken institution. It was broken for decades before he got there. Nothing about that was his fault. It’s like telling a mechanic to fix a broken down car, but he can’t use any tools and diagnostic equipment or replace any parts. He should have refused the appointment, but his dedication led him to accept the responsibility.
@@MarcosElMalo2 I was a retired Combat wounded veteran by the time he took over VA. I actually felt bad for him. I have never had the nightmare healthcare like what happened in AZ and other places. I get everything healthcare through VA for free, and have never had bad healthcare unless it was through a Sub contractor. The Community based outreach I'm my area is staffed by oxygen thieving morons.
@@MarcosElMalo2 It's not something that can be fixed solely at the director level. You need to have the backing/support of the controlling sub-committee in Congress to reinforce change. That sub-committee has been garbage for decades where the politicians there just cruise-control their way through life while enriching themselves as shout how they "care about our troops."
Arguably your best production ever. To understand disfunction, you should have been around during the Army's transition as we approached the end of the Viet Nam war. Nixon's all volunteer army or Volar. I just arrived in Germany at the time. Drug use was rampant. There were race riots and attacks on individual soldier. On some posts in Germany you didn't dare go out after dark alone. It was not a good time. Thank goodness that's all behind us. I loved my time in the Army and the Army itself. It gave my life purpose when I otherwise had none. I was miserable at times but I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. Although it was not a war at times it felt like one. I still keep in touch with my close soldier friends through calls and letters. I don't miss the circus but I sure miss the clowns as they say.
I joined the US Army in 1988 and served as an 11B until I retired in 2010. Shinseki didn't get everything right, but he got most of it right. I understood what he was trying to do with the black beret, and I understand how that was mishandled from jump, but a lot of his other ideas, like moving PCS moves to the summer so as to make them easier on families were right on target. I lived through the drawdown. He took an army that was 1/3rd its previous size, with no idea who or what the adversaries or the enemies looked like or would look like.
Consider the beret in Commonwealth services, was dark royal blue. The traditional colour of US service dress being a dark blue. You would think it would be a no brainier. Seems to me the General had a beef with the Rangers???
@@aussiviking604 No. No beef with the Rangers. He actually wore a tab himself. It’s quite the opposite. He admired the Rangers esprit de corps, professionalism and image. He wanted the entire army to have those things and the army lacked self-respect at that point. He wanted them to feel like they’re all elite, and try to act that way (yeah, a huge ask for a force of about 1 million). The Rangers didn’t have that long of a history. They were formed after the Vietnam War, out of LRRPs and they chose a black beret, which was a basic color not in use. When Shinseki switched the whole army to black, Rangers went to tan in honor of Roger’s Rangers’ buckskins worn during the French and Indian war (in reality the 100 years’ war between the British and French in the Americas).
@@afcgeo882 I’ve never heard that the Rangers were largely dismayed by the uniform change. It has always sounded like people looking for something to be outraged about, with others stoking the outrage because of politics. Fwiw, I remember hearing political pundits criticize BDUs as garrison uniform when it came out because it “looked sloppy” and that wearing such “pajamas” would destroy discipline and morale.
My brother was in around 2004-2011 and he gifted me his black beret when I was kid, I have no idea what happened to it, as a kid I'd wear it all the time playing soldier around my old neighborhood in my hometown, and genuinely just proud to have had it, Fast forward 12 years and my brother is estranged from the family, haven't talked to him in over a decade and he wasn't around for any of his kids (and their 2 different mothers) birthdays or just anything, yet I still find myself missing the beret, even more so now knowing the history of this beret and its significance. I don't know when I'm going into the service, but I plan too when I get my fat ass into shape, but I gotta say, Thank you Ryan for reminding me of those days, it may seem small and insignificant, but this woke up something I haven't felt in a long time.
A generation earlier, Eric Shinseki graduated Kauai high school, a short distance down the road from mine. He had a long and distinguished career as an army cavalry scout. Like a lot of his contemporaries, he was prescient ent in seeing the future of armed conflict. While there may be a future for heavy tank divisions, most of the conflicts that the United States has been involved in since Vietnam, and especially after the Cold War, indicate the requirement for a lighter, more mobile army formation. These conflicts seem to flare up quickly, without the long buildup that we had in the first Persian Gulf War. We have an abundance of C-130 transport, which can move entire brigades of the striker combat vehicles, as well as their troops and logistical trains, almost anwhere in the world. That includes the narrow streets of Iraq, as well as the poor quality roads in Afghanistan. Should we choose to fight in those places, at least we can fight. The other thing that Shinseki is famous for, is his open criticism of the Bush administration in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He stated to Congress that the United States did not have enough boots on the ground to occupy Iraq. He was forced into retirement for that, although the US chose to continue the war for two more decades, at a cost of trillions of dollars and thousands of dead. Can we forgive him for his haat thing?
@@sjb3460 That isn’t really controversial. I think most adults have been in situations where a long established protocol gets changed in a way and for reasons that are difficult to understand. There is a really good reason why people are like this, it’s because if something has worked for a long time, it’s (in most cases) reasonable to assume it will keep working. It takes a conscious logical effort to get past the historical momentum. We are resistant to change for that reason.
I've yet to meet a US solider who doesn't understand the importance of the US Flag. For better or for worse, symbols matter. And with grunts on the ground, the truth matters. He put out a BS requirement for a BS date on what I can only describe as a cosmetic change in uniform. And they had to goto China for those berets. They gave themselves a waiver of the rule forbidding that because General Shinseki wanted to give America a birthday present of black berets! So, I'm sure no one would dare disparage his service or his commitment to the military but you mess with the symbols that people cherish so you can have the birthday party you want and you better damn well expect some criticism for your poor decision making. Comes off as selfish and short-sighted.
Ryan, I retired in 1996 and felt just as you did about the black beret. Many of us in my family served in the 75th, and the word, in my opinion, that you are looking for is sacrilege.
"BlAcK bErEtS"🤣🤣 you sound like the type that likes to argue that having shinny black boots make you a more effective warfighter. Shit changes old man. Deal with it.
@@tonymorris4335 I remember reading about the Army hating the idea of allowing the Green Berets their beret. Something about "foreign headgear" I think.
meanwhile the Russians in 2022 is fighting wars like it was 1945 or maybe 1918. General Shinseki in my opinion is a pioneer in the US armed forces. He was actually right in the number of troops US needed to fully pacify Iraq which led to the intensifying of the Insurgency there and the US army had to do the surge years later to defeat multiple rebellions. Shinseki was not just a sit down general this guy had two tours in Vietnam as a forward artillery observer and had part of his right foot blown away by a VC land mine. After he recovered the guy volunteered still for active duty, what a tough guy.
Thanks, Sarnt Mcbeth, another great video. Marine here. Maj. Gen. Shineski was/is a great warrior. The head sock was not his finest moment. Leaders make mistakes; berets are the stupidest covers a military can choose and I have great doubt the General knew these covers were sourced from China. Overall, the General was a helluva soldier and good, if not great, general, IMHO.
Former Royal Marine here. We take great pride in earning and wearing our green lid. Most of the British forces, even the Royal Navy, wears a beret. I always admired the US cap as it gave a little more flexibility for those performing more general tasks. I wore my beret on patrol in Bosnia and Northern Iraq before Iraq II. It's a British thing that we do to portray a “softer” image when patrolling civilian areas. Of course, in Iraq II and Afghanistan, we wore helmets. I liked the COIN tactical strategy and believe an Army the size of the US can afford to have 4 Brigades on COIN rotation with the rest on a conventional footing.
I served under the General while he was 1 Cav commander. We trained harder that any Div (except opfor) 1/7 Cav and I loved it. He always found training $ for our Regiment and we kept that spear tip sharp as hell. He saw me shoot my first tank table 8 where we shot top tank with thermal malfunction. He didn’t even wait for us to park to congratulate us and gave us each a challenge coin. He appreciated that we “fought the tank” as is, no time penalties. Train how you fight, there’s no timeouts in the midst of battle
Shinseki seemed like a really pragmatic leader - the epitome of the "fighting the war with the army you have, not the army you want" like of approach. Except he was doing his damnest to make the Army he had the Army he wanted. Sounds like he got a lot closer to that aim than most.
Just speaking as civilian here, but isn't this story missing a kind of important chapter? Specifically Shinseki's sacking after offering a rather prophetic analysis of the force structure required to successfully occupy Iraq...
The sacking part is not really true. He was already slated for retirement long before his testimony to Congress. I do think he was sidelined by Rumsfeld during the planning of the invasion and occupation because he wasn’t going along or getting along with Rumsfeld’s overly optimistic plans. And I really think this is why the Beret thing was amplified into as big a deal as it was and is to this day. Shinseki had to be smeared for contradicting Rumsfeld and his coterie of neocons.
I mean this as the highest compliment, but you make me want to be a soldier. I was thinking of enlisting as a teen, but my parents forbade it as Vietnamese refugees. Also they said I got into an Ivy league school so I better go. :) but how you comport yourself, how you teach and share fascinating information so thoughtfully, and how you are such a cool dude, it’s seriously inspiring man. No other country can make soldiers like you, which is why the USA is so special. Grateful for you!
I served in the US Army (2010-2021)...so...I "always" had the black beret (until I went SOF and had to buy a maroon beret). I'm also of Japanese-American descent...and know a lot of 442nd veterans...so there's a soft spot in my heart knowing that heritage. It seems like he had a wonderful career. And...thank you for verifying for me the logic behind the black berets. It was something that I had suspected upon hearing that the Rangers used to have black berets. Reminds me of The Incredibles...where the big-badguy commented that WHEN EVERYONE IS SUPER, NO ONE WILL BE. Special is only special...when it's actually special.
@@J_Madison there are some specialities that may (or may not) surprise you as being Special Operations. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army_Special_Operations_Command You probably know of Special Forces (Green Berets). Ryan discussed the Ranger Regiment (Tan berets) Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR; unsure of what color beret but guessing it's maroon since they're apparently an airborne unit) And...Psychological Operations (maroon beret as an Airborne unit) And...Civil Affairs (maroon beret as an Airborne unit) The latter 2x oftentimes surprise people as being SOF (and sometimes the way some of us behave has led us to also be surprised that some of these people were considered SOF). BUT, knowing what they're meant to do doctrinally...it's understandable why each has both an Assessment/Selection process as well as a distinct Qual Course.
Nice balanced video. I have the utmost respect for General Shinseki, especially how he stood up to Rumsfeld. The beret decision was an utter fiasco. There was an Army briefing about the decision stating that the rangers wanted to change to the tan Darby beret and were okay with the decision. The 75th commander and USASOC commander both said they were never asked about it. The story I had passed down was that Shinseki and the current SGM of the army were tankers in Europe in the 70's. They wore the black beret unofficially but were told to take them off permanently when the Rangers were awarded it in 1974. The story goes on that they ceremoniously burned their berets and vowed to make things right one day. The time finally came. Not sure about the truthfulness of the story, but it sure explains motive.
We tankers and cavalrymen officially wore black berets until GEN Bernard Rogers decreed them, and tankers jackets/tanker boots "unnecessary" in 1979. Yeah, we were pissed. But you're right about Eric Shinseki; he was one of the most talented and honorable General Officers we've had in the post-Vietnam Army.
I arrived in 1982, served under then LTC Shinseki - and never, every heard that story, from anyone. Armor forces in almost every army in the world wear black berets.
@DS_Boston from what I understand our Armour forces started wearing them for that reason. They were never officially authorized though. That's why they made them get rid of them when they authorized it for the Rangers. In hindsight the army should have authorized the black Beret for Armour and gave the Rangers a different one.
Retired 11H/11B here, i served from,1983-2009 and was in both the Gulf War (11H) and in OIF 1.5 (11B). I was shocked when he made us wear berets. Grunts feel that a beret is to be earned, not handed out like participation trophies.
Yup innovation is hard and it is so easy to fail. These unsung heroes that help keep the military relevant during peace time skills never be overlooked👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
I enlisted in 1999, so I was on the tail end -- and I think one thing to consider is that as part of the peace dividend, the Army was having a real hard time recruiting and retaining quality personnel and had to lower standards just to keep sufficient numbers, while the Air Force and Navy continued to attract enlistees with high ASVAB scores. I personally think that the beret was one of those things that they implemented to set the Army apart from the other branches and evoke a level of working professionalism. Shinseki, as I recall, had the idea when he saw the 75th Ranger Regiment in formation and wanted to encourage that kind of esprit de corps that seemed to be lacking. To that end, it meant to serve as a means to attract new enlistees from areas of society that, post cold-war, were underrepresented (and continue to be) -- recruits with a high level of aptitude and those from more affluent middle class households. As something as simple as the uniform can be a recruiting tool, and where the standard BDU attracted a certain kind of person, it may have had the opposite effect for others. The beret was a middling, awkward way to address this, without resorting wearing class Bs all the time.
When I heard "the man who should not be named" I googled him thinking he did something very horrible, for about 1 search I found nothing, other than his accomplishments.
The beret change was truly horrible. I was in when the change was announced, it literally hurt every soldier's soul. It was the ultimate participation trophy. The black beret represented the blood, sweat and tears a soldier would endure to pass Ranger School...it meant something. Shinseki just gave them out like candy. One of the challenges a General of the Army faces is keeping the Army modern and capable while at the same time honoring the traditions. He failed at that task. Add to that, because of his decision the US Army was forced to source them from our primary adversary.
It took less then a year for the 28th Division General to permanently authorize wear of the garrison cap. Much to the annoyance of every active duty soldier who saw the keystone, anywhere in the world.
I was truly honored to have been coined by General Shinseki for my participation as a bugler/trumpeter at the West Point Class of 1965 reunion last year. Btw, "Ric was right!" (on the size of the "Surge" in Afghanistan).
I was in Germany in the 90s. I moved seven times in five years. If I was assigned to your unit. It would either shut down or move. I joined in 1977 retired 1999.
@@gingerfurrdjedi6211 well from 1992 to 1996 the Army went from 1.1 million to 375,000. A lot of Reduction of force. In my hometown of Atlanta Georgia we closed Naval Air Station Atlanta, we took Dobbins Air Force Base from active duty to reserves, we took Fort Gillem from a HQ to a storage unit, and we took Fort McPherson from an active-duty headquarters of Fifth Army to where Tyler Perry films his movies. So I could definitely see one guy moving 7 times in five years.
@@gingerfurrdjedi6211 After desert storm the Army in Europe went from two full up Corps V and VII to less than one during these five years. Since then USAREUR had gone down to less than a division. With the war in Ukraine it is being built up again
I have never heard about him but wow what an amazing story, my respect for this man is now huge and love to see other soldiers also write about him and I will also say thank you to him, thank you shinseki
Well explained, Ryan. I’m an old Air Force troop from the DESERT STORM era who got out in 1993. This does a fantastic job of explaining what exactly went on after I got out up to recent times.
Outstanding video. I served from 1981-1985 in the USAF B-52 with a very clear mission. I clearly remember the beret controversy, but I didn’t know the whole story including the general. The whole story about the mission change and reconfiguring of the fighting force I was vaguely aware of so thank you for a clearer picture.
As a former Ranger who started out with the black beret and had to switch to the tan beret. I first resented it. But I slowly learned to love the tan beret. What I do resent is soldiers who don't take the time to truly understand what the rangers really train for and how many times they saved both navy seals and special forces butt. MAYBE YOU SHOULD DO AN EPISODE ON WANT THE ARMY RANGERS REALLY TRAIN FOR AND HOW THEY FUNCTION IN THE ARMY.
The Rangers are a complex machine with an even more complex history. They haven’t been around all that long either. Then the Ranger school convolutes it all even more. And the Tier 1 Ranger recon team flips it all again. Rangers are just a specialized, rapid deployment QRF for anything that demands intensity, but not special operations, but came out of Long Range Recon Patrol.
@@afcgeo882 we really don't need one group of "good" paratroopers and one group of "better" paratroopers. Just make everyone better. Then the infantry divisions that need Ranger skills and discipline the most would get all the scrolled Rangers on charter time- not the 101st or 82nd. Imagine if the infantry divisions behaved and acted the way the airborne does? Imagine if they prioritized accomplishing things like earning your eib or Ranger tab as much as the airborne did? Think about the change in mentality this would cause. The Rangers should do more for the conventional Army.
I grew up at Ft Bragg and was in college when the black beret was adopted. I got to hear a great many conversations about the subject, and very few folks were enthusiastic about the change. Thanks for putting that story and that history into context.
Sometime after 9/11 and before 2010 I walked into a conversation between a former SEAL (served in the '80's) and a current SEAL on leave. The one still on active duty was talking about their issued Nike gloves. The former SEAL was quite irate and asked him where they were made. I never understood the tension until now. Good vid.
Great, and extremely accurate, video. I was on terminal leave about to retire from the Army when someone told me the Chief of Staff made the beret decision. My initial reaction was you are BSing me. When I realized it was true, I contemplated putting my uniform back on and getting a beret just for sh*#ts and giggles, but they weren't available yet (hence the procurement law violation discussed in the video). Bottom line from where I sat at the time: Gen Shinseki was a great American who at the end of his career was suffering from delayed PSTD from Nam coupled with PSTD from Sec Def Rumsfeld's attack on the "weeds and tent peg" Army which led to most ridiculous senior Army decision of my entire 22 year career. Again, great video dude! Keep up the good work.
We ate the same dirt. I served from 1988-2016. Started as 11H also. Thanks for telling our story. By that I mean the generation that served post DS/DS and before 9-11.
Shinseki is a brudda; that you even know about the 442nd makes you special. Thank you for recognizing General Shinseki. We are proud of him. It’s hard to be Asian American.
Thanks for sharing such important history! Value the general for his innovation and development of successful doctrines. Respect his failures for vanity and forgetting what he stood for.
I went into the Army in 1987, and caught the tailend of the grand Army of the 80's. I got out in '95 while the Army was drawing down, and came back in '99. I remember the rumblings of the beret coming in and hoped the senior NCO's would help put a stop to it. My unit was one that got 5 boxes of berets, all made in China. We had to draw all of them back (not that difficult due to no one wanting to wear the damn things.) While I have no ill well towards GEN Senseki, the choice of the black beret never sat well with me. At the end of the day, it's the training and esprit de corps that carries a unit to success, and a piece of head gear was never going to change that.
Whether you want to believe it or not, the beret actually did have a major positive effect on the Army in the 2000s though. Once the controversy died down, people enjoyed looking sharp and having a positive image, especially since the Iraq and Afghanistan wars had just started and we were kicking their asses. The beret is still in use.
I'm from Norway. And in our army, the beret is a part of the full dress uniform. So a regular conscripted infantryman who has been in the army for a month, would wear a green beret. The black beret is for tankers. I probably still have my green beret somewhere, although I really only finished basic training.
Yes but it's tradition, in the US Army Berets were not tradition but only for just over 2% of the Army. In context, probably the best way of explaining it is like if the General ordered from today every soldier wears a Drill Sargent hat.
same, Sweden here. did basic training in a Helicopter Unit (but we never even saw any helicopters) so we had our blue beret, used it maybe once or twice. and i got the HomeGuards green beret, i've never touched it once since we got it.
@@medievalpeanut4269 french here. Same thing here. You don't mess up with traditions and outfits. It's not for nothing if we have some parade uniforms that have not been changed since Napoleon lmfao. That said, can someone explain me how the f* did you guys end up with an obscure southern french hat from Béarn as a military symbol, because that will always amaze me. Man. And after you laugh our képis which are, frankly, much more aesthetically pleasing.
In addition to all the problems you suggested with the Berets, regular troops had little or no idea how to wear them. The Beret has to be molded and shaped to the wearer's head to keep the wearer from looking like the Chef Boyardee. This process takes time and is part art part science.
That was my issue when we switched, is not only are you spitting in the face of people who actually earned it, but you're making it a joke by people who can't even wear their regular cover right.
Don't forget the shaving, too! I hated that part, & put a hole in many berets doing so. For the uninformed, the beret was felt, so it would invariably be fuzzy when you bought it. That fuzz had to be shaved down before you could wear it.
Thanks Ryan, I was actually curious about this too. After your last mention about him. I looked them up on Wikipedia. Like many of us thank you for your videos. Thanks for encouraging tangent learning.
I remember this! I saw a clip from the _Daily Show_ making fun of the beret as being "something for the army to do since there are no more wars to fight." That was June of 2001.
I retired in 91 from CID. I never was anything like a ranger, but when then black beret was taken for all troops I wanted to laugh and puke at the same time. It made the whole Army look petty. Now the generals are changing the uniform again. They need to find something useful to do.
Great video Ryan. As an Air Force member our version would be Gen McPeak, who reorganized the AF at the end of the Cold War and broke up SAC and made ACC into the preeminent major command (and with it cemented the fighter community victory over the bomber community) and also changed the service dress uniform from the venerable McConnell jacket to the "airline pilot" uniform we have now.
Blasphemous, the word you were probably looking for. This was fascinating, I had no idea about the entire history. I always thought the changes to our covers was the only major change this guy made, I had no idea he was responsible for the IBCT and the striker. Thanks for the history lesson!
I remember those times very well. My bro in law was army officer and those made in China berets were toxic. Thank you for your work. Very interesting and much appreciated.
Thanks for the follow up. I remember being at Fort Bragg when the change happened. I was in an Airborne unit so I never thought about it until 2 years later when i showed up at Fort Belvoir and stuck out like an unshaven MP at guard mount.
Never slap the face of someone who has earned something by giving it to everyone (or making it something you can buy.) Never push for something so hard you break something you care about, or the people who work for you care about.
I was in the Corps when the army gave everyone black berets. We thought it was extremely disrespectful to take the beret rangers earned and give it to everyone, then give the rangers tan ones in it's place. Why couldn't the regular troops get tan berets? That would have been just as easy to accomplish, served the exact same purpose and left the rangers alone. Turns out, that tan beret fit their future uniform color of desert warfare that the US has been in for the last couple decades and still going strong.
Joined in 06 and have a love/hate for the beret for entirely different reasons. As a show piece it’s glorious. A clean, both physically and aesthetically, piece of head gear in public was amazing. Learning to wear it in properly made the whole branch look like burnt garbage for years.
FANTASTIC Video!! Very well explained. Very fair to he who shall not be named. It was indeed a very odd period of time. Guys I went to high school and college with served during that same period. I drank a LOT of beer with some of them when they came home on leave. Very good video. I had been waiting on this one since your short where you said you would explain. Thank you.
Shinseki, much like just about every senior leader in the past few decades, oversaw some great changes in the overall structure, operations, and general look in the military. I joined in 2001, when--outside of the black beret--we Privates looked and trained much like our NCOs did in the '80s and '90s. The beret became a point of contention for a lot of Soldiers. Besides the China sourced headgear, there were those who felt that the Rangers were the rightful "owners" of the black beret (disregard the fact that tankers were the traditional wearers of the black beret in many militaries), that the beret was truly just a high maintenance and impractical piece of the uniform which could never top the much beloved patrol cap, and of course the asinine concept Big Army pitched about everyone being a "warrior" and the beret confirming this status. The Marines do well with their "every Marine a Rifleman" concept. The Army is much larger and has more specialized MOS' that make us Infantrymen stand out in battle. Face it, we (11B, 11C, heck, even 19D and other combat focused MOS') have nothing to do besides train for battle. Well, outside of the 500+ hours of mandatory SHARP, EO, Cyber Security, and other classes. Okay, self-debunked. All Soldiers are equally capable of detecting a phish email and intervening in a potential assault while pulling a trigger in the two way range. Long story short, despite decades of honorable service and sacrifice, Shinseki became known simply as the black beret guy to a lot of Soldiers. When we were authorized to wear the PC again in 2010 or 2011, along with sewn on badges, it felt almost like the Army of Old, except for the useless grey camo we still wore. Shinseki unfortunately later became the head of VA, and further tarnished his reputation.
Thanks as always Ryan! There's a lot of info about Shinseki and some of his decisions I never knew before until now. Another interesting point that often gets glossed over with Shinseki's announcement with the Beret's being procured is that the black berets were originally reserved for the 75th Ranger Regiment. It had been an iconic image with the regiment prior to 2001. When the announcement was made, this obviously upset a lot of Rangers which a few vets had gone to D.C. to protest this. In order to appease these grievances, the regiment ultimately adopted the tan berets which is what you see being worn now by the regiment.
Non-US and non-military here: I think the concept of giving a beret to ALL troops is laudable. It unifies the US military. But perhaps choosing a different colour would have been better. It would have both unified the overall organiastion but still allowed those elite units to stand out. (and provide a goal for new recruits to strife to achieve)
I joined the army as an 11B in 78 and retired in 01. Briefly served in the 2/75 Ranger Bat in 79-80 until a parachute accident forced me “down the road.” I have always felt the same way about the black beret and I’m glad to finally see this opinion shared online. Terrific episode.
Great synopsis! I served from 89-2003 and remember every bit of it and all the changes. Every person I served with hated the advent of mandatory black berets. I have a friend from college who was one of those chalk leaders in Mogadishu during the BHD battle, and I felt it was a slap in the face to him. I was fine with just a soft cap because that’s all I earned.
Thank you. Allow me to break cover. I am recovering from a stroke. Among my therapy “ areas to improve” is watching your content. I am getting it. I believe i am. Anyway, excellent work!
I'm 34, and the only reason I know the name General Eric Shinseki is when he told the Bush Administration that they needed way more troops to occupy Iraq. They gave him the high hat. You are right about the beret. It was very silly.
I'd say silly is an understatement. It reminds me of the whole "It takes 5 years to build a ship, it takes hundreds of years to build a tradition" - Quoted absolutely wrong, from the battle of Crete. The black beret thing is just undermining a tradition that was well established. It's like turning the MOH into a purple heart. Both are important medals, but different roles.
@@SlavicCelery The army rangers only officially adopted the black beret in 1975 and before that they had only used it unofficially in Vietnam. So it's not hundreds of years of tradition, more like 30.
So being an Asian American born in Hawaii and in high school at the time, I remember seeing the change to the black beret and asking one of the scoutmasters who was an active duty Ranger what his thoughts were and he just sighed. I didn't know the correlation at the time and was curious about your comment on the other video and it all makes sense now
I was in college that the time, and the whole black beret thing was publicized as a high school recruitment gimmick. The Army was struggling with recruiting, traditional methods of recruitment like TV commercials, opening new recruitment offices, recruitment bonuses is super expensive. The Army had research that high school kids thought the berets were cool and it would boost recruiting, and it was much cheaper than the other ways to boost recruiting.
I have never liked berets. Like some women look cute in them, but they’d probably look cute without them too. I’m not really a fan of hats in general, but a beret is just like, “I’m gonna put a fuzzy bag on my head.”
I served from 1962 until 1968. I hated the "block" (Ridgeway) cap, but the baseball cap that came in about 1964 was great. It could only be worn with fatigues.
I was never in the military but I am quite familiar with Shinseki and the beret controversy because I listed to G.Gordon Liddy's radio talk show back int he 90s and he just ragged on Shinseki continuously for that and other reasons which I no longer remember.
Thank you for the insight that brings honor to Gen.Shinseki . I served with him and I would like to mention that you never heard him squeaking for grease ..... He was always an inspiration to work with . Bush was the injustice to his honor. The truth is documented and available. I was honored to work with him.
I was drafted into the Dutch army just when the Soviet Union collapsed. We switched from NATO defense to peacekeeping and humanitarian missions. Yugoslavia started up and there were thousands of abandoned Russian soldiers without money and no way to get home all over the East Block. Interesting times and we were kept busy
Fun fact: I was assigned to one of the two leg units on Bragg shortly after the switch to the black berets in June 2001. Thankfully I had someone show me the right way to wear the beret and even had some tell me I wore it better than some of their own soldiers on jump status. Still, you stuck out like a sore thumb over there. The last thing you want in the Army is to draw attention to yourself. Edit to add: I was a 74B and enlisted in 1997 so yeah, I remember Force XXI and your assesment of it was dead on. In AIT they made us believe computer nerds would be occupying a seat in a tank or something like that. Even then I was wondering why...we maintain equipment like the mechanic does. There's a radio in there does that mean they need a radioman in the tank as well? Let the tankers be tankers and let us commo folks be commo.
@@J_Madison Hah, I was in the smoke bomb hill barracks till my first line dialed me up and told me to hold tight and wait for instructions. Didn't know what was up till I turned on the TV.
The Abrams X concept tank actually explores the idea of the 4th crewman operating drones, networked comms, activer protection systems and electronic warfare suites because it now has an auto loader so yeah, the tech geeks could be riding tanks and the new IFV's in the near future.
Great piece! I clicked the Subscribe button. Yeah, the beret thing. When that came out I was already wearing a maroon one, and only questioned that decision because the beret is a useless piece of headgear. Too hot in Summer, doesn't have any option to cover your ears in cold weather, looks like a pizza hat if you wear it wrong (and oh noes, cut out the liner, shave the damn thing, wet it and form it over one of your wife's pots etc). The only thing I ever found a beret good for was profiling around the damn airport. Oh, and buffing a table. I have MAD respect for GEN Shinseki. His testimony before Congress was spot on. While the others were sucking up, HE spoke truth to power. I'd been saying much the same thing to my wife prior to that, and when we heard his testimony on the news she just starred at me. He was the only one that read the occupation tea leaves correctly. Now, I'm just an old retired 1SG, but if I can see that stuff, damned if those other Generals couldn't, but they lacked the personal integrity and balls to say it. Shinseki had those things in spades.
Looking at Gen Shinseki's entire career and all the decisions he made, if the black beret were the worst one, I'd say he's done great for the army and the country.
I came into the Army as a Combat Medic in 1999 and with nearly 20 years in and 3 combat deployments, I experienced the transition from BDUs to ACUs and everything in between. Good job on this video cause everything was spot on. GEN Shinseki made some good calls but the black beret was most definitely a bad one.
Really excited for this since your community post teasing it. I only know the guy from VA employees, who were not a fan (which is true for basically all VA secretaries).
The Stryker was to be temp, a bridge, to a future lighter force that could be ploy faster until heavier forces, if needed, could be deployed. He saw how slow it took heavy units to deploy in Desert Storm and aviation to Albania when he was in Europe.
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This is a follow-up video to my video about Strykers being set to Ukraine:
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General Eric Shinseki served his country with honor and distinction. His ideas helped create the Infantry Brigade Combat Team which helped make deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan more efficient. However in his rush to use the black beret as the symbol of a lighter, more deployable force, he used Chinese suppliers, in violation of the Berry Act.
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References:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/442nd_Infantry_Regiment_(United_States)
Army historical summaries.
history.army.mil/books/dahsum/1990-91/ch08.htm
history.army.mil/html/bookshelves/resmat/desert-storm/index.html
www.silverhawkauthor.com/post/authors-military-service-in-bosnia-herzegovina-sfor-co-canic-sarajevo-21-june-to-30-dec-1997
www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2001-08-26-0108260232-story.html
www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/budget/fy2001/dot-e/army/01iav.html
man.fas.org/dod-101/sys/land/docs/man-la-mav-001118.htm
www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/litany-of-problems-reported-with-armys-stryker-vehicle/
nation.time.com/2011/06/14/so-long-black-beret
Rights:
"De Minister van Defensie schudt de hand van de commandant SFOR, US general Eric K. Shinseki." is marked with CC0 1.0.
"Voldemort vs Dumbledore" by Cryptonaut is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
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"Bosnia 1998-10-29" by U.S. Army Europe is marked with Public Domain Mark 1.0.
General Shinseki in Vietnam - Portsmouth Herald
"442ND A MOST DECORATED GROUP OF U.S.SOLDIERS" by roberthuffstutter is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
"442nd R.C.T." by Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Infantry Brigade Combat Team:
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Ranger Games
A Story of Soldiers, Family and an Inexplicable Crime
Ben Blum · 2017
I remember in the run-up to the second gulf war when Shinseki was called to testify before a congressional committee. When asked how many troops it would take to occupy and pacify Iraq after an invasion he said, "About 250,000."
Naturally W.Bush scooted the general out of town and away from cameras while that administration pressed on, selling a very different story.
I always think of Che Guevara when I see a soldier in a beret.
green berret was the usual one for german infantry in last century, black for the tanks - remember the Blitzkrieg guys back from the dawn of WW2 , those where the gernan Panzerdivision guys - in black of cause.
if you think there's any way in hell i would let anyone else touch let alone wear my kepi blanc, Non. I would literally kill or die for that.
I had no idea about the U.S. beret controversy.
@@typxxilps Berets for infantry in Heer is a postwar thing. Though the Panzerwaffe indeed used berets during WWII they were actually somewhat larger than a beret and were indeed black.
“Soldiers hate two things: change, and the way things are now”
Truer words have never been spoken
If a Grunt isn't complaining, something's dreadfully wrong.
Got that one on a t-shirt?
So the only real difference between the US army and a Dutch citizen is that we also hate the weather.
@@1337penguinman He's probably dead.
okay ronald mcdonald go make us a dozen goodburgers
When I was a cadet, I was asked to play cello at a West Point Alumni reception at which (then newly-appointed) VA Secretary Shinseki was a guest of honor. After I was done, General Shinseki came up to me and complimented my playing, really laying it on thick, with poetic license... and "how great it was to have such talent in the Corps of Cadets." Afterward, the Superintendent thanked me for my performance giving me his coin, and I stated to him I was glad Gen Shinseki liked my playing. Gen Hagenbeck looked at me with a comical look and replied: "Cadet, General Shinseki's deaf!" I looked at Shinseki who was conversing with the CG of USARPAC and the CG was yelling slowly in his ear (so he could hear). I later found out he needed hearing aides in both ears, dating from his time as an artillery spotter in Vietnam. Shinseki couldn't hear my playing at all. He was a great schmoozer.
It's quite possible that he could hear the lower frequencies given out by the Cello as generally people lose the high frequencies first.
Because cello music is mostly in lower frequencies he may have been able to hear everything which would have been very special for him.
Well, at least he took time out to smooze a cadet, Ill give him credit for that. Some leaders wouldn't even have acknowledged your presence.
I believe his hearing loss was from the land mind when he lost his foot, and well combat plain and simple.. in vietnam up till 2000 ear plugs/hearing protection was looked down on in the infantry/combat arms...
my story
Shinseki was my division commander at Fort Hood in 1995. There was a Brigade change of command and I was detail out to the protocol office in 1st CAV Div HQ. I spent a week prior calling Medal of Honor awardees, retired Generals, Full Birds, one thing I learned talking to all those men.... They were just that men! They put their pants on one leg at a time just like everyone else (the first Medal of Honor Awardee told me that when I couldnt get words out).
So the day of the change of command (I want to say Jan 95), I was in Class A's with trench coat (only time I ever wore it) and gloves. I was an usher and I would escort the MG Shinseki, Col Casey (3rd BDE Commander, Future Army Chief of Staff), and the Division CSM from the steps at the grand stand to their seats.
When MG Shinseki came up, I saulted and gave a loud and thunders HEADHUNTERS SIR!.. He smirked and returned my salute and he noticed that I was shivering (it was 25 degrees at Fort Hood), and asked me if I was cold... the young dumb PV2 with 6 months in, that had been talking with higher ranks for a week, gave an honest answer... I said "Hell yes Sir!", the Division CSM snapped his head around and death stared me like I had just slapped his mom in the face. I went to parade rest, and said "Sgt Major, he was a man before he was a general, he puts his pants on just like I do one leg at a time." The all three laughed at the young ballys PV2. 3 months later the division CSM want a new driver and it came down to my roommate and Me. My roommate got the job cause at the time I was dipping and CSM didnt want a smoker or dipper.
@@soup31314 Haha, the CSM! One thing I disagree with Ryan on was that Rangers weren't upset about the whole beret thing. A lot of people were fussy about it but the only person I can remember ever genuinely being upset was a Ranger CSM.
@@Prfactist Plenty of Ranger's were pissed off... I was stationed in Darmstadt, Germany at the time, and we had an entire Ranger BN stationed with us. We heard all the pissing and moaning that came from them! There were even articles in the Army Times were there were plenty of interviews of Rangers that were upset about it! It wasn't until the Army finally allowed the Rangers to adopt a new color that all the griping went away. The main argument was that the Rangers had to EARN their beret, and the Army was just going to give it a away to other troops. It was all about the fact that the beret distinguished them from other troops. In hindsight, it would have been better if the Army would have let the Rangers keep the Black Beret, and given another color (such as the Tan Beret) to the general rank and file!
"soldiers hate change and the way things are now" OMG, that is such a damn good quote
😁 Yes, and I do think I even might have peed myself when I heard it.
At least they are consistent.
😎
Airmen hate it when the breakfast bar is out of fresh baked croissant's
(insert Dwight saying "it's true" gif here)
😂
Ryan, from 1992-1994 I was a very young captain, straight out of tank company command in the 2ID. Assigned to the Army Staff, I was struggling to become a competent staff officer in that highly competitive environment. BG Shinseki was the boss of that 35 person staff section in G-3 training. He was the most honorable officer that I would ever meet. I remember several times when he would walk into our office wearing a PT uniform with his running shoe on his prosthetic leg and calmly ask, “Would any of you like to join me for a run?” Not an order, but a question. We quickly got into PTs and ran around the reflecting pool at the Lincoln Memorial or past Arlington Cemetery with him. I will never forget the respect and admiration that I feel for the man, Ric Shinseki. I don’t care about hats, just honorable soldiers and leaders who made me a better soldier by showing me their integrity.
When I was a 17-year-old conscript our RSM, who was close to retirement, got angry over something, well angrier then normal, and sent us on a 5Km run. When we got back there was no sign of him. About 10 minutes later he came puffing in, he had done the run himself. What a legend, we loved to hate that guy.
I was in 1st CAV when he was CG, fine officer.
I served through that entire period, and well remember our feelings over the change to black berets, and other changes. We were so cotton picking happy when we were finally able to go back to the field cap, with the visor. The beret was just much MREs trouble than it was worth.
Gen Shinseki I believe used custom shoes from Hersey custom shoe in Fitchburg MA -- a few miles from where I live. Still in business. Fitchburg is a little like a small version of Detroit, but in North Central Massachusetts.
Shenseki's greatest step for me was when he was the lone general that stood against Rumsfelds war plan for 03 telling them 1 Division was not enough. Shenseki was absolutely correct. He had the foresight of SASO after the major combat operations. He put his career on the line and stuck to his guns as a great officer should. He lost his position for doing the right thing.
Also liked his streamlining of mos's. No more 11H 11M or the other one. 11b and 11c to use 11 series as an example.
@@spcrusch that's a terrible idea. The Army now is looking at bringing back those jobs. Your formation is too big to try and condense everything into 2 jobs.
The jobs continued to exist. But removed specific mos's.
Spot on Joushua
If you are a civilian of sufficient age, with no Army people in your extended family, you know Shinseki's name for just this one thing. Generally love this channel, but highly disappointed that Ryan completely omitted any mention of what could be considered Shinseki's finest hour.
My dad worked in Army Acquisitions from the 70s all the way to 2002. He played a roll in bring pretty much every missile the Army uses into service. He said that Shenseki was given kind of a raw deal at the end of his career because he he refused to toe the Rumsfeild/Wolfowitz line regarding troop numbers for the invasion of Iraq. My dad had tremendous respect for Shenseki.
You are correct...and he was right. Too bad the beret thing hangs over him.
They should have listened to Shenseki. But the Bush people did not care. They said long before Bush got into office that they were going to change things in Iraq.
Over 4400 Americans that they admit to died because of Bush and companies lies.
Oh well.
@dennissullivan1651 The VA got overwhelmed by all those people who went again and again and again to Iraq and the Afghan. Just like back in 1968 when the WWII vets had to deal with their PTSD and then those coming home from Vietnam with their PTSD.
@@evinchester7820 yup and people were shouting from the rooftops that this would be a problem when stop loss and multiple tours back to back to back became the process but here we are.
@@evinchester7820 It wasn't "overwhelmed"; it was *allowed* to be overwhelmed by a Dubya admin that didn't give two shits about much of anything besides selling their unjustifiable invasion and looting of Iraq. Acknowledging that the VA system was already too underfunded to meet the needs of vets and that the waves of new casualties Operation Iraqi Liberation (OIL) would only make that problem worse would destroy Dubya's lying selling-point of "this war won't really cost us anything".
And people didn't just "go again and again and again" to America's wars of choice; they were forced to do so, because, again, doing the jobs right (assuming Dubya ever cared about his claimed goal of "spreading democracy", which he didn't, as evidenced by the laughable neophytes neo-cons put in charge of Iraq and Afghanistan while they looted those nations) would require numbers only a draft could meet, and Dubya couldn't sell that, so he abused the shit out of the largely-minority volunteer force in ways from which it still has not recovered, and probably never entirely will.
These were possibly some of the most cynical and exploitative military operations in American history. At least, I sure fucking hope they were and will be, because we're scraping-up the dirt under the bottom of the barrel here. The operations couldn't have been more cruelly absurd if they were fucking Kafka novels.
I served from 85 - 88 in the 1/15 Infantry stationed in Kitzingen, FRG. Shinseki (then a colonel) was our 2nd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division commander. We had a lot of respect for him. I remember we had a brigade run and Shinseki was right in front of the entire brigade. You could tell he had half a foot because his boot bent at a sharp angle when he walked. But he didn't have a noticeable limp and he ran us into the ground that day. Maybe in your time soldiers hated change, but in my day, we loved it. Our pay sharply increased, we went from wearing a permapress Viet Nam era "picklesuit" and baseball cap to BDUs and a cap you can fold. We went from M60s and M113s to M1s and Bradley IFVs. And most of all, the public view of the military skyrocketed. I still remember coming home to attend OCS after my first tour in Germany and a fellow passenger on the plane thanked me for my service. That never happened when I first joined in 1981. We just got stares in the airports. Sad that a stellar military career Shinseki had can be overlooked over headgear.
I served in 4/3 ADA in Kitzingen after 3rd ID returned to the States and was replaced with 1st ID. I was later stationed in 1/15 IN on Fort Benning.
@@Bevo_Baker I was with 2/59, then 6/3 ADA out of Schwabach from 87 to 90.
That's the Brotherhood. Military are obviously obsessed about head gear. Look at the history of the wacky hats in the military.
The successes you listed were not Shinseki's aside from the Brigade run, which occurred - what - twice in 3 years?
I was with 3-4 CAV from 88 to 91, when he was ADC M and he threw me under the bus for transferring loaders between two M3s without permission. He was so focused on so called "crew stability" he made the effort to call out me, a platoon leader, for screwing up "his numbers". Personally, I wouldn't piss on that little shit if he was on fire.
Canadian (military) here. The Stryker Regiment out of Seattle is insanely good. We worked with them on exercise and it was crazy how good their performance was. Our self-directed Op For launched an ambush on our supply convoy and the Stryker's attacked the ambush party with an attack of their own in under 5 minutes from the time the original ambush commenced. They weren't the force protection or even on the same net. Their HQ element must have been monitoring comms and picked up on the contact report. Also, the problem with tracks is that you can 'throw' track by having an inexperienced driver and they're alot of maintenance. There are a lot of advantages in modern battlespaces for wheeled vehicles
Yet, tracks still surpass wheels when it comes to off-road travels for heavy war machines.
@@Briselance True, but the Strykers not meant to be a heavy war machine, even if they get used that way.
The whole point of the Stryker is to have a low maintenance armored vehicle that's light enough to be rapidly deployed with infantry anywhere in the world.
There's a reason the Bradley's still around, and it's because the Bradley and Stryker have different jobs with the Bradley filling the "Heavy War Machine" IFV role.
TBH the Stryker brigade at Ft Lewis is the original one, as in, the brigade originally given the Stryker for T&E. Of all units in the army, they have the most experience with the platform.
Although I'm a former Marine and therefore only have peripheral experience with the soldiers at Ft Lewis, my general experience with the 1st strykers is that they are a professional, highly capable unit.
Spent 6 years in a SBCT and did two combat deployments and loved my Stryker.
US Army infantry are trained to be very aggressive. My company in Iraq had to scramble for a situation a lot like you described, only for real, and some dudes were running out of the barracks wearing just a T-shirt and their body armor. Nobody took headcount or organized, they just jetted.
He is a war hero, a great leader, and a visionary, but he made us wear a hat that one time.
Sorry, but those "brerets" looked stupid. I felt so sorry for our soldiers having to wear them.
and all the VA scandals
@@MirelleLaRouge he was responsible for all of them, was he? Or only some? Can you describe any details of the scandals for which he is responsible?
He also got rid of the motto "be all you can be," which everyone liked, and replaced it with the motto "an Army of one," which nobody understood and was quite frankly antithetical to the concept of teamwork-- an army fights as a team. While I remember people being fussy about the berets, I feel like most people who had a negative opinion of Shinseki had a lot more on their minds than just the beret issue.
@@MyFiddlePlayer " I felt so sorry for our soldiers having to wear them."
Umm, they train to kill other humans, and to give their lives for the person next to them. They train to endure cold, heat, and all kinds of discomfort and pain in the service of the nation. And as a result, if they survive, they often come out several kinds of f-ed up in the head and body. If you only feel sorry because they had to 'look stupid in a beret', you're not really paying attention.
Knew some one who had been Gen Shinseki's aid, and he had tremendous respect for him. It's a complicated story, with real, complicated legacies. Often people are stereotyped as all good or all bad. Thanks for sharing all of it. P.S. I remember hating on the black beret decision, but when I got to know a friend who spent years in the Rangers, he never even mentioned it.
why would you respect a chink!!
I'm not a military person and value your insight.
I'd heard of Gen. Sinseki before, but not the black beret story.
This quote attributed to him is a great life lesson:
"'If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance a lot less.”
Facts
There's a potential problem with that. When the change is irrelevant, or deprecating, that is far worse. The beret was at least irrelevant, but more likely a morale killer.
@@cyberherbalist truth.
"Predictions are difficult, especially about the future." - some famous guy. Change is indeed necessary, but knowing how to change is very difficult. Unfortunately people will remember your failures long after they've forgotten your successes.
Beautiful
11:35 "They just went back into the woods to do ranger things" got a good chuckle out of me. Thanks for this rundown.
In 1994 Shinseki was my Division Commander. We were doing an NTC rotation, in was in an accident with 1 real world fatality. MG Shinseki is the one who helped me out of the back of the FLA when we got to the ER. I was pretty fucked up on my right side and didn't salute him. He put a hand on my shoulder and said not to worry about it. He just automatically had my respect.
I'm getting the impression that Shinseki was one of those genuinely great guys who had nothing but the absolute best intentions and even some pretty great ideas, but due partly to failures of people beneath him and some misunderstandings on his own part, wasn't able to fully acheieve everything he wanted.
@@RaptorJesus that pretty much sums up my personal feelings on him. His failures as the head of the VA I don't think were fully his fault. People needed to be fired but even he didn't have the authority. Firing people for cause when they are with the Government is damn near impossible.
@@mikebrase5161 He failed to fix a extremely broken institution. It was broken for decades before he got there. Nothing about that was his fault. It’s like telling a mechanic to fix a broken down car, but he can’t use any tools and diagnostic equipment or replace any parts. He should have refused the appointment, but his dedication led him to accept the responsibility.
@@MarcosElMalo2 I was a retired Combat wounded veteran by the time he took over VA. I actually felt bad for him. I have never had the nightmare healthcare like what happened in AZ and other places. I get everything healthcare through VA for free, and have never had bad healthcare unless it was through a Sub contractor. The Community based outreach I'm my area is staffed by oxygen thieving morons.
@@MarcosElMalo2 It's not something that can be fixed solely at the director level. You need to have the backing/support of the controlling sub-committee in Congress to reinforce change. That sub-committee has been garbage for decades where the politicians there just cruise-control their way through life while enriching themselves as shout how they "care about our troops."
Arguably your best production ever. To understand disfunction, you should have been around during the Army's transition as we approached the end of the Viet Nam war. Nixon's all volunteer army or Volar. I just arrived in Germany at the time. Drug use was rampant. There were race riots and attacks on individual soldier. On some posts in Germany you didn't dare go out after dark alone. It was not a good time. Thank goodness that's all behind us. I loved my time in the Army and the Army itself. It gave my life purpose when I otherwise had none. I was miserable at times but I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. Although it was not a war at times it felt like one. I still keep in touch with my close soldier friends through calls and letters. I don't miss the circus but I sure miss the clowns as they say.
I joined the US Army in 1988 and served as an 11B until I retired in 2010.
Shinseki didn't get everything right, but he got most of it right. I understood what he was trying to do with the black beret, and I understand how that was mishandled from jump, but a lot of his other ideas, like moving PCS moves to the summer so as to make them easier on families were right on target.
I lived through the drawdown.
He took an army that was 1/3rd its previous size, with no idea who or what the adversaries or the enemies looked like or would look like.
That’s right about the PCS moves.
I joined in '88 and got the hell out in '92. I admire your courage to stay that long.
Consider the beret in Commonwealth services, was dark royal blue. The traditional colour of US service dress being a dark blue. You would think it would be a no brainier. Seems to me the General had a beef with the Rangers???
@@aussiviking604 No. No beef with the Rangers. He actually wore a tab himself. It’s quite the opposite. He admired the Rangers esprit de corps, professionalism and image. He wanted the entire army to have those things and the army lacked self-respect at that point. He wanted them to feel like they’re all elite, and try to act that way (yeah, a huge ask for a force of about 1 million). The Rangers didn’t have that long of a history. They were formed after the Vietnam War, out of LRRPs and they chose a black beret, which was a basic color not in use. When Shinseki switched the whole army to black, Rangers went to tan in honor of Roger’s Rangers’ buckskins worn during the French and Indian war (in reality the 100 years’ war between the British and French in the Americas).
@@afcgeo882 I’ve never heard that the Rangers were largely dismayed by the uniform change. It has always sounded like people looking for something to be outraged about, with others stoking the outrage because of politics.
Fwiw, I remember hearing political pundits criticize BDUs as garrison uniform when it came out because it “looked sloppy” and that wearing such “pajamas” would destroy discipline and morale.
My brother was in around 2004-2011 and he gifted me his black beret when I was kid, I have no idea what happened to it, as a kid I'd wear it all the time playing soldier around my old neighborhood in my hometown, and genuinely just proud to have had it, Fast forward 12 years and my brother is estranged from the family, haven't talked to him in over a decade and he wasn't around for any of his kids (and their 2 different mothers) birthdays or just anything, yet I still find myself missing the beret, even more so now knowing the history of this beret and its significance. I don't know when I'm going into the service, but I plan too when I get my fat ass into shape, but I gotta say, Thank you Ryan for reminding me of those days, it may seem small and insignificant, but this woke up something I haven't felt in a long time.
A generation earlier, Eric Shinseki graduated Kauai high school, a short distance down the road from mine. He had a long and distinguished career as an army cavalry scout. Like a lot of his contemporaries, he was prescient ent in seeing the future of armed conflict. While there may be a future for heavy tank divisions, most of the conflicts that the United States has been involved in since Vietnam, and especially after the Cold War, indicate the requirement for a lighter, more mobile army formation. These conflicts seem to flare up quickly, without the long buildup that we had in the first Persian Gulf War. We have an abundance of C-130 transport, which can move entire brigades of the striker combat vehicles, as well as their troops and logistical trains, almost anwhere in the world. That includes the narrow streets of Iraq, as well as the poor quality roads in Afghanistan. Should we choose to fight in those places, at least we can fight. The other thing that Shinseki is famous for, is his open criticism of the Bush administration in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He stated to Congress that the United States did not have enough boots on the ground to occupy Iraq. He was forced into retirement for that, although the US chose to continue the war for two more decades, at a cost of trillions of dollars and thousands of dead. Can we forgive him for his haat thing?
He was was 100 correct and Right contrary to Dumbass Dick Cheney.
@@sjb3460 That isn’t really controversial. I think most adults have been in situations where a long established protocol gets changed in a way and for reasons that are difficult to understand. There is a really good reason why people are like this, it’s because if something has worked for a long time, it’s (in most cases) reasonable to assume it will keep working. It takes a conscious logical effort to get past the historical momentum. We are resistant to change for that reason.
I've yet to meet a US solider who doesn't understand the importance of the US Flag. For better or for worse, symbols matter. And with grunts on the ground, the truth matters. He put out a BS requirement for a BS date on what I can only describe as a cosmetic change in uniform. And they had to goto China for those berets.
They gave themselves a waiver of the rule forbidding that because General Shinseki wanted to give America a birthday present of black berets!
So, I'm sure no one would dare disparage his service or his commitment to the military but you mess with the symbols that people cherish so you can have the birthday party you want and you better damn well expect some criticism for your poor decision making. Comes off as selfish and short-sighted.
No, we can't and we shouldn't. The "hat thing" was as wrong as wrong gets. It doesn't negate the good he did, but it doesn't make it right either.
@@JKTF476 most US flags have been made in China since Nixon!
Even if Ryan were full time on there, I'd be amazed. That he produces these at night, after work, is astonishing. These presentations are A+
Ryan, I retired in 1996 and felt just as you did about the black beret. Many of us in my family served in the 75th, and the word, in my opinion, that you are looking for is sacrilege.
Everything changes mate :)
Dont they have tans?
@@kettelbe at some point the idea to give them berets was probably also hated.
"BlAcK bErEtS"🤣🤣 you sound like the type that likes to argue that having shinny black boots make you a more effective warfighter. Shit changes old man. Deal with it.
@@tonymorris4335 I remember reading about the Army hating the idea of allowing the Green Berets their beret. Something about "foreign headgear" I think.
meanwhile the Russians in 2022 is fighting wars like it was 1945 or maybe 1918. General Shinseki in my opinion is a pioneer in the US armed forces. He was actually right in the number of troops US needed to fully pacify Iraq which led to the intensifying of the Insurgency there and the US army had to do the surge years later to defeat multiple rebellions. Shinseki was not just a sit down general this guy had two tours in Vietnam as a forward artillery observer and had part of his right foot blown away by a VC land mine. After he recovered the guy volunteered still for active duty, what a tough guy.
No truer words have been spoken, “There are two things all soldiers hate: change, and the way things are.”
like...
The need to retire the A-10 and replace it with the F-35 for CAS missions?
But pilots and other troops refuse to allow that to happen
Thanks, Sarnt Mcbeth, another great video. Marine here. Maj. Gen. Shineski was/is a great warrior. The head sock was not his finest moment. Leaders make mistakes; berets are the stupidest covers a military can choose and I have great doubt the General knew these covers were sourced from China. Overall, the General was a helluva soldier and good, if not great, general, IMHO.
Ryan is the ultimate moderate. Toeing all sides, throwing shade and respect in equal measure. The hero we all need. Be like Ryan.
Former Royal Marine here. We take great pride in earning and wearing our green lid. Most of the British forces, even the Royal Navy, wears a beret. I always admired the US cap as it gave a little more flexibility for those performing more general tasks. I wore my beret on patrol in Bosnia and Northern Iraq before Iraq II. It's a British thing that we do to portray a “softer” image when patrolling civilian areas. Of course, in Iraq II and Afghanistan, we wore helmets.
I liked the COIN tactical strategy and believe an Army the size of the US can afford to have 4 Brigades on COIN rotation with the rest on a conventional footing.
I served under the General while he was 1 Cav commander. We trained harder that any Div (except opfor) 1/7 Cav and I loved it. He always found training $ for our Regiment and we kept that spear tip sharp as hell. He saw me shoot my first tank table 8 where we shot top tank with thermal malfunction. He didn’t even wait for us to park to congratulate us and gave us each a challenge coin. He appreciated that we “fought the tank” as is, no time penalties. Train how you fight, there’s no timeouts in the midst of battle
Shinseki seemed like a really pragmatic leader - the epitome of the "fighting the war with the army you have, not the army you want" like of approach. Except he was doing his damnest to make the Army he had the Army he wanted. Sounds like he got a lot closer to that aim than most.
You need to do more videos like this. Your way of delivering history is extremely captivating.
Just speaking as civilian here, but isn't this story missing a kind of important chapter? Specifically Shinseki's sacking after offering a rather prophetic analysis of the force structure required to successfully occupy Iraq...
He missed it again, lol. And the VA thing.
The sacking part is not really true. He was already slated for retirement long before his testimony to Congress. I do think he was sidelined by Rumsfeld during the planning of the invasion and occupation because he wasn’t going along or getting along with Rumsfeld’s overly optimistic plans.
And I really think this is why the Beret thing was amplified into as big a deal as it was and is to this day. Shinseki had to be smeared for contradicting Rumsfeld and his coterie of neocons.
That's a good perspective, thanks for sharing.
@@MarcosElMalo2 They announced his successor a year earlier. It was equivalent to a sacking for all intents and purposes.
@@MarcosElMalo2 he was fired
I mean this as the highest compliment, but you make me want to be a soldier.
I was thinking of enlisting as a teen, but my parents forbade it as Vietnamese refugees. Also they said I got into an Ivy league school so I better go. :) but how you comport yourself, how you teach and share fascinating information so thoughtfully, and how you are such a cool dude, it’s seriously inspiring man. No other country can make soldiers like you, which is why the USA is so special.
Grateful for you!
We'd welcome you. Just be aware, not everything is so fascinating. Most Army stuff is dreadfully dry.
Ivy League Army officer (via OCS) here. Served with many soldiers of Vietnamese descent,
I served in the US Army (2010-2021)...so...I "always" had the black beret (until I went SOF and had to buy a maroon beret). I'm also of Japanese-American descent...and know a lot of 442nd veterans...so there's a soft spot in my heart knowing that heritage. It seems like he had a wonderful career.
And...thank you for verifying for me the logic behind the black berets. It was something that I had suspected upon hearing that the Rangers used to have black berets.
Reminds me of The Incredibles...where the big-badguy commented that WHEN EVERYONE IS SUPER, NO ONE WILL BE.
Special is only special...when it's actually special.
@@J_Madison there are some specialities that may (or may not) surprise you as being Special Operations.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army_Special_Operations_Command
You probably know of Special Forces (Green Berets).
Ryan discussed the Ranger Regiment (Tan berets)
Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR; unsure of what color beret but guessing it's maroon since they're apparently an airborne unit)
And...Psychological Operations (maroon beret as an Airborne unit)
And...Civil Affairs (maroon beret as an Airborne unit)
The latter 2x oftentimes surprise people as being SOF (and sometimes the way some of us behave has led us to also be surprised that some of these people were considered SOF). BUT, knowing what they're meant to do doctrinally...it's understandable why each has both an Assessment/Selection process as well as a distinct Qual Course.
@@J_Madison he was support. Not a green beret.
@@J_Madison that's the best answer you're gonna get. Make your assumptions as you will.
@@kennethpark8397thank you for your service
@@J_Madison you sound like a man of experience! Best to you!
Y’all are welcome for the assistance in making the striker better 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦love your videos Ryan
Oh - you’re Swiss? I keed I keed.
Nice balanced video. I have the utmost respect for General Shinseki, especially how he stood up to Rumsfeld. The beret decision was an utter fiasco. There was an Army briefing about the decision stating that the rangers wanted to change to the tan Darby beret and were okay with the decision. The 75th commander and USASOC commander both said they were never asked about it. The story I had passed down was that Shinseki and the current SGM of the army were tankers in Europe in the 70's. They wore the black beret unofficially but were told to take them off permanently when the Rangers were awarded it in 1974. The story goes on that they ceremoniously burned their berets and vowed to make things right one day. The time finally came. Not sure about the truthfulness of the story, but it sure explains motive.
We tankers and cavalrymen officially wore black berets until GEN Bernard Rogers decreed them, and tankers jackets/tanker boots "unnecessary" in 1979. Yeah, we were pissed. But you're right about Eric Shinseki; he was one of the most talented and honorable General Officers we've had in the post-Vietnam Army.
If there’s a better reason than spite to make a radical change impacting large numbers of people, I’ve never heard of it.
I arrived in 1982, served under then LTC Shinseki - and never, every heard that story, from anyone.
Armor forces in almost every army in the world wear black berets.
@DS_Boston from what I understand our Armour forces started wearing them for that reason. They were never officially authorized though. That's why they made them get rid of them when they authorized it for the Rangers. In hindsight the army should have authorized the black Beret for Armour and gave the Rangers a different one.
Retired 11H/11B here, i served from,1983-2009 and was in both the Gulf War (11H) and in OIF 1.5 (11B). I was shocked when he made us wear berets. Grunts feel that a beret is to be earned, not handed out like participation trophies.
A thousand Rangers will shit today.
And wipe their ass with a black beret.
Yup innovation is hard and it is so easy to fail. These unsung heroes that help keep the military relevant during peace time skills never be overlooked👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
I enlisted in 1999, so I was on the tail end -- and I think one thing to consider is that as part of the peace dividend, the Army was having a real hard time recruiting and retaining quality personnel and had to lower standards just to keep sufficient numbers, while the Air Force and Navy continued to attract enlistees with high ASVAB scores.
I personally think that the beret was one of those things that they implemented to set the Army apart from the other branches and evoke a level of working professionalism. Shinseki, as I recall, had the idea when he saw the 75th Ranger Regiment in formation and wanted to encourage that kind of esprit de corps that seemed to be lacking. To that end, it meant to serve as a means to attract new enlistees from areas of society that, post cold-war, were underrepresented (and continue to be) -- recruits with a high level of aptitude and those from more affluent middle class households. As something as simple as the uniform can be a recruiting tool, and where the standard BDU attracted a certain kind of person, it may have had the opposite effect for others. The beret was a middling, awkward way to address this, without resorting wearing class Bs all the time.
When I heard "the man who should not be named" I googled him thinking he did something very horrible, for about 1 search I found nothing, other than his accomplishments.
He told Congress that Bush's the post-war Iraq plan was totally inadequate. I remember seeing it on CSPAN. He got sh!t-canned immedately
The beret change was truly horrible. I was in when the change was announced, it literally hurt every soldier's soul. It was the ultimate participation trophy. The black beret represented the blood, sweat and tears a soldier would endure to pass Ranger School...it meant something. Shinseki just gave them out like candy. One of the challenges a General of the Army faces is keeping the Army modern and capable while at the same time honoring the traditions. He failed at that task. Add to that, because of his decision the US Army was forced to source them from our primary adversary.
@@brianeleighton 👍Agreed! I remember that. Regular cover is better anyway.
It took less then a year for the 28th Division General to permanently authorize wear of the garrison cap.
Much to the annoyance of every active duty soldier who saw the keystone, anywhere in the world.
The Beret was a knife in the back of every Ranger, and the rest of the Infantry felt it too.
I was truly honored to have been coined by General Shinseki for my participation as a bugler/trumpeter at the West Point Class of 1965 reunion last year. Btw, "Ric was right!" (on the size of the "Surge" in Afghanistan).
I was in Germany in the 90s. I moved seven times in five years. If I was assigned to your unit. It would either shut down or move. I joined in 1977 retired 1999.
Funny
That sounds suspect my dude, were you some kind of undercover IG being embedded in poorly commanded units?
@@gingerfurrdjedi6211 well from 1992 to 1996 the Army went from 1.1 million to 375,000. A lot of Reduction of force. In my hometown of Atlanta Georgia we closed Naval Air Station Atlanta, we took Dobbins Air Force Base from active duty to reserves, we took Fort Gillem from a HQ to a storage unit, and we took Fort McPherson from an active-duty headquarters of Fifth Army to where Tyler Perry films his movies. So I could definitely see one guy moving 7 times in five years.
@@gingerfurrdjedi6211 After desert storm the Army in Europe went from two full up Corps V and VII to less than one during these five years. Since then USAREUR had gone down to less than a division. With the war in Ukraine it is being built up again
I have never heard about him but wow what an amazing story, my respect for this man is now huge and love to see other soldiers also write about him and I will also say thank you to him, thank you shinseki
This was a well thought out video! Love to see future videos of other generals who were well known for both good or bad reasons.
Well explained, Ryan. I’m an old Air Force troop from the DESERT STORM era who got out in 1993. This does a fantastic job of explaining what exactly went on after I got out up to recent times.
Outstanding video. I served from 1981-1985 in the USAF B-52 with a very clear mission. I clearly remember the beret controversy, but I didn’t know the whole story including the general. The whole story about the mission change and reconfiguring of the fighting force I was vaguely aware of so thank you for a clearer picture.
That’s a badass video! Great explanation for the reason why he who shall not be named!!!
As a former Ranger who started out with the black beret and had to switch to the tan beret. I first resented it. But I slowly learned to love the tan beret. What I do resent is soldiers who don't take the time to truly understand what the rangers really train for and how many times they saved both navy seals and special forces butt. MAYBE YOU SHOULD DO AN EPISODE ON WANT THE ARMY RANGERS REALLY TRAIN FOR AND HOW THEY FUNCTION IN THE ARMY.
The Rangers won't be fully understood until the 101st and 82nd become their own Ranger Regiments.
@@cm-pr2ys Why would they? They have very different missions and structures than the Ranger regiment and a completely different history too.
The Rangers are a complex machine with an even more complex history. They haven’t been around all that long either. Then the Ranger school convolutes it all even more. And the Tier 1 Ranger recon team flips it all again. Rangers are just a specialized, rapid deployment QRF for anything that demands intensity, but not special operations, but came out of Long Range Recon Patrol.
@@afcgeo882 we really don't need one group of "good" paratroopers and one group of "better" paratroopers. Just make everyone better. Then the infantry divisions that need Ranger skills and discipline the most would get all the scrolled Rangers on charter time- not the 101st or 82nd. Imagine if the infantry divisions behaved and acted the way the airborne does? Imagine if they prioritized accomplishing things like earning your eib or Ranger tab as much as the airborne did? Think about the change in mentality this would cause. The Rangers should do more for the conventional Army.
@@cm-pr2ys Imagine . . . Imagining is easy. What you are imagining is not a feasible plan. It’s a fantasy.
I grew up at Ft Bragg and was in college when the black beret was adopted. I got to hear a great many conversations about the subject, and very few folks were enthusiastic about the change. Thanks for putting that story and that history into context.
Sometime after 9/11 and before 2010 I walked into a conversation between a former SEAL (served in the '80's) and a current SEAL on leave.
The one still on active duty was talking about their issued Nike gloves.
The former SEAL was quite irate and asked him where they were made.
I never understood the tension until now.
Good vid.
Great, and extremely accurate, video. I was on terminal leave about to retire from the Army when someone told me the Chief of Staff made the beret decision. My initial reaction was you are BSing me. When I realized it was true, I contemplated putting my uniform back on and getting a beret just for sh*#ts and giggles, but they weren't available yet (hence the procurement law violation discussed in the video). Bottom line from where I sat at the time: Gen Shinseki was a great American who at the end of his career was suffering from delayed PSTD from Nam coupled with PSTD from Sec Def Rumsfeld's attack on the "weeds and tent peg" Army which led to most ridiculous senior Army decision of my entire 22 year career. Again, great video dude! Keep up the good work.
I had no idea about this history, you make it so clear and interesting to learn!!
“Soldiers hate two things, change and the way things are now” bloody brilliant and damn true.
We ate the same dirt. I served from 1988-2016. Started as 11H also.
Thanks for telling our story. By that I mean the generation that served post DS/DS and before 9-11.
Shinseki is a brudda; that you even know about the 442nd makes you special. Thank you for recognizing General Shinseki. We are proud of him. It’s hard to be Asian American.
Thanks for sharing such important history! Value the general for his innovation and development of successful doctrines. Respect his failures for vanity and forgetting what he stood for.
I went into the Army in 1987, and caught the tailend of the grand Army of the 80's. I got out in '95 while the Army was drawing down, and came back in '99. I remember the rumblings of the beret coming in and hoped the senior NCO's would help put a stop to it. My unit was one that got 5 boxes of berets, all made in China. We had to draw all of them back (not that difficult due to no one wanting to wear the damn things.) While I have no ill well towards GEN Senseki, the choice of the black beret never sat well with me. At the end of the day, it's the training and esprit de corps that carries a unit to success, and a piece of head gear was never going to change that.
Whether you want to believe it or not, the beret actually did have a major positive effect on the Army in the 2000s though. Once the controversy died down, people enjoyed looking sharp and having a positive image, especially since the Iraq and Afghanistan wars had just started and we were kicking their asses. The beret is still in use.
I'm from Norway. And in our army, the beret is a part of the full dress uniform.
So a regular conscripted infantryman who has been in the army for a month, would wear a green beret. The black beret is for tankers.
I probably still have my green beret somewhere, although I really only finished basic training.
You mean the cavalry 😉 Just a old dragon that needs to say cavalry and not tankers.
Yes but it's tradition, in the US Army Berets were not tradition but only for just over 2% of the Army. In context, probably the best way of explaining it is like if the General ordered from today every soldier wears a Drill Sargent hat.
same, Sweden here. did basic training in a Helicopter Unit (but we never even saw any helicopters) so we had our blue beret, used it maybe once or twice.
and i got the HomeGuards green beret, i've never touched it once since we got it.
Same here in Austria, green for the majority, black for the tank drivers.
@@medievalpeanut4269 french here. Same thing here. You don't mess up with traditions and outfits. It's not for nothing if we have some parade uniforms that have not been changed since Napoleon lmfao.
That said, can someone explain me how the f* did you guys end up with an obscure southern french hat from Béarn as a military symbol, because that will always amaze me. Man. And after you laugh our képis which are, frankly, much more aesthetically pleasing.
In addition to all the problems you suggested with the Berets, regular troops had little or no idea how to wear them. The Beret has to be molded and shaped to the wearer's head to keep the wearer from looking like the Chef Boyardee. This process takes time and is part art part science.
That was my issue when we switched, is not only are you spitting in the face of people who actually earned it, but you're making it a joke by people who can't even wear their regular cover right.
Don't forget the shaving, too! I hated that part, & put a hole in many berets doing so.
For the uninformed, the beret was felt, so it would invariably be fuzzy when you bought it. That fuzz had to be shaved down before you could wear it.
Soldier from 93 to 07… lived through the beret and the ACU, and mostly survived.
Two dumb ideas that look great together 😂
toto "mostly survived" very good, very true. 从 m
Today the correct term is UCP. The OCP is still an ACU.
Thanks Ryan, I was actually curious about this too. After your last mention about him. I looked them up on Wikipedia. Like many of us thank you for your videos. Thanks for encouraging tangent learning.
I remember this! I saw a clip from the _Daily Show_ making fun of the beret as being "something for the army to do since there are no more wars to fight."
That was June of 2001.
That’s about right.
I retired in 91 from CID. I never was anything like a ranger, but when then black beret was taken for all troops I wanted to laugh and puke at the same time. It made the whole Army look petty. Now the generals are changing the uniform again. They need to find something useful to do.
That comment aged well
SFC, Outstanding, OUTSTANDING!!
Keep up the good work for us old infantrymen to enjoy the content.
HOOAH!
Great video Ryan. As an Air Force member our version would be Gen McPeak, who reorganized the AF at the end of the Cold War and broke up SAC and made ACC into the preeminent major command (and with it cemented the fighter community victory over the bomber community) and also changed the service dress uniform from the venerable McConnell jacket to the "airline pilot" uniform we have now.
Blasphemous, the word you were probably looking for.
This was fascinating, I had no idea about the entire history. I always thought the changes to our covers was the only major change this guy made, I had no idea he was responsible for the IBCT and the striker. Thanks for the history lesson!
I remember those times very well. My bro in law was army officer and those made in China berets were toxic. Thank you for your work. Very interesting and much appreciated.
Hands down one of the best military related UA-cam channels, the humor that just slips in in-between is the best!
I was wearing a red barret in the german army. And I wore it with proud. Pionieer-Bataillon 2, and Swimbridge-Bataillon 850
Thank you for this valuable, informative history lesson. It connected several of my neural pathways & helped to make certain things make more sense.
Thanks for the follow up. I remember being at Fort Bragg when the change happened. I was in an Airborne unit so I never thought about it until 2 years later when i showed up at Fort Belvoir and stuck out like an unshaven MP at guard mount.
Never slap the face of someone who has earned something by giving it to everyone (or making it something you can buy.) Never push for something so hard you break something you care about, or the people who work for you care about.
I was in the Corps when the army gave everyone black berets. We thought it was extremely disrespectful to take the beret rangers earned and give it to everyone, then give the rangers tan ones in it's place. Why couldn't the regular troops get tan berets? That would have been just as easy to accomplish, served the exact same purpose and left the rangers alone. Turns out, that tan beret fit their future uniform color of desert warfare that the US has been in for the last couple decades and still going strong.
Joined in 06 and have a love/hate for the beret for entirely different reasons. As a show piece it’s glorious. A clean, both physically and aesthetically, piece of head gear in public was amazing. Learning to wear it in properly made the whole branch look like burnt garbage for years.
FANTASTIC Video!! Very well explained. Very fair to he who shall not be named. It was indeed a very odd period of time. Guys I went to high school and college with served during that same period. I drank a LOT of beer with some of them when they came home on leave. Very good video. I had been waiting on this one since your short where you said you would explain. Thank you.
Shinseki, much like just about every senior leader in the past few decades, oversaw some great changes in the overall structure, operations, and general look in the military. I joined in 2001, when--outside of the black beret--we Privates looked and trained much like our NCOs did in the '80s and '90s. The beret became a point of contention for a lot of Soldiers. Besides the China sourced headgear, there were those who felt that the Rangers were the rightful "owners" of the black beret (disregard the fact that tankers were the traditional wearers of the black beret in many militaries), that the beret was truly just a high maintenance and impractical piece of the uniform which could never top the much beloved patrol cap, and of course the asinine concept Big Army pitched about everyone being a "warrior" and the beret confirming this status. The Marines do well with their "every Marine a Rifleman" concept. The Army is much larger and has more specialized MOS' that make us Infantrymen stand out in battle. Face it, we (11B, 11C, heck, even 19D and other combat focused MOS') have nothing to do besides train for battle. Well, outside of the 500+ hours of mandatory SHARP, EO, Cyber Security, and other classes. Okay, self-debunked. All Soldiers are equally capable of detecting a phish email and intervening in a potential assault while pulling a trigger in the two way range.
Long story short, despite decades of honorable service and sacrifice, Shinseki became known simply as the black beret guy to a lot of Soldiers. When we were authorized to wear the PC again in 2010 or 2011, along with sewn on badges, it felt almost like the Army of Old, except for the useless grey camo we still wore. Shinseki unfortunately later became the head of VA, and further tarnished his reputation.
Thanks as always Ryan! There's a lot of info about Shinseki and some of his decisions I never knew before until now. Another interesting point that often gets glossed over with Shinseki's announcement with the Beret's being procured is that the black berets were originally reserved for the 75th Ranger Regiment. It had been an iconic image with the regiment prior to 2001. When the announcement was made, this obviously upset a lot of Rangers which a few vets had gone to D.C. to protest this. In order to appease these grievances, the regiment ultimately adopted the tan berets which is what you see being worn now by the regiment.
Non-US and non-military here: I think the concept of giving a beret to ALL troops is laudable.
It unifies the US military. But perhaps choosing a different colour would have been better. It would have both unified the overall organiastion but still allowed those elite units to stand out. (and provide a goal for new recruits to strife to achieve)
I joined the army as an 11B in 78 and retired in 01. Briefly served in the 2/75 Ranger Bat in 79-80 until a parachute accident forced me “down the road.” I have always felt the same way about the black beret and I’m glad to finally see this opinion shared online. Terrific episode.
Great synopsis! I served from 89-2003 and remember every bit of it and all the changes. Every person I served with hated the advent of mandatory black berets. I have a friend from college who was one of those chalk leaders in Mogadishu during the BHD battle, and I felt it was a slap in the face to him. I was fine with just a soft cap because that’s all I earned.
Thank you. Allow me to break cover. I am recovering from a stroke. Among my therapy “ areas to improve” is watching your content. I am getting it. I believe i am. Anyway, excellent work!
I'm 34, and the only reason I know the name General Eric Shinseki is when he told the Bush Administration that they needed way more troops to occupy Iraq. They gave him the high hat. You are right about the beret. It was very silly.
I'd say silly is an understatement. It reminds me of the whole "It takes 5 years to build a ship, it takes hundreds of years to build a tradition" - Quoted absolutely wrong, from the battle of Crete. The black beret thing is just undermining a tradition that was well established. It's like turning the MOH into a purple heart. Both are important medals, but different roles.
@@SlavicCelery The army rangers only officially adopted the black beret in 1975 and before that they had only used it unofficially in Vietnam. So it's not hundreds of years of tradition, more like 30.
@@slome815 1975 is approximately 48 years ago. That's not like two weeks ago.
This guy is a top tier storyteller. I look forward to every video.
So being an Asian American born in Hawaii and in high school at the time, I remember seeing the change to the black beret and asking one of the scoutmasters who was an active duty Ranger what his thoughts were and he just sighed. I didn't know the correlation at the time and was curious about your comment on the other video and it all makes sense now
Brother...I am SOOOO with you on this one.
1/503rd PIR ....3 tabs, 2 wings, and shrapnel.
I was in college that the time, and the whole black beret thing was publicized as a high school recruitment gimmick. The Army was struggling with recruiting, traditional methods of recruitment like TV commercials, opening new recruitment offices, recruitment bonuses is super expensive. The Army had research that high school kids thought the berets were cool and it would boost recruiting, and it was much cheaper than the other ways to boost recruiting.
I have never liked berets. Like some women look cute in them, but they’d probably look cute without them too. I’m not really a fan of hats in general, but a beret is just like, “I’m gonna put a fuzzy bag on my head.”
I served from 1962 until 1968. I hated the "block" (Ridgeway) cap, but the baseball cap that came in about 1964 was great. It could only be worn with fatigues.
Thank you for the explanation, I remember even as a civilian thinking that it was a strange choice to switch to berets.
Shinseki was adamant that more than 100k troops would be needed in Iraq. He said like 500k. Im thankful he was that voice even though they ignored him
They FIRED him
He a good leader who stands up for his peers
I was never in the military but I am quite familiar with Shinseki and the beret controversy because I listed to G.Gordon Liddy's radio talk show back int he 90s and he just ragged on Shinseki continuously for that and other reasons which I no longer remember.
Thank you for the insight that brings honor to Gen.Shinseki . I served with him and I would like to mention that you never heard him squeaking for grease ..... He was always an inspiration to work with . Bush was the injustice to his honor. The truth is documented and available. I was honored to work with him.
The black beret came from the cavalry troops. 3rd ACR (where I served with him)
In 1983 the US Army had 370,000 soliders and 10,000 Tanks just in Europe.
Thanks for making these videos. Your presentation of the material is interesting and engaging. Keep up the good work.
I was drafted into the Dutch army just when the Soviet Union collapsed. We switched from NATO defense to peacekeeping and humanitarian missions. Yugoslavia started up and there were thousands of abandoned Russian soldiers without money and no way to get home all over the East Block. Interesting times and we were kept busy
And remember when they wanted to switch the Dutch army beret to the commandos green colour? Auwch...
it seems Europe ever since 2014 and even more now are going back into defensive doctrine it is interesting to see all the changes taking place
Superb!! Thanks Ryan!!
Thanks Ryan for this highly informative (from an European and non-military guy perspective) video :) I'll try to read more about General Shinseki.
Thanks for the rest of the story. Well done.
Fun fact: I was assigned to one of the two leg units on Bragg shortly after the switch to the black berets in June 2001. Thankfully I had someone show me the right way to wear the beret and even had some tell me I wore it better than some of their own soldiers on jump status. Still, you stuck out like a sore thumb over there. The last thing you want in the Army is to draw attention to yourself. Edit to add: I was a 74B and enlisted in 1997 so yeah, I remember Force XXI and your assesment of it was dead on. In AIT they made us believe computer nerds would be occupying a seat in a tank or something like that. Even then I was wondering why...we maintain equipment like the mechanic does. There's a radio in there does that mean they need a radioman in the tank as well? Let the tankers be tankers and let us commo folks be commo.
Nerds are coming anyway, manning drones from inside tanks etc
@@J_Madison Hah, I was in the smoke bomb hill barracks till my first line dialed me up and told me to hold tight and wait for instructions. Didn't know what was up till I turned on the TV.
The Abrams X concept tank actually explores the idea of the 4th crewman operating drones, networked comms, activer protection systems and electronic warfare suites because it now has an auto loader so yeah, the tech geeks could be riding tanks and the new IFV's in the near future.
@@J_Madison Yeah they did and I remember the armed checkpoints the first couple days. You weren't getting anywhere on post without an ID. Period.
Great piece! I clicked the Subscribe button.
Yeah, the beret thing. When that came out I was already wearing a maroon one, and only questioned that decision because the beret is a useless piece of headgear. Too hot in Summer, doesn't have any option to cover your ears in cold weather, looks like a pizza hat if you wear it wrong (and oh noes, cut out the liner, shave the damn thing, wet it and form it over one of your wife's pots etc). The only thing I ever found a beret good for was profiling around the damn airport. Oh, and buffing a table.
I have MAD respect for GEN Shinseki. His testimony before Congress was spot on. While the others were sucking up, HE spoke truth to power. I'd been saying much the same thing to my wife prior to that, and when we heard his testimony on the news she just starred at me. He was the only one that read the occupation tea leaves correctly. Now, I'm just an old retired 1SG, but if I can see that stuff, damned if those other Generals couldn't, but they lacked the personal integrity and balls to say it. Shinseki had those things in spades.
Looking at Gen Shinseki's entire career and all the decisions he made, if the black beret were the worst one, I'd say he's done great for the army and the country.
As a vet of the 90's this is a great video. Thank you
idk. He seemed fine to me as a PFC/SPC. My first beret was Sri Lankan. v0v
What a great video. Very informative and to the point. So are the comments. You have a great audience.
"Don the Beret!" pulls beret out of package and places on head.
lol yeaaaah it kinda was like that for a lot of people. Our shop had an airborne fella who had us all shaving them the night before.
I came into the Army as a Combat Medic in 1999 and with nearly 20 years in and 3 combat deployments, I experienced the transition from BDUs to ACUs and everything in between. Good job on this video cause everything was spot on. GEN Shinseki made some good calls but the black beret was most definitely a bad one.
Really excited for this since your community post teasing it. I only know the guy from VA employees, who were not a fan (which is true for basically all VA secretaries).
The Stryker was to be temp, a bridge, to a future lighter force that could be ploy faster until heavier forces, if needed, could be deployed. He saw how slow it took heavy units to deploy in Desert Storm and aviation to Albania when he was in Europe.