Why do US Army soldiers wear baseball caps instead of berets like soldiers in other branches of the military?

This went on for several years. Another of General Shinseki’s objectives had been to update the old Vietnam era dress uniform we were still wearing, but after the infamous beret backlash, he wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pole. That uniform would not change for another generation (see below).

So, what happened? Sometime after General Shinseki’s departure (I don’t remember the year, but it was after I retired in 2008), the Army went back to wearing the patrol cap with the duty uniform (at that time, the Army Combat Uniform (ACU)). The now hated beret was retained for wear with the dress uniform. There were some caveats, such as parades, but the number of berets you saw on a post drastically dropped overnight.

And that, my fellow Americans, is why you don’t see many berets in the U.S. Army.

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But things got worse, much worse. All those “special” guys pitched a royal fit. Again, “We’re not special anymore!” Again the Army Times erupted in a mass wave of emotion. This time the argument was that the beret was not practical. It soaked up rain and sweat, it took both hands to put it on, it didn’t keep the sun out of your eyes, and most soldiers didn’t know how to properly wear it. All of this was true, but apparently these negative characteristics affected only line troops. Definitely not the elite forces, who unanimously agreed that they should be the only ones to wear it.

The Army Times erupted in emotional editorial articles and letters, with soldiers complaining bitterly about losing their beloved berets. The 82nd Airborne Division actually held a funeral and buried a maroon beret, complete with a tombstone, at its headquarters at Fort Bragg, NC. You never saw such an emotional display over a hat.

A few years later, the 82nd got their maroon berets back, and they held a ceremony in which the beloved maroon beret was disinterred. At least these guys were now happy.

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Somewhere in the early 2000’s, Army Chief of Staff General Eric Shinseki reinstated the beret for the entire Army. It was a pretty good idea I suppose, but apparently not very well thought out. The new beret was black, the same color as the Ranger beret. The Rangers complained. “Dammit, we’re not special anymore!” So in an appeasement effort, the Ranger beret was changed to an earth color.

I am not certain where the black beret now falls into the mix. The Army has since changed its dress uniform back to the World War II style Pinks and Greens. This is another sordid tale, but I have wasted enough time today already. With the advent of the Pinks and Greens, it may be once again relegated to another footnote in history. Maybe someone out there who is more current than I am will fill us in.

EDIT. Looking back over this answer, I should clarify that General Shinseki was not a bad general. As far as I know, he was a very good general and an excellent Chief of Staff. He wanted to bring back the esprit de corps of the Army of the Seventies, but absolutely no one anticipated the backlash the black beret would bring about.

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To make matters worse, when the contract to make all those berets came up for bidding, it went to the Chinese. Not long after, a Chinese fighter collided with an American intel-gathering aircraft, which made an emergency landing on Chinese soil. Soldiers are known for sarcastic humor, and this was no exception. “So, he says, the pilot stepped out of the plane and said, ‘We’re here for the berets.’”

Okay, this is verrrrrrry complicated. Back in the Seventies, everybody in the Army who was assigned to Special Forces, Ranger, airborne units, or a division, wore a beret with his duty uniform. Every division sported its own color, which made parades quite colorful. About 1977 or 1978 , the Powers That Be came to the conclusion that this had gone too far. They shut it down, all except the Rangers (black) and the Special Forces (green). They even ditched the famous cavalry Stetson worn by the 1st Cavalry Division. The reason: berets brought a financial hardship on the soldiers. There were other stated reasons as well, but none of those made much sense either. I never heard anybody complain about having to mortgage his house to buy a hat, but you don’t argue with the Chief of Staff. The real reason was this: somebody high up in the chain of command simply did not like berets.

But something else was happening. The line troops were tired of the beret, and the grumbling picked up again. Yes, it is indeed impractical, and we don’t want it anymore. Let the special guys wear a sweaty sock on their heads. We want the patrol cap back.

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EDIT. I did not make it quite clear that maroon beret is not unique to the 82nd Airborne Division. All airborne units in the US Army (and most other armies in the free world) wear maroon berets.