Color Compromise In Beret Battle

Color matters. After months of wrangling with Army brass in the Pentagon, the elite Rangers have won approval to switch the color of their berets from black to tan.

Col. P.K. Keen, commander of the 75th Ranger Regiment at Fort Benning, Ga., said Thursday that the Army's senior leaders approved the Rangers' request to make the change.

Normally a fashion fuss inside the Army would not draw much outside attention. But this is no ordinary fuss.

The Rangers raised a ruckus when the Army chief of staff, Gen. Eric Shinseki, announced in October that the black beret the Rangers wear proudly as an exclusive badge of honor would become standard-issue headgear for everyone from Army cooks and clerks to colonels and generals.

The Rangers considered it a slap in the face, a cheapening of their hard-won right to wear an exclusive hat. They managed to stir interest in their cause on Capitol Hill and even at the White House. On Thursday they declared victory, although their initial efforts had been aimed, unsuccessfully, at retaining the black beret instead of switching colors.

"The Ranger tan beret will represent for the Ranger of the 21st century what the black beret represented -- a unit that leads the way in our conventional and special operations forces," Keen said.

The change doesn't sit well with some veterans, however. David Nielsen, a former Ranger who walked 700 miles from Fort Benning to Washington to protest the beret issue, said in an interview Friday that he is deeply disappointed that the Rangers will no longer have their exclusive black berets.

"It's a shame," he said, adding that he believed Keen "did what he thought was the right thing."

"Fifty years of Ranger tradition is gone," Nielsen said.

The Army's decision to approve the Ranger color change appeared to settle the major element of the controversy. However, the deputy defense secretary, Paul Wolfowitz, is reviewing whether the Army erred in contracting with China and other foreign manufacturers to supply the black berets.

Wolfowitz and Shinseki scheduled a Pentagon news conference Friday to discuss "the way ahead for Army headgear."

For years, the black beret has been the exclusive headgear of the Rangers, a small, elite force with a glory-covered history. Currently, only three Army units are authorized to wear berets: Airborne units wear maroon berets, Special Forces wear green (and are known famously as the Green Berets) and Rangers wear black.

In their announcement Thursday evening, the 75th Ranger Regiment said the Army had approved its request to change its beret color "to maintain the distinctiveness of the unit and reflect the legacy of more than two centuries of Ranger history."

"After studying several options, the Rangers decided on the Ranger tan beret," the announcement said. It said Keen sent a memorandum to Shinseki on March 9, requestinthe change from black to tan.

Shinseki approved it Thursday.

"The decision to adopt the Ranger tan beret is based upon maintaining a distinctive beret for our Rangers as the Army transitions to the black beret," Keen said. He said the Rangers support the Army's decision to make the black beret the standard headgear.

"Rangers have never been measured by what they have worn in peace or combat, but by commitment, dedication, physical and mental toughness, and willingness to lead the way -- anywhere, anytime," Keen said. "The beret has become our most visible symbol. It will remain so."

The Rangers were the first soldiers to scale the cliffs at Normandy's Omaha Beach on D-Day. They parachuted into Panama in 1989 and went to Somalia in 1992-93. During that mission, 18 Americans -- including six Rangers were killed in a failed attempt to capture a Somali warlord. Still unresolved is the Army's decision to get a waiver of a legal requirement to have the black berets manufactured in the United States. It did so because of the rush to institute the black beret as standard headgear for the Army on June 14, the Army's birthday.

When Shinseki made his surprise announcement in October, he said, "When we wear the black beret it will say that we, the soldiers of the world's best army, are committed to making ourselves even better." He said the beret would be a "symbol of unity."

The announcement drew immediate and lasting protests, mainly from retired Rangers who felt Shinseki had cheapened their proud tradition by making the black beret a common currency.

Under Shinseki's order, all soldiers -- other than those authorized to wear green, maroon or tan berets -- will wear the black berets with dress or casual uniforms, or with combat fatigues while in garrison. In the field, they will continue to wear the baseball-style cap or Kevlar helmet.

The beret will replace the current fold-up "overseas" cap, the saucer-like "service" cap and the baseball-style cap.

By ROBERT BURNS
©MMI The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed