Black beret

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The black beret is the headgear worn by the British Army's Royal Tank Regiment (RTR), The Australian Army's Royal Australian Armoured Corps (RAAC) and by all the Russian Naval Infantry (and formerly Soviet) and some Russian Spetsnaz units,the United States Air Force(USAF) Tactical Air Control Party(TACP) members, among others, and the Canadian Artillery.

In the United States military it was officially worn and associated with the United States Army Rangers. However, it is now worn by all United States Army troops unless the soldier is approved to wear a different distinctive beret. The Rangers now wear tan berets, a homage to the buckskins worn by Rogers' Rangers. Unofficially, it was also donned by members of the US armor units in the past.

The most famous wearer of the beret was Field Marshal Montgomery, who wore an RTR beret complete with badge which had been presented to him by the RTR, to which he added his own General's (later Field Marshal's) cap badge.

[edit] Usage around the world

In the Belgian Army, black berets are worn by armoured and engineer troops.

In the Dutch Army the cavalry batallions wear black berets.

In the pre-2003 Iraq Army, the black beret was the most commonly worn head gear and continues to be worn by both army and police personnel of the new occupation regime.

In the Israel Defense Forces, soldiers serving in the Armor Corps wear black berets.

In the Malaysian Army, the members of the Royal Armor Corps wear the black berets.

The Norwegian Army Panserbataljonen (armoured) and E-bataljonen (intelligence) wear black berets.

The Swedish armour and mechanized troops wear black berets.

Members of Serbian Military Police wear black berets.

The Finnish Panssarijääkäri (panzerjaegers) also wear black berets.

Tactical Air Control Party and Security Forces members of the United States Air Force wear black berets with a flash and crest design.

The Brazilian Polícia Militar also wear the black beret.

The Argentine Navy's Batallón de Infantería de Marina 5 (5th Marine Battalion), of Falklands War Mount Tumbledown fame (1982), wears a black beret. This was introduced by (then) Commander Manuel Tomé around 1977, and the beret was awarded on completion of a Cold Weather and Mountain Warfare Course. Today, all units of the Southern Marine Force of the Argentine Marine Corps wear black berets with unit badges. The Argentine Army Commandos also wear the black beret.

In the Canadian Army, black berets are worn by armoured troops.

[edit] Near black berets

A number of navies, including the Royal Navy and Canadian Navy, actually wear black berets, although the naval colour is officially "very dark blue". The Dutch navy and Dutch Marines wear very dark blue berets; a silver anchor for the Navy and a gold or dark brown (field duty) anchor on a red background for the Marines