Time to Lose the Green Lid? Should the Royal Navy Get Rid of Headgear?
Sometimes it is very easy to take things for granted, but never question why we do them. We take the wearing of headgear in the armed forces for granted and probably don’t think about it in any meaningful way.
It was in this vein perhaps that Twitter user ‘Sleepy Greenie’ (some may ask if there is there any other sort?) asked a very reasonable question today:
“In the 21st Century, other than for ceremonial
reasons, does the Royal Navy need headgear”?
The Royal Navy
has four different types of daily headgear in use – the traditional sailors caps,
the male officers and senior rates cap, the female tricorn and finally the generic
beret. All of these are worn for different reasons and circumstances,
with, in the most broad of terms, the beret being worn in working circumstances
at sea or operations, while the cap is more usually worn for office wear or on
shore (although can be worn at sea too).
Different circumstances call for different outfits, and different headgear. In the Royal Navy headgear is traditionally only worn outside (or in very specific circumstances), and saluting is only done to those wearing headgear.
Different circumstances call for different outfits, and different headgear. In the Royal Navy headgear is traditionally only worn outside (or in very specific circumstances), and saluting is only done to those wearing headgear.
But if you go back to first principles, why in the third
decade of the 21st century do we insist on our workforce wearing
headgear when walking outside?
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The 1st Sea Lord at BRNC Passing Out Parade Summer 2020 Image by Ministry of Defence; © Crown copyright |
There is no health and safety reason why caps or berets are worn
– they aren’t designed for that purpose. Similarly they are often very
uncomfortable to wear for any sustained period of time, can get dirty easily,
and as anyone who has ever shaped a beret will know, can take a long time to
look like anything other than a flight deck fit for a QUEEN ELIZABETH class
aircraft carrier.
There is some value in using them to spot badges and senior
officers at a distance (Commanders and above have varying levels of gold braid
on their male cap, and a barely distinguishable gold band on the female tricorn),
while Officers, Senior Rates and Junior Ratings all have subtly different
badges – helpful in a hurry to spot people and pick them out.
Yet, even if used to spot badges at a distance, there are
plenty of other distinguishing marks, such as rank tabs and gold braid (and in
very senior cases, are usually escorted by gaggle of less junior but nakedly ambitious
staff officers name dropping and talking about their GEMS ideas for OJAR glory).
So, if there is no health and safety reason, are there any
operational reasons for wearing headgear? When this challenge was put out on twitter
earlier, there was a fairly deafening silence about this – people couldn’t come
up with a reason headgear is routinely worn that worked to support operational
circumstances.
Wearing something on our head used to be de rigeur for
society, and no self respecting individual would go outside without some form
of head covering. Sadly this trend has died off and today it is far less common
to see individuals routinely wearing hats in their daily dress (although
Humphrey longs for the introduction of a Civil Service rank tab system using
bowler hats and umbrellas as pips). The armed forces are some of the last bastions
of society to wear a hat as part of their routine daily working outfit.
We’ve taken this state of affairs for granted for many
years, and it is unlikely that it has ever actually been questioned. We wear them
because we’ve always worn it this way. But is there actually any need to do so?
It is a curious thing that the Royal Navy in particular
seems to have a particular dislike of practical headgear, for example baseball caps,
which take up little space and with their rim are particularly useful for
shielding eyes from glare. This practical innovation is often sneered at, and
there is a steady undertone of disapproval from many (mostly retired) RN
officers who see this as a somehow dreadfully American innovation.
It is curious that the one piece of headgear which is
probably most useful at sea is the one least likely to enter any form of RN
service. Perhaps this hints at some deeply rooted cultural insecurity (a
desperate desire to maintain standards or not to appear to be going all
American perhaps).
The most pressing reason given is that it permits people to
salute each other – but again, if you ask the question, why do we salute, and
what is its operational benefit, then it all gets a bit odd.
Saluting is terribly romanticised, but also seems at times
to be a bit of game – the way that some people actively avoid trying to take
routes where seen, or where junior ratings hold off until the last safe moment,
testing the nerve of a Junior Officer to call them on it (after all the standards
you set are the standards you walk past).
As anyone who has been on a naval base at 0755 can attest,
the lengths that some people go to in order to avoid being in the proximity of
the mainmast at 0800 to stand still, face the mainmast and salute is odd
(although it is worth watching in case it goes wrong, Humphrey once watched the
White Ensign be hoisted upside down at HMS COLLINGWOOD, and within 30 seconds
the pipe, ‘Colours Party, XO’s office, at the rush’ was made…).
The Royal Navy tends to be fairly laid back about saluting
(usually done once per day on first greeting) but it can at times feel a little
cliched. Anyone who has been to Northwood can attest to the short walk between
the Bunker/Atlantic building and the mess, and the way that near conga lines
can form at busy times of officers bustling in each direction, desperately
trying to work out who outranks whom in this busy international tri-service environment.
It’s a bit like the ‘Doctor, Doctor, Doctor,
Doctor, Doctor etc’ scene in ‘Spies Like Us’ with everyones arms popping up
and down at regular intervals. Its done because we’ve always done it, but is it
really necessary to do and why do it at all in a routine office environment
between grown adults and professional colleagues?
This may sound very trivial stuff but the point of this is
to note that the MOD and armed forces take a lot of their world and life for
granted. Things are rarely explained, and if you ask people to go back and
justify why something needs to be done, or something needs to happen, it can
often be extremely difficult to understand why this has been done.
To an outsider trying to make head or tales of much of the
military way can be extremely difficult. The problem is when we answer the reasonable
challenge (why do you wear headgear?) with a mixture of faux outrage and
mumbles about it being something that’s always been done for ‘reasons’.
We live in a world where the military has got to be able to
justify its role, purpose, structure and so on to outsiders who will actively
question. The era of quiet deference has gone forever, and with it the assumption
that things that have been taken for granted will always be done.
At its simplest surely there should be a really good and
simple ‘elevator sales pitch’ for the most basic concepts of military life – e.g
‘we wear headgear for the following reasons, these are the benefits and this is
why we do it’.
If the default response when some very basic challenge is
put forward by supporters of the military is to go on the defensive and rely on
emotion, then this is counterproductive. Relying on the raw heart of emotion to
make an objective case without the evidence to underpin can weaken arguments
and reduce the likelihood of success. For example, if in the Integrated Review
the MOD was asked to make savings, a reasonable case could be made that the removal
of headgear as a uniform option, save some small stock for state ceremonial
purposes held in common use would actually generate savings accruing long term
that could considerable – there would be a significant reduction in the need
for contracts, headgear issue, badges being made and worn, tailoring services
and so on.
The cost of equipping new recruits would fall slightly, and
the overall savings to uniform budgets could be considerable, and at no cost to
the operational outputs to the front line – after all, this isn’t a safety critical
piece of equipment, it doesn’t cut ships or capability and it just means people
won’t wear a hat to work anymore – much like the rest of society.
Doubtless there are readers now convinced that the author
has totally lost the plot. But equally if you are getting outraged at the loss
of headgear, ask yourself this – what is the objective case for its retention
with all the emotion, subjective views taken out – can it be made?
This matters because so much of what defence does is about
emotion and people and the human instinct. It needs to be able to quantify this
though in a way that people who have never worn the uniform can understand, and
make a case for it that is so compelling that few would be left in any doubt of
its merit.
In the case of headgear the argument that is so powerful is that
actually, yes headgear is of practically no day to day operational value to the
way that the Royal Navy does business. Wearing it contributes no operational
benefits, and no money is saved by its being donned of a morning.
But, this entirely logical view misses the human factor, the indefinable golden thread that turns that cheap piece of fabric into something which represents more than just an item and turns it into a human story that bonds the disparate groups together into a cohesive fighting force.
Wearing uniform bonds us, it brings us together and it makes
us of one ships company. We wear it because it is part of a uniform identity,
that links our predecessors and their glorious history with our modern identity
as a ships company, friends and oppos. The beret speaks to a story of being worn
with pride, and of being donned for reasons good and bad.
You cannot put a numerical value on the sense of pride that
comes from changing the badge as you progress through the ranks. You cannot by
itself explain what it means to own one that is battered, bruised and slightly
torn. The authors beret is torn in places, slightly stained from sweat and has seen
better days – but it has accompanied him around the world, in good places and
bad. It travelled on his head across Afghanistan and is as much part of him as
it is his own flesh.
It may not look like much but it helps define our identity
as part of something bigger, it brings us together as a Ships Company. For the
Royal Marines, the ethos surrounding the ‘Green Lid’ and its near magical bulletproof
powers are priceless. The cost of the Green Beret is peanuts, but the lifetime
of loyalty it inspires, the sense of belonging that comes from it, and the fact
that men and women will willingly put their lives on the line to fight to the
death alongside others who wear it, as one body shows that you cannot put a
price on some things.
If you want to recruit people, to inspire them and to give
them a sense of belonging then that means diving deep into peoples psyches and
making them feel part of something bigger and better. There is a need to be able
to keep this part of identity, to help build a more cohesive fighting force.
That isn’t to say that we should now go all dewy eyed and move
on. The military needs to be able to ruthlessly show how the moral component of
fighting power, the sense of belonging and ethos is absolutely as critical as
possessing tanks or aircraft carriers. But it must be able to make this
argument in a way that makes sense.
If your default argument for spending billions of pounds of public
money each year is ‘but we’ve always done it this way’ then that is the wrong
argument to make. It is vital that people can and do justify what they do with
good objective logic, data and metrics, and be able to put forward relevant
arguments for their case, not just say ‘but how else can we salute if we don’t
wear a hat’?
There is doubtless a strong argument to be made for looking
at when and where headgear is worn – realistically the Royal Navy could
probably stop wearing headgear in a lot of circumstances (e.g. at shore bases
or offices) and no one would really notice that much of an effect in output.
But it should not be backward in coming forward to robustly stand up for, and
defend, why that simple piece of cloth should not be sent to the scrapheap.
A good read, as ever, Sir H.
ReplyDeleteExcellent Article - very topical and pertinent.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting. I've served full time in 3 different uniforms for 42 years (60 years with overlapped periods of cadet and Reserve service) and thoroughly agree, time for the end of the cover. However and personally more importantly, I would like to see the end of the salute. The last 30 years with fire and police have proved one doesn't need to display physical submissive gestures to respect, obey and follow orders.
ReplyDeleteThe tank museum's Richard Smith addressed this very point very well. https://youtu.be/KEMFpI2GKOw
ReplyDeleteThere's another video on Monty's hat which equally informative.
https://youtu.be/jyXFxTdmYSI
Yes, very pithy... And watchable
DeleteAs an ex-matelot, I feel that Service head-gear and the small element of discipline required to remember to put it on, maintain it looking smart and bear it when it gets uncomfortable (zip it up princess!), is part of what distinguishes the Service Person from a Strawb. The Crabs (bless 'em) take every opportunity to ditch lids - usually muttering about FOD - so would probably be less bothered by a complete deletion of head-gear. I can imagine the Pongos having a complete fit if anyone suggested that their precious 'cap-badges' should be interfered with. Without the multitudinous varieties of frankly silly head-wear sported by the various Regts and Corps, how would they go about undermining the very notion of 'uniform'? Half a chicken or most of a bear on your head anyone? Besides, the Paras (and the Bootnecks, for that matter) are justifiably very attached to their hats.
ReplyDeleteMatt Heap
It seems to me that all of this smacks of our military fighting the last war and not the next war. Saluting, headgear, snatch landrovers etc are all examples of the lazy thinking that pervades the MoD and military in the UK. It speaks volumes of the calibre of the people who serve in our armed forces that they deliver time after time despite their senior leaders and MoD mandarins.
ReplyDeleteSir H is absolutely right that someone needs to take a hard look at all of this. Keep lids perhaps for ceremonial duties (preferably in central stores as opposed to individual's kit) and for goodness sake lets get out of the eighteenth century and abolish saluting.
The only question being, why did you limit your remit to the Royal Navy? The question is equally applicable to the Army and RAF.
ReplyDeleteIn particular in the RAF, years of angst have gone into the issue of berets, forage caps and SD hats for aircrew with the elimination of metal pins, thread and badges to lower the damage to jet engines when sucked into jet intakes - and of course the instructions not to wear rank defining headgear or insignia in war - because snipers officers tend to shoot officers first.....
Why do you need to wear a hat to either receive or pay compliments? I never found the lack of a hat limited the use of my arm....
ReplyDeleteAnother strikingly relevant post, Sir H.
ReplyDeleteAs ex Army, my beret was a source of great pride. It displayed my Cap Badge so that people know that I was a member of the Royal Electrical and Mechanically Engineers, and at times also showed which Regiment I was attached to, either by being a different colour, or having a coloured patch behind my Cap badge. As for saluting without headgear, you simply braced up and acknowledged the officer with a Good Morning.
ReplyDeletePerhaps Sir H as a part timer has no idea of the tradition and loyalty that this brings. If you want to save a few quid, perhaps do like the Army does, and limit No 1 dress to ceremonial units and keep a few sets in the stores, for special occasions such as as formal visits for the reception party and weddings.
Tell me you haven't read the article, without telling me you haven't read the article.
DeleteSo for JRs the black band with the name of the ship or establishment you are serving in, embroidered in gold brings no esprit de corps? I beg to differ Percy!
ReplyDeleteThanks Ruaj... But I'll pass on that.
ReplyDeleteIn other matters, what happens if it rains, and say you want to stop the rain getting on your glasses, or down your Neck?
Isn't it ok to wear a hat outside in the bad weather?
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ReplyDelete