Maroon Beret
 

In the DND photo reference, there is a current image of a R22eR soldier wearing a maroon beret. http://www.combatcamera.forces.gc.ca...e=combatcamera
Question, the maroon beret is worn by soldiers jump qualified? Or?

Bill, I spoke a couple of weeks ago to a former member of the R22R on this subject and he told me those guys were part of the Para company of the R22R (he was 3Bn.R22R IIRC) and fully qualified as paratroopers.
Jo

Hi Jo, But that begs the question, do all qualified soldiers wear the beret, or only the ones qualified and serving in the Para company?

According to what he told me.....red beret....serving in the para company only. Sorry that's the best I can recollect.
Jo

Bill,
Jo is correct. Only those personnel on the strength of a unit or sub-unit employed in the parachutist role may wear the maroon beret. This includes those on the strength of the "jump" company in each infantry regiment, plus those who are employed as "jump" instructors.
Wyn

I can't say for Canada but in the British army the "red beret" has no relationship to being parachute qualified. If soldiers are serving in an airborne unit then they wear a red beret para qualified or not. My niece was PRO of 16 Air Assault in Afghanistan. She was handed a red beret on the day she reported for duty in the UK and told not to leave the HQ until it was properly shaped. She gave her first press briefing two hours later wearing the beret.

I am fully parachute qualified but have never worn a red beret because I never served in AB forces.

The right to wear the maroon beret seems to be more closely and jealously guarded in he Canadian Army than in the British Army. Our Canadian airborne units are and were smaller than those of the British Army and could insist that all members be jump qualified, For instance, the Canadian Airborne Regiment (CAR) in its heyday in the 1970s and 80s consisted of three commandos, or small battalions, of airborne infantry, a para battery of artillery, a para signals squadron, a para engineer squadron, and an airborne service support element. There was no armoured sub-unit; tankers who wanted to jump out of airplanes had to convert and become infantrymen. If soldiers were not part of the CAR, jump qualified or not, they did not wear the maroon beret, and everyone in the CAR was qualified and did jump out of airplanes.

Just to correct Wyn in his last comment, there was an airborne armoured sub unit. In 1983 we (Recce Squadron 8th Canadian Hussars) formed an airborne armoured recce troop. The soldiers all went on the para course and then the maroon beret course to get their "white" wings but continued to wear a black beret as no self respecting member of the armoured corps would ever wear anything but. The plan was to expand this to a squadron but I departed before that expansion occurred and I'm not sure whether we achieved a critical mass of para qualified soldies to man a squadron. The RCD then took over that role after we rotated with them to Germany later in the 80s.

And with all of attitudes of the maroon beret protection society and how having a different coloured hat was special, it was hilarious to watch the wailing and chest beating when infantry TOW systems were brought under command of an armoured regiment and a whole bunch of infantry soldiers were informed that they would have to wear a black hat (with their own regimental cap badges) while in that unit.* You would have thought they were being neutered to have to wear a black beret instead of a green one.


* It is published in Canadian Forces Dress Regulations that all personnel on the strength of a unit of the Armoured Corps will wear black berets.

The Special Service Force of the 1970s-1990s(?) was an Airborne unit and all members of the SSF wore the maroon beret (with the exception of the armoured types). This included the medics, gunners, etc... Many of these individuals were NOT jump qualified although they had a priority on existing courses. I did my course in 1976 and there were several members of the CAbR attending. They already wore the maroon beret because that was the approved headdress for the CAbR. If there was a separate 'maroon beret' course then it must have come afterwards.
I note that members of the CAbR have the attitude that the white wings and maroon beret are their perogative only and have seen rude comments in other fora about members of the Sky Hawks (which has even included an officer of the Cadet Instructor Cadre as a member as well as a number of Reservists) and staff at the Jump Trg Cntre, including Riggers, who also wear the white wings.
My understanding on the white wings (actually, the white maple leaf within the wings) denotes a person who is or was in a designated jump-position.

As a former member of the Special Service Force, I wish to clarify a few points.
During my time there, the formation consisted of the following units (in no particular order):

SSF Headquarters and Signal Squadron
The Canadian Airborne Regiment (at one time the individual commandos had unit status, however, that changed and the commanders of the commandos became OCs rather than COs).
1st Battalion RCR
2nd Regiment RCHA
The Royal Canadian Dragoons
2 Combat Engineer Regiment
2 Service Battalion
2 Field Ambulance
2 MP Platoon

I seem to recall that 427 Squadron came under 10 Tactical Air Group, but still belonged to Air Command.

Not everybody in the SSF wore the maroon beret, nor was everybody expected to be jump qualified. As a Radar Technician in 2 Svc Bn, I wore a green beret and had slim to nil chance of a jump course.
Members of the Airborne Regiment held jump positions and wore the maroon beret and white maple leaf on their wings. There were members of the Airborne who were not jump qualfied, and wore the Airborne cap badge on a green beret.
E Battery of 2 RCHA was designated "para", and qualified parachutists holding jump positions wore the maroon beret and white maple leaf on their wings.
Airborne Evacuation Platoon of 2 Field Ambulance was designated "para", and qualified parachutists holding jump positions wore the maroon beret and white maple leaf on their wings.
Airborne Recce Troop of the RCDs consisted of qualified parachutists holding jump positions who did not wear maroon berets, but wore the white maple leaf on their wings.
I believe a squadron of 2 CER was designated para (I may be mistaken - it may have been individual jump positions).
Parachute qualified individuals within the other units holding jump positions wore the maroon beret and the white maple leaf on their jump wings. For example, certain traffic technicians in 2 Svc Bn and certain personnel within the HQ and Signal Squadron. Because of this, you would see people wearing EME, Intelligence, Logistics badges on maroon berets, but this was the exception rather than the rule.
Most of us within the SSF were not jump qualified, however, we did wear the parachutist smock, with the "Osons" formation badges on the sleeves.
I hope that this first hand "worm's eye view" is of some help.

Phil

Phil,

Thnx for the detailed clarification and correctio. However, I can firmly remember CAbR pers on my course wearing the maroon beret and have never seen the CAbR badge on a green beret. I don't have immediate access but I would suspect that CF Dress Regs would state that the Regimental headdress would be the maroon beret in much the same way that the Armoured Corps beret would be black and the SAR would be Blaze Orange, etc...?

In the 1970s there were some odd things happening in the CF. For example, 4 Mechanized COmmando in Germany wore the maroon beret with the Canadian Airborne Regiment cap badge, although it was not a jump unit.
Regarding green berets with the Airborne capbadge. I can only go by what I saw. I knew several soldiers who served in the Airborne Regiment without having completed their parachutist course, and I can assure you that they wore the Airborne Regiment capbadge on green berets. I have no idea what the dress regulations stated, but at least from the late eighties until disbandment, this was the practice.
To add to the confusion, Navy and Air Force personnel who were posted to the Airborne Regiment (jump qualified) only wore the maroon beret and Regimental cap badge when they were in combat dress, or wearing the "SSF smock".
When wearing distinctive environmental uniform, these same Navy and Air Force personnel wore the forage cap (or wedge) with their branch cap badge.

Phil

It has been a long time since this thread was started but I was reading it tonight and noticed that no one mentioned a sub-sub-sub-unit in Petawawa that was only composed of parachute qualified personnel. You had to be qualified before becoming part of it. I joined it in 1982 and it ceased to exist in 1985. Let's see who comes up with the answer first.

Paul

You should be glad the maroon beret still exists in Canada!

In the Australian Army, 3RAR have recently lost theirs as the para role is now undertaken by the commandos.

Mick