Scout Beret

[Blue Ghost]

On the cover of the old Mega Traveller referee screen is a scout with a tan beret, draping to the left.

I always pictured scouts wearing black berets for some reason, but maybe that's more a military thing.

Opinions?

 

[Magnus von Thornwood]

Berets?

Hell no! Berets are for grunts, Scout have baseball caps and them cool Aussie Rat Patrol hats.

 

[Enoki]

Scouts wear uniforms?

 

[aramis]

On the cover of the old Mega Traveller referee screen is a scout with a tan beret, draping to the left.

I always pictured scouts wearing black berets for some reason, but maybe that's more a military thing.

Opinions?

Ball caps are the canonically described uniform cover.

But given the skillset, scouts are likely to indulge themselves in whimsy when not needing the bubble.

And the uniform is canonically a scout blueish-gray tailored vacc suit.

 

[Blue Ghost]

I don't remember baseball style caps from the books, but I'll take your word for it.

So, who's the dude on the Mega Traveller Referee's screen?

 

[Reban]

I've always imagined them to have tan "uniforms" but nothing more formal than a jumpsuit or safari style outfit in a universal pattern. Likewise baseball caps have always featured in that vision.

I'd see the Scouts as being highly eclectic in their personal wear on and off duty so a beret could be a personal affectation.

Other possibilities include the scouts paramilitary arm or covert survey branch.

And I seem to remember mention of the Scouts sponsoring a "youth scouting organization" called the Space Cadets. Maybe he's a "troop leader". :devil:

 

[Blue Ghost]

Yeah, I always pictured scouts to have the official emblem on anything that they bought off the rack. An armband or path sewn onto any kind of clothing would do for the guys who spent their time in deep space.

The real formal types would wear a jumpsuit with all the appropriate patches and signifiers. But you're typical any-duty scout would wear regular street cloths of the durable kind.

But hats? I could have sworn I saw reference to a beret somewhere. Oh well.

 

[Vargas]

On the cover of the old Mega Traveller referee screen is a scout with a tan beret, draping to the left.

Are you sure he's a scout?

 

[Reban]

Berets are good for wearing in confined interiors like a scout ship. This is part of the reason why tank crews adopted the beret. It made a nice cushion on top of the head to absorb impacts and allowed headphones to be worn. The other major reason was that it marked them out as elite troops. I can see scouts using them for all the same reasons, but in my head the iconic scout has a baseball cap and the swagger of a bush pilot or Flying Tiger.


And just for illustration purposes here what I envisage those tan scout uniform jumpsuits to look like http://www.cambrianmoons.com/bryce_thunderbolt.htm

Oh and obviously women make better scouts, attention to detail, orderly approach to surveys and a more realistic assessment of danger and risk.

 

[Blue Ghost]

Are you sure he's a scout?

You know, that thought hit me right after I hit the post button. You're right, we don't know who or what that guy is. I just kind of assumed he was a scout, possibly on detached duty for some humanitarian mission, ergo the beret and firearm...supervising emergency supplies to some planet wracked by famine...and yes, I had a writeup for such a scenario

Reban; nice berets...all three of them.

 

[Blue Ghost]

I wonder if scouts attached to naval or marine units would wear "scout uniforms".

 

[Enoki]

I wonder if scouts attached to naval or marine units would wear "scout uniforms".

I think it would be much more entertaining if they were more like the scouts the US Army used in the Old West...

Imagine the space going version of him...

 

[aramis]

I think it would be much more entertaining if they were more like the scouts the US Army used in the Old West...

Imagine the space going version of him...

Makes me think of Adm. Santanocheev...

 

[Magnus von Thornwood]

Of course.

I wonder if scouts attached to naval or marine units would wear "scout uniforms".

Why on earth would you wonder such a thing? They have a uniform for a reason, only DD Scouts and undercover Recon Scouts don't wear the Scouts' Ship Suit uniform. There may not be many Rules in the Scouts, but they are still a uniformed Imperial Service. Yeesh, where do these "no uniforms for Scouts" myth start anyway. Scouts always have uniforms, otherwise they got shot as spies. :nonono:

 

[Blue Ghost]

Why on earth would you wonder such a thing? They have a uniform for a reason, only DD Scouts and undercover Recon Scouts don't wear the Scouts' Ship Suit uniform. There may not be many Rules in the Scouts, but they are still a uniformed Imperial Service. Yeesh, where do these "no uniforms for Scouts" myth start anyway. Scouts always have uniforms, otherwise they got shot as spies. :nonono:

Wha... where's that in any Traveller book? Shot as spies?

I like the Aussie thing. I always wanted one of them big hats with the flap pinned to the side.

I also like the "optional military beret as you see fit" concept.

 

[rancke]

I've always imagined that Scouts use their uniforms the way police detectives do: whenever the situation demands (such as at funerals) but never when they don't absolutely have to. The tailored vacc suit is a special situation because of its great utility.

Heh. Whichever Scout administrator came up with the idea of making the standard issue vacc suit into the official uniform was a genius.


Hans

 

[Reban]

I like the Aussie thing. I always wanted one of them big hats with the flap pinned to the side.

Cronjie hats, first adopted into British and Commonwealth service during the Boer war because the Boer commandos were also using them. Ususally the flap goes to the side you shoulder your rifle on. IMTU the Imperial Army wear them on field service.

 

[Magnus von Thornwood]

Uhhh, my imagination...sorta.

Wha... where's that in any Traveller book? Shot as spies?

I like the Aussie thing. I always wanted one of them big hats with the flap pinned to the side.

I also like the "optional military beret as you see fit" concept.

It is my ATU, I keep it real like that in my supers descended, post-transhuman-singularity, space opera.

I figured that Imperial Scouts (and notice I said 'Imperial', different rules for Corp Scouts) were treated like an arm of the cops/space guard in peacetime, but come war they function like military scouts and that means under the ancient Articles & Laws of Interstellar and World Warfare that Service Members not in uniform found behind or near enemy lines will be treated as a spy and not a military officer or rating.

Still want one, no idea if I will be able to pull it off but it would go well with my reproduction silk aviators scarf.

No berets, those are purely for the Imperial Army by long and honored Tradition. They had to give aerospace its own arm (till they went a spacing) and Luna (thus space) to the Navy (and the Marines), but they kept the Beret as a military symbol to themselves and only Commandos and Drop Troops (who are part of the Army's Protected Forces) at that.

 

[rancke]

Signature gear for elite units are likely to be encroached upon by people who want the coolness factor without earning it. Or for people who believe in equality for all, earned or not. If the Imperial Army has a unique signature headgear, it is most likely to be something invented only a few decades ago. Or something old and forgotten that has been recently ressurected, like the tricorne.

I think berets are going to be common in the future, especially considering that they are already part of the uniform of many military and police units worldwide, as well as by other organizations, going back to before there was a USA.


Hans

 

[atpollard]

[m;]Just a quick note that a side discussion with political leanings was moved to avoid tempting others into infraction territory.[/m;]