Air Force authorizes new berets for explosive ordnance techs

Airman who train to defuse bombs and other explosives will soon wear a rust-colored beret with their uniforms.

Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force David R. Wolfe announced Friday that airmen trained as explosive ordnance disposal technicians, or EOD, will earn a distinctive rust-colored beret. EOD will be the seventh group of airmen in the Air Force authorized to wear a specific colored beret as part of their uniform, including security forces personnel and several special warfare roles.

The rust color, the release said, is “the color historically associated with explosive hazards” and will be worn with a metallic flash. Wolfe posted an image of a rust beret on social media Friday that included a metallic flash device.

Wolfe announced the new beret at the first graduation ceremony for a new training course for junior EOD techs. The Multi-domain Airmen for Modern Battlefield Application course, or MAMBA, was relaunched this year with a redesigned curriculum of pre-deployment training for EOD techs.

“Today’s graduates represent the capability, professionalism and warrior ethos that define our explosive ordnance disposal force,” Wolfe said, announcing the approval of the beret. “The EOD beret will stand as a visible recognition of that identity and your service to the joint force.”

Berets have a long history in various roles in the Army and Air Force. Air Force Pararescuemen and Army Special Forces soldiers were officially authorized to wear maroon and green berets early in the Vietnam War to recognize their dangerous combat missions and grueling training required to qualify for the jobs. Army Rangers and Airborne units, and teams of Air Force Combat Control, or CCT, and Tactical Air Control Party, or TACP, often adopted berets in the era as well, with formal authorization for berets among those jobs coming in the 1980s.

In the early 2000s, the Air Force expanded berets to other career fields with specific ground-operations roles while the Army made black berets the standard headgear across the entire service. That move prompted the 75th Ranger Regiment to change from wearing black berets to tan ones.

EOD is a fairly unique role across the military; every service has its own corps of EOD techs trained in similar underlying skills, but with varying specialty skills and deployment roles. Navy EOD techs, for example, were the designated military team that recovered the Artemis II astronauts from their capsule when it splashed down in April.

Giving EOD troops a distinctive beret, Wolfe said in the Air Force release, reflects the role’s “designation as a specialized conventional combat-arms career field and recognizes the community’s role in delivering combat capability at the tactical edge.”

Airmen authorized berets generally wear the headgear in every in-garrison uniform, including formal dress “blues”, daily utility uniforms known as Operational Camouflage Pattern, or OCPs, and with flight suits for those in flying roles.

“EOD Airmen bring disciplined expertise, courage and resolve to the joint force’s most complex and hazardous missions,” said Chief Master Sgt. Steven Harris, the Air Force’s EOD career field manager. “The rust beret recognizes their combat-arms identity, honors the community they represent and reflects the capability they will continue to deliver wherever the mission demands.”

The release did not give a timeline for when EOD techs might start receiving the new covers.

List of Air Force berets by color

According to the Air Force’s dress and appearance regulation, airmen who hold these jobs in the Air Force are authorized to wear berets with specific colors as their permanent uniform. Officers and enlisted troops in associated career fields wear the same berets.

• Maroon: Pararescue, or PJs, and Combat Rescue Officers, or CROs.
• Scarlet: Combat Control, or CCT, and Special Tactics Officers, or STOs.
• Pewter green, which is sometimes called sage: Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape, or SERE, Specialists.
• Pewter gray: Weather Parachutist and Special Reconnaissance.
• Black: Tactical Air Control Party, or TACP.
• Blue: Security Forces.

Some Air Force Academy cadets wear blue berets while assigned as instructors in the school’s initial summer training program for incoming freshmen and on other specific occasions, but not as everyday headgear.