Barracks Rumor Mill cover: full-frame screenshot of a fake screenshot of a made-up blue beret headline, with the headline "Nobody’s Getting a Blueberry Beret." over a dark band.

Nobody’s Getting a Blueberry Beret.

A screenshot going around X since the night of Oct. 3 says Air Assault-qualified soldiers are getting blue berets. Nobody in the Army announced that, and the article in the screenshot does not exist.

The screenshot

It looks like a news page. Headline: “Incoming Blue Berets for Air Assault Qualified Individuals.” It’s dated Oct. 3, 2026, 9:24 a.m. CDT, filed under Culture / Entertainment, with a made-up byline. Under that is a blue beret with a blue-and-black flash, next to the official portrait of Maj. Gen. David W. Gardner, commanding general of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) and Fort Campbell.

Fake screenshot of a made-up Task & Purpose headline about blue berets for Air Assault soldiers, stamped FAKE

A couple of days later a second graphic showed up. It’s a row of troops in blue berets with 101st patches and the caption “Air Assault ‘Blueberry’ Berets Seen Across Fort Campbell Today.” It has no source, no unit, and no date.

Both made the rounds on X and racked up tens of thousands of views. Most of the replies boiled down to one question: does every badge get its own beret now?

What’s wrong with it

  • The article doesn’t exist. The outlet’s own site search has no such headline. The only thing it has on a blue Air Assault beret is a history piece from 2022.
  • The byline is made up too. It has no author page on the site and isn’t on the staff list.
  • The general announced nothing. Somebody reused Gardner’s official portrait. Neither he nor the 101st has put out anything about berets.
  • The division rulebook says black. The 101st’s standards book, dated Dec. 16, 2025, puts every Soldier in a black beret with the Army Service Uniform, unit flash sewn on. The Air Assault perk in there is background trimming behind the badge.
  • The Army’s beret list has no blue. The uniform guide covers five colors: black for everybody, tan for Rangers, green for Special Forces, maroon for Airborne, and brown for the Security Force Assistance Brigades.

For the record, Gardner’s bio does list an Air Assault Badge. That’s the most accurate thing in the screenshot.

What was real that week

The real beret news belonged to the Air Force. On Oct. 2, Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force David R. Wolfe announced a rust-colored beret for explosive ordnance disposal Airmen. It makes seven Air Force beret colors, and nobody has said when EOD actually gets them.

The fake is dated Oct. 3, the same morning the EOD beret story ran on the site it imitates. Somebody watched the Air Force get a new hat and got jealous on the Army’s behalf.

The only headgear change the Army has floated this fall goes the other direction. Proposed uniform changes reported in September include baseball caps, boonie hats, and limited wear of the black beret. An Army spokesman called all of it pre-decisional.

The blue beret was real once

The 101st really did wear a blue beret. After Vietnam, the Army chief of staff let local commanders authorize distinctive berets for morale. When the division came off jump status in 1974, it got the Air Assault badge and a blue beret, with a flash for each battalion.

Everybody else piled on too. There were maroon berets, black berets for armor units, and a brigade in Alaska wearing brown. In 1979, Gen. Bernard Rogers ordered berets done away with. A year later Rangers got black back and Airborne got maroon, and blue stayed gone.

Today the blue beret belongs to Air Force Security Forces. If somebody at the shoppette is wearing one, that’s an Air Force cop.

Why an E-4 should care

  • Find your black beret. It’s in a ruck somewhere. The standards book still calls for it with your unit flash at parades, changes of command, and whenever the commander says so.
  • Don’t order a blue beret online. Showing up to a change of command in one gets you corrective training and a nickname that lasts until ETS.
  • Before you forward a screenshot, search the headline on the outlet’s site. It takes 20 seconds. If nothing comes up, you’re forwarding a meme.
  • If your Air Assault buddy is already shopping for a flash, send them this.

The only new cover you’re getting

Want new headgear before the Army makes up its mind? Buy your own: the E-4 MAFIA Hat in OD Green, Desert Tan, or Heather Grey. For the group chat that forwards everything, there’s the Trust No One Flag.

Cover and inline image: a fake screenshot that circulated on social media starting Oct. 3, 2026, stamped FAKE by E-4 MAFIA. No such article was published. The screenshot reuses the official U.S. Army portrait of Maj. Gen. David W. Gardner, who made no such announcement. The appearance of U.S. Department of War (DoW) visual information does not imply or constitute DoW endorsement.

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