The Secretary of the Army announced on 13 June 2011 via Army Directive 2011-11 that “Effective 14 June 2011, the ACU patrol cap is the primary headgear for all Soldiers as the duty uniform headgear.”

The soldiers didn’t like the fact that the beret was hot — it was not something that they wore the majority of the time,” reports SMA Chandler “And they didn’t like the fact it didn’t shade the sun and it took two hands to put on. And they didn’t like to carry two pieces of headgear to do different functions during the day.”