Army moves to ditch floppy hats for female officers

(Dan Tri) - The soft hat for female officers and professional soldiers is proposed to be eliminated and replaced with a kepi like the one worn by men.

The Ministry of National Defense is seeking opinions from members of the Government on a proposal to change some details in the uniforms and insignia of officers and professional soldiers. Speaking to Dan Tri reporter, an officer at the General Department of Logistics said that the notable point in this change is that female officers and professional soldiers will wear kepi hats similar to male officers, replacing the soft, curved-brimmed cloth hats.

Quân đội hướng tới bỏ chiếc mũ mềm của nữ sĩ quan - 1

The curved-brimmed fabric hat has been used by female officers and professional soldiers for many years (Photo: People's Army Newspaper).

Thus, the military officer's cap will no longer be different between men and women. Currently, the police force's cap is also not different between men and women, both are kepi. Some other changes are that the military will abandon the short-sleeved uniform design, unifying a long-sleeved uniform design for both winter and summer (the winter model has an additional lining inside). The pocket design on the uniform will also be recessed, revealing only the pocket flap instead of revealing the entire pocket frame like the old uniform.

Quân đội hướng tới bỏ chiếc mũ mềm của nữ sĩ quan - 2

Minister of National Defense Phan Van Giang inspects newly designed military uniforms (test) at the Central Military Commission Standing Committee Conference in July 2023 (Photo: People's Army Newspaper).

Quân đội hướng tới bỏ chiếc mũ mềm của nữ sĩ quan - 3

New uniform model was launched at the Central Military Commission Standing Committee Conference (Photo: People's Army Newspaper).

The military branch logo (insignia) will be attached to the left sleeve of the uniform for easy recognition (similar to the logo on camouflage combat uniforms).

Near the cuff of the ceremonial dress shirt, the Ministry of National Defense has agreed to add a yellow border. The pattern on the border of the general's shirt is a pine branch, while the colonel and lieutenant's shirt has a rice flower pattern.

The addition of the hand-stitched border adds a touch of class to the officer uniform, which was previously only designed for Navy uniforms.

On the lapels of the ceremonial uniforms, the single pine branch motif will be removed and replaced with the military branch insignia (parallelogram). This is to unify the ceremonial uniforms of generals with those of colonels and lieutenants in the army.

The Ministry of Defense has agreed on new uniform designs and is waiting for the Government's comments and approval.

The current uniform design of the Vietnam People's Army has existed for 15 years. This design was tested by the Ministry of National Defense in 2008 and officially applied to the entire army in 2009.