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By Rachael O'Connor
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The United States Army has announced the end of a piece of uniform used only by women.
Until now, female drill sergeants in the U.S. Army had worn bush hats, with an upturned rim, while male drill sergeants wore flat-rimmed campaign hat.
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The female bush hat, modeled after the Australian bush hat, was introduced in 1972, when the first female drill sergeants enrolled in the drill sergeant program at Fort Jackson, South Carolina.
Now, more than 40 years later, male and female drill sergeants will all wear the same iconic campaign hat. Surveys found roughly 70 percent of drill sergeants responding expressed a desire to switch from the bush hat to the campaign one, according to the U.S. Army website.
A survey also found that more than 60 percent of drill sergeants believed that the campaign hat worn by males had a more professional appearance compared to the bush hat.
Sergeant Major Melissa Solomon, who was named Drill Sergeant of the Year in 2010, said: "When I served as the DSOY, the bush hat distinguished female drill sergeants that successfully completed the course and served honorably with their male counterparts.
"With deep respect to the bush hat history, I believe a change is necessary to mitigate product quality issues I witnessed firsthand as the Drill Sergeant Academy Deputy Commandant and reinforce uniformity during the critical transformation of a civilian into a Soldier."
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The campaign hat was first worn in 1872, when American soldiers wore it to protect against sun, wind and rain. It was later established as the official headgear of currently serving drill sergeants, and has been since 1964.
There have been more than 142,000 noncommissioned officer (NCO) drill sergeants since 1964, with more than 38,000 women donning the bush hat. Now, the campaign headgear will be worn by both men and women for the first time.
Sergeant 1st Class Sarah Escarcega, 2023 Maneuver Center of Excellence at Fort Benning and former DSOY, also agreed with the change.
In a statement, Escarcega said: "When I was the Maneuver DSOY, the bush hat distinguished female drill sergeants who were held to the same standard as their male counterparts yet had a separate uniform.
"Standardizing the headgear for all drill sergeants is directly aligned with every other standard that NCOs are held to when they serve as drill sergeants. I'm glad that Army Senior Leaders decided to listen to current and past drill sergeants to move away from the bush hat and continue putting our people first."
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Command Sergeant Major Michael McMurdy, senior enlisted adviser to the Commanding General of the U.S. Army Center for Initial Military Training, said: "There's a single standard when screening and certifying Noncommissioned Officers for service as a drill sergeant, a single standard that we hold all serving drill sergeants to, and moving forward, there will be a single standard drill sergeant uniform.
"Drill sergeants are the standard-bearers for the Initial Military Training environment, and we solicited, consolidated, and incorporated their feedback to improve the Drill Sergeant Program moving forward."
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth ordered new grooming and uniform requirements for the U.S. Army in September 2025.
These included new rules on appropriate hairstyles and hair color, fingernails and jewelry, after a similar announcement had been made around facial hair earlier in the year.
Hegseth said in a statement published by the Pentagon at the time: "The grooming standard set by the U.S. military is to be clean-shaven and neat in presentation for a proper military appearance."
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