Mostly a Hollywoodism. You occasionally see pictures of soldiers from Vietnam with their helmet straps undone, propbably because of A: poor discipline, and B: those straps get bloody uncomfortable when you're sweating. However, the straps are there for a reason and today proper wear of PPE is very strictly enforced. When I was in Afghanistan I saw people getting chewed out all the time for stuff like that. Dress and deportment stuff does slide a little overseas, I rarely if ever actually wore my hat on camp, but PPE gets taken seriously because something like buckling your helmet strap can and will save your life.
|