Now Forming! the Campaign Hat Corps

Jedi5150 · Nov 1, 2018

All of this campaign hat talk made me go look at the Stetson website. I got curious, since their campaign hats look well made, and I inquired if they offer them in a "long oval". They replied that none of their felt hats are available in long oval, only their hats made out of straw. Sort of a bummer, they looked a bit higher quality than my Stratton.

AbbaDatDeHat · Nov 1, 2018

^^^teach me to work from memory. Lol
Sure can’t argue the Army wore the buckle in the back. Bet it felt great when you laid your head back. Idk

M Hatman · Nov 1, 2018

AbbaDatDeHat said:
^^^teach me to work from memory. Lol
Sure can’t argue the Army wore the buckle in the back. Bet it felt great when you laid your head back. Idk

Well, no different really than with the two piece (worn with hat cords) where the buckle has to be in the back....and it is a larger buckle.......but then if you really want a nap...the hat come off, covers the face from the sun was we lay on the nice ?soft? grass......oh the days......

M

PS When the Army has allowed DS's to again wear the Campaign hat you will find they wear the single strap with the buckle in the back still. It actually goes back to the Trooper (including motorized too) days where extra length was left on the strap.....shorten it up for dismounted wear with the strap to the back of the head.......lengthen it up for mounted wear, with the strap under the chin!

Orvil Newton · Nov 11, 2018

Michigan State Police 2016

1967Cougar390 · Nov 12, 2018

Orvil Newton said:
Michigan State Police 2016

I like it! Here in South Carolina the Highway Patrol has been wearing the campaign hat since the late 1970’s.

Steven

AbbaDatDeHat · Nov 12, 2018

Greetings All:
West Virginia State Troopers. Some of the snappiest dressed Troopers. They get the message across. Look like a bunch of Marines!!

BobHufford · Nov 12, 2018

2018's NAUMD Best Dressed: Department with Over 500 Officers, Missouri State Highway Patrol. Uniform by Spiewak.

Tukwila · Nov 12, 2018

I think they'd all look smarter with Open Road Stetsons or something like Michael Gannon's Highwayman....

rocketeer · Nov 12, 2018

In Great Britain I have not seen this style hat used in a military or official capacity, only in older photo's of Boy Scouts.
It is sometimes referred to as a 'lemon squeezer' due to the similar shape of such a device.

David Conwill · Jan 3, 2019

rocketeer said:
In Great Britain I have not seen this style hat used in a military or official capacity, only in older photo's of Boy Scouts.
It is sometimes referred to as a 'lemon squeezer' due to the similar shape of such a device.

The Boy Scout thing comes out of the Boer War. Canadian cavalry there wore them (they brought them from Montana peak cowboy hats worn on the great plains and still worn by the RCMP) and they were seen by Baden-Powell while serving in that conflict. I'm less certain how New Zealanders came to wear them (they seem to have popularized the "lemon-squeezer" thing) but I expect it was from Kiwi troops serving in South Africa.

It's worth noting that the Canadians and, I think, the New Zealanders, wear their hats with a dent centered above the face, whereas Americans wear them with one of the pinches centered over the face.

AbbaDatDeHat · Jan 3, 2019

^^^Yup...pinch up front!
60’s Stetson Nutria
Be well. Bowen

rocketeer · Jan 3, 2019

I had one some years back, that too was a Marine Corps issue. It came with a sort of clamp that looked like a toilet seat and kept the brim flat.
These were very popular around the release of the film Full Metal Jacket. The wartime re enacting thing was just really taking off and few enthusiasts pretending to imitate R. Lee Ermey.

Jedi5150 · Jan 3, 2019

I recently watched "They were Expendable", one of my favorite John Wayne WWII movies, and I'd forgotten how many scenes there were of Marines wearing campaign hats in that movie. What I did find particularly interesting was the lack of forward rake. The movie was shot during WWII, and so I'm sure there were decent technical advisors (the main supporting character had himself been a PT boat skipper), so I would think fairly accurate in regard to uniforms. And not one of the Marines had his campaign hat raked forward. They all wore them like park rangers. I've seen the same thing in actual WWII photos, which leads me to believe that the forward rake is a comparatively recent development in the history of the campaign hat.

Orvil Newton · Jan 3, 2019

Jedi5150 said:
I recently watched "They were Expendable", one of my favorite John Wayne WWII movies, and I'd forgotten how many scenes there were of Marines wearing campaign hats in that movie. What I did find particularly interesting was the lack of forward rake. The movie was shot during WWII, and so I'm sure there were decent technical advisors (the main supporting character had himself been a PT boat skipper), so I would think fairly accurate in regard to uniforms. And not one of the Marines had his campaign hat raked forward. They all wore them like park rangers. I've seen the same thing in actual WWII photos, which leads me to believe that the forward rake is a comparatively recent development in the history of the campaign hat.

I don't have a date for this photo, but it clearly pre-dates WWII. Notice the rake, and crease, of the two hats. There was lots of variety in how the hats were worn in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

fireman · Jan 3, 2019

Fellow on the right has the older 1889ish hat. He is also wearing the earlier pattern US mills belt and gear. It looks like a staged shot contrasting the old and new look of the Infantry.

Jedi5150 · Jan 3, 2019

fireman said:
Fellow on the right has the older 1889ish hat. He is also wearing the earlier pattern US mills belt and gear. It looks like a staged shot contrasting the old and new look of the Infantry.

Good call, that's exactly what it looks like. Interesting that the acorns predate the "non-acorn" hat. I didn't realize they'd been around for so long on the campaign hat.

And speaking of hats in movies (at least I was), the newer remake of the Humphry Bogart classic, "Sahara", with Jim Belushi, has one of the Australian characters wearing what I am 99% certain is an Akubra Slouch hat.

Sorry for the tiny size of these photos:

usmc-marine-wwii-ww2-banana-wars-campaign-hat-w-o_1_49de82ba5b2f971f5af709cb84b88e1b.jpg

And of course, "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell was famous for his Campaign Hat:

David Conwill · Jan 4, 2019

First photo is Marines in Nicaragua, right? Holding a Sandinista flag?

David Conwill · Jan 4, 2019

Speaking of the earlier-pattern hat, here is my great grandfather in the Sangamon County "Honor Book" printed after the First World War. I presume that photo was taken a lot closer to 1900 than 1919 when the book was published.

M Hatman · Jan 4, 2019

Here are two pictures of the Illinois State Police Cadet class 125, from 2015...
They DO still wear their hats on patrol too.
M

Jedi5150 · Jan 4, 2019

David Conwill said:
First photo is Marines in Nicaragua, right? Holding a Sandinista flag?

I’m sure you’re correct. I got these off Google images, and it said they were Marines in the “Banana Wars”. So that would make sense.

Now Forming! the Campaign Hat Corps

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