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Tight limits on wearing ball caps angers many

Command ball caps — a fixture around the fleet over the past four decades and one of the Navy’s most popular uniform items — are dying a slow death.

In early December, when the Navy released its rules for wear of the new Navy Working Uniform, it barred ball caps from being worn with the blue-and-gray camouflage ensemble. Instead, sailors must wear the Marine-style eight-point cover.

Since the NWU mainly replaces two uniforms — utilities for sailors and wash khakis for chiefs and officers — that featured the ball cap, the new rules severely limit the circumstances in which a sailor can wear his ball cap with an official uniform.

The last official uniform that can be worn with a ball cap, the coveralls, is still authorized for shipboard use if the commander decides to use those in place of the NWUs. The new rules effectively limit the wearing of a ball cap to inside the skin of some ships. That’s a far cry from today, in which ball caps are as common on the waterfront as boots and rank insignia.

Commanding officers can still allow the wearing of the caps with the NWU — but only while onboard the ship. If you step off the ship wearing the ball cap, you are out of uniform.

But command names won’t disappear entirely. Command patches are authorized for wear on the NWU’s right breast pocket.

After posting a Web story on the new restrictions, Navy Times received nearly 200 e-mails from sailors and officers condemning the move.

In messages and follow-up interviews, they said the Navy is trashing what has become a tradition in the fleet that carries intangible values for sailors.

“A ball cap represents an identity to sailors and a source of personal pride,” said Command Master Chief (SW/AW) Steve Fontenot, senior enlisted sailor on the Norfolk, Va.-based destroyer Donald Cook.

Sailors check aboard from boot camp and “A” school, he said, wearing their Navy ball cap, something they are already very proud of.

“After they finish Battle Stations in boot camp, they take off the ‘recruit’ hat and put on one that says ‘Navy’ — and that’s when they officially become sailors — that means something deep to them,” Fontenot said.

“Later, when they check onboard a command and the [command master chief] gives them their first command ball cap it takes on even greater meaning as they now feel they are one of us, part of the team,” he said.

8-point: “More professional”

Ball caps weren’t authorized with the NWU based on requests from sailors during wear tests and focus groups as the uniform was being developed, said Robert Carroll, head of the Uniform Matters Office.

“Overwhelmingly, the eight-point cover was favored,” he said. “The main theme for this selection was confirmed during focus groups in four words: ‘It looks more professional.’ “

Carroll said that in the focus groups, which contained junior and senior sailors, some were concerned about command pride and identity if the cap went away. But in the end, he said, those concerns were “mitigated by allowing a unit patch to be worn on the NWU pocket.”

But Fontenot’s fondness and support for the ball cap is echoed by others, regardless of whether they like the new cammies.

“I don’t think the leadership who made this decision took into account just how important ball caps have become to sailors,” said Command Master Chief (SW) Tom Meglin, the top enlisted sailor onboard the amphibious transport dock San Antonio. “Sure it’s only a hat, but to these men and women it means something, it means a lot for sure.”

For some, it’s even worse that the well-liked hat is being replaced by something they don’t like.

“The eight-pointed cover is by far the worst part of the NWU,” said Ensign Paul Castillo, a limited duty officer and ordnance officer at Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 26 in Norfolk. “I was looking forward to just owning one of these terrible uniform items and relying on one of the coveted items in a sea bag — my command ball cap.”

And it’s not only seagoing sailors who want to keep their caps on, either.

“Why are we not allowed to show our command support by wearing our command ball cap,” said Cryptologic Technician (Networks) 1st Class Chris Bareham who works at the Fort Meade, Md.-based Navy Information Operations Command.

“On a shore command, more sailors will be seen wearing their utilities or [working whites or working blues], so the command ball cap is worn by at least 85 percent of a command on any given day,” he said.

He also says it’s something fleet sailors proudly wear when returning to training commands after a shipboard tour — instantly marking them as salty.

But a minority of sailors who wrote in disagree.

“Specialized command ball caps are great but their time is over,” said Storekeeper 2nd Class Sammy Nganga, with Naval Facilities Engineering Command in Hawaii. “With the new blue camouflage uniforms, I don’t see why anyone should insist on wearing his ball cap with them. The Navy is going through many changes and as sailors in the 21st century, we need to learn to accept change.”

The financial issue

Others say that the money commands save from passing out a free first cap to sailors can have better uses.

“It’s a good thing that the Navy is finally fading out the command ball cap,” said Storekeeper 2nd Class (SW) Tom Murphy, with Navy Provisional Detainee Battalion 5 at Camp Bucca, Iraq.

“I don’t need to be an advertising billboard for whatever command I am assigned with and think about how much money the Navy spends on individual command ball caps.”

He said, for example, a carrier has 2,500 sailors in its ship’s company. At $8 per hat, the command is spending $20,000. “Then add up how many sailors are checking in every month to new commands that need a new command cover. It is a tremendous waste of money; keep command pride in our spirits NOT on our covers.”

Still others say that the NWU’s wear rules are complicated enough and leaving out ball caps actually helps.

“Ball cap restrictions with the NWU is a positive,” said Chief Warrant Officer 5 Roger Lovern, an avionics officer at Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Fla. “It eliminates one of the variables leaders will have to manage with the new uniform’s roll out — simpler is better.”

Fontenot disagrees and said ball caps are helpful to leaders out there enforcing uniform and conduct standards.

Sailors wearing such an identifying piece of clothing will think twice before misbehaving away from their command, he said.

“And if they do,” he said, “it gives leaders the ability to immediately identify where that sailor is from.”

Though most are aware that they’ll now be able to wear their command patch on the right breast pocket of their NWU, they say it’s simply not enough.

“I am in favor of the NWU. It is a great look,” said Aviation Boatswain’s Mate 1st Class (AW) Gerald Boyd, from the Norfolk-based Naval Air Forces Atlantic. “But I also believe that we should be allowed to wear the command ball cap.”

He said he loves the NWU and how it looks, but still feels there’s something missing. A patch isn’t going to cut it for him.

“I am aware of [the command patch option] but the dynamic of the ball cap is still lost,” he said. “The patch isn’t out front like a ball cap is — you notice it immediately.”

Fontenot agrees and said that if left to just a patch, the tradition of wearing something to show command identity will still die.

“It will be hit or miss,” he said. “Some commands will use it and others just won’t — and in the end we as a Navy will lose something.”

He, too, thinks that the blue Navy ball cap is compatible with the NWU. “It’s blue and blends in with the uniform,” he said.

Fontenot, like others, hopes feedback from sailors will be enough to sway the Navy leadership to give in and allow ball caps full wear rights with the NWU. But until then, he’s going to recommend to his CO that ball caps be worn with the NWU while onboard.

“I’m an advocate of the idea,” he said. “We’ll keep working the chain of command on this one, but for now this is the way ahead.”

More on ball caps:

• Ball caps became legit in Vietnam era

• Caps keep on covering at Great Lakes