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Ball caps became legit in Vietnam era

Only since the Vietnam War have command ball caps emerged as the signature headgear of all sailors.

“The story of the ball cap has been one of gradual expansion,” said Robert Carroll, who heads the Uniform Matters Office. “For years, you wore your ball caps only while at sea, then they expanded to the pier and beyond and in the last five years have also worked their way into being part of service uniforms onboard ships as well.”

The historical files in Carroll’s office support his view, though the origins of the hat reach back before World War II.

Then, the records say, ball caps were worn by officers and enlisted, but only in the aviation community.

Navy icons such as Adms. William “Bull” Halsey and Marc Mitscher — both aviators — can be seen wearing such a cap in many pictures taken during the war. That cap looked more like Ernest Hemingway’s famous fishing cap than the blue ball caps of today. It was tan, with a “peaked” crown and a “duck” bill designed to shade a sailor’s eyes from bright sunlight.

But even then there where those who didn’t like the idea. Fleet Adm. Chester Nimitz was sent one of the caps by the uniform board to try out in 1944. The board was considering adopting the cap fleet-wide. Nimitz balked and sent the cap back to them with a simple one-lined letter that said “recommend against adopting.”

After the war, the Navy twice tried to totally rework the enlisted sailor’s seabag. The ideas caught the eye of Washington Post reporter John G. Norris, who on Nov. 6, 1947, wrote a front-page story about the Navy’s proposed new duds, calling the ideas “radical.”

Among the proposed uniforms were khaki crackerjacks, green “Ike Jackets” and a floppy “engineer style” ball cap.

The headgear was described as “a blue cap for officers and men very similar to the green headgear worn by all services,” Norris wrote. “It is a floppy affair with a visor, made entirely of cloth.”

Though the idea officially flopped, the ball cap idea did not go away, and its popularity grew over the next two decades. In the 1950s the idea began to spread from the aviation community to surface ships, but sailors would only wear them underway. Often, sailors would purchase customized hats with their ship’s or squadron’s name and number while in port overseas. But officially the Navy never formally approved them.

By the 1970s, ball caps officially became an option for the working “dungaree” uniform, to be only worn in the “ship or squadron’s immediate area,” updated regulations read.

By the 1990s, the service began to issue caps in boot camp and made command caps optional — replacing the “Dixie cup” as the required headgear for working uniforms.