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INFORMATION ON VP-4 CAP


tornado
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ANY information someone can provided me about this cap would be greatly appreciated. Age? Who would have worn? etc. It is made of red wool, by Crown Champions, with all the following embroidered on it: GAS ~ Flight Wings ~ VP-4 ~ Crew Six.

Thanks much Cindy! :)

post-152637-0-19806000-1397507278.jpgpost-152637-0-15552000-1397507279.jpg

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  • 3 months later...
VP_Association

Hi there, that's a P-3 squadron crew or cruise cap. Judging by the look of it I'd say that it dates between the late 1960s to late 1970s.

 

Cold war era P-3 squadrons typically formed more or less permanent crews that flew together as a unit throughout an operational deployment cycle, which were also called "cruises". During the 1960s/1970s such deployments took the squadron away from its home base in the US to a forward location such as Bermuda, Keflavik, Rota, Lajes, Roosevelt Roads, Sigonnella, etc., for six to nine months.

 

As the deployment or cruise approached, or just afterwards sometimes (especially if the squadron was going to the Philippines, Okinawa, or Japan where custom embroidery was really inexpensive), the individual crews would have special crews/cruise patches and/or caps created that they would wear while deployed and keep as a souvenir. Crews/cruise caps seemed to have been more of a west coast tradition (I don't ever recall having any made while I was on active duty with VP-8 at NAS Brunswick) but most of the guys I knew who came from west coast squadrons had them. The difference I think was that the west coast squadrons had access to very inexpensive custom cap makers based in the Phillipines, Okinawa, and Japan.

 

On the east coast we normally just had crews/cruise patches made up. I was somewhat artistic and my own patch designs were selected by my crew (VP-8 CAC-4) when we deployed to Rota/Lajes in 1980/1981 and to Bermuda/Keflavik in 1982/1983. Each crew had their own patch design for the deployment and you put them on your flight jacket or flight suit if you wanted to.

 

I had a wool cap very similar to yours given to me when I first reported to VP-8 in September 1980. It looked almost identical but was blue. It was a squadron cap, not a crew/cruise cap. It had large applied (sewn on) yellow wool felt "VP-8" block letters/number on the front and "TIGERS" embroidered in yellow bowling script on the back. Your cap appears to have been a crew/cruise cap for VP-4's crew number six. It was worn by a third class aviation electronics technician who's nickname was apparently "GAS". Each crewmember would have had his own individual nickname (mine was "FRAT"), rank insignia, and rate if enlisted or wing (pilot or NFO) if an officer. This person would have most likely have been either the in-flight technician or the radio operator on a P-3A or P-3B or the in-flight technician on a P-3C. Hope this helps.

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