Hat ID Help, NNC, CNC, ANC?

[AustinO]

Great pick this last weekend (costume collection) resulted in a full trunk-load with about half of that space occupied by a wonderful NNC uniform grouping as well as an unrelated Cadet Nurse Corps uniform grouping...

I'm at a loss as to which of these groupings these hats belong in however - they could possibly be unrelated knowing the source. The cut and insignia of the caps are more akin to something ANC, but I can't find anything on Blitzkreig Baby showing a "pinks" colored uniform. For color reference the hat below in this image is from the NNC grouping (slate grey overseas cap). The unknown pink overseas cap was tailor-made in NYC I believe, but no identifying marks on the other cap. Have any of you experts seen anything like the hat above?

 

 

[AustinO]

[cutiger83]

In my book "Dressed for Duty", there is a cap similar to yours in the NNC section. However, the one in the book says the Navy insignia was worn on the cap. Like you said, this one looks like Army insignia. It looks like yours has some type of band around the head. Or is it just the way the hat is resting? In the book, the cap is all one piece with no hat band.

 

I don't see anything similar to yours listed in the ANC or CNC section. I will keep looking. I am not sure what you have.

 

Hopefully, someone else can chime in with their thoughts.....Kat

[AustinO]

There is an adjustment band around the front, which is what pointed me towards ANC. No other pin marks on the front of the cap, but the eagle insignia is of very low quality (which I equate to late war or post war). Knowing this is out of an old costume source its possible this came in with the NNC group and insignia was added, as that nurse most definitely ended the war a Lt. I know she was in the Pacific though (ribbon bar), which counters the tailor information on the OS cap.

My thoughts are to include this with the NNC grouping when I pass it on, but would hate to break up a grouping if it proved to be for a different branch (I have yet to find any background on the CNC nurse).

Thanks Kat, knew you would volunteer a bit of your experienced knowledge on the subject!

[AustinO]

Plot twist- the grey OS cap has the NYC tailors information! Nothing in the pinks OS cap besides a size tag. The other cap does appear to be very well made though, and has a spot where it appears a spec tag was removed.

I'm at a loss at how a Wisconsin nurse enlisting in 43 saw both NYC and the Pacific. Her first posting was Great Lakes near Chicago.

[cutiger83]

Thanks Kat, knew you would volunteer a bit of your experienced knowledge on the subject!

 

 

Thanks but I still consider myself a beginner with some good reference books!

 

I also have the book "Women for Victory". It also shows the Navy baseball style cap. This book says the Naval flight nurses used this type of cap: "colored gray and made of sumer weight material, could be worn with the flight nurse's gray summer working uniform."

 

If this was used at a costume company, I wonder if they changed or added the Army insignia.

Do you have any pictures of the rest of the uniform? Maybe it could help figure it out.

 

....Kat

[AustinO]

Thanks but I still consider myself a beginner with some good reference books!

If this was used at a costume company, I wonder if they changed or added the Army insignia.

Do you have any pictures of the rest of the uniform? Maybe it could help figure it out.

 

....Kat

No other grey uniform parts unfortunately. I only found her whites and blues (and the one grey OS hat). From looking at Blitzkrieg Baby as a reference, the aircrew cap seems vastly different. I have a feeling that the grey uniform of the air crews was different than the pink-ish coloration of my weird hats.

As for some background, not a costume company, just a lady that provided costumes for local plays. Nothing I picked had been touched in 40 years (seriously, it was a rough pick).

[cutiger83]

From looking at Blitzkrieg Baby as a reference, the aircrew cap seems vastly different. I have a feeling that the grey uniform of the air crews was different than the pink-ish coloration of my weird hats.

 

 

Now that I compare the picture back to this one, you are exactly right. The flight crew cap looks a little more like a baseball cap. Sorry about that. I should stop going by memory. I am getting too old.

[US82Bravo]

Your 'pinks' headgear looks like WAC taupe uniform items utilized from 1951 to 1954.

 

Larry

[cutiger83]

Plot twist- the grey OS cap has the NYC tailors information! Nothing in the pinks OS cap besides a size tag. The other cap does appear to be very well made though, and has a spot where it appears a spec tag was removed.

I'm at a loss at how a Wisconsin nurse enlisting in 43 saw both NYC and the Pacific. Her first posting was Great Lakes near Chicago.

 

 

I was just flipping thru a book I have about nurses to see which ones served in the Pacific. A group of Navy nurses arrived in Guam in August '44. I wonder if your nurse could have started out in NYC then shipped overseas in late '44.

 

One funny thing is that one of the nurses in this book is from Wisconsin: Jeanne Doll Dolan - U.S. Navy flight nurse. She said she arrived in Guam in Feb '45.

[cutiger83]

Your 'pinks' headgear looks like WAC taupe uniform items utilized from 1951 to 1954.

 

Larry

 

 

I believe you are correct. I was so focused on the Nurse side that I never flipped to the regular WAC section. In the book "Dressed for Duty" page 376 there is a cap that looks exactly like this one.

 

Thanks for stopping my tunnel vision.

 

...Kat

[AustinO]

Thanks for the replies and ID!