Nkomo Posted April 26, 2008 Share #1 Posted April 26, 2008 Picked this hat up today from a buddy of mine. He got it at a local estate sale and said there was a lot of military stuff there. He wasn't sure if it was military and I'm not either. Maybe someone can tell me something about it. To me, it looks almost like a police hat. Any help is greatly appreciated. There are no markings that I can see. Arch p.s. At the estate auction, there were no police items that my friend saw. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nkomo Posted April 26, 2008 Author Share #2 Posted April 26, 2008 Back side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hawkdriver Posted April 28, 2008 Share #3 Posted April 28, 2008 Looks like a Cavalry stetson. The Cav guys typically uy them and war them at special events. The brass emblem doesn't look familair, but I am also no expert on the Cav. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nkomo Posted April 28, 2008 Author Share #4 Posted April 28, 2008 Thanks for your reply. I was reading Shelby Stanton's book on US Army Uniforms of the Vietnam War last night and found a small paragraph dealing with the Stetsons worn by the Air Cav units in Vietnam. According to what he said, they wore dark blue and black pseudo-cavalry frontier campaign hats. Like I said, I don't know. According to my friend, the guy who originally owned the hat was a WW2 veteran that got discharged after the war and re-up'd during the 1950's and stayed in until the 1960's. Whatever the case, I only paid $15 for it. If it turns out to be a police hat, at least it was a cheap mistake! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Ragan Posted April 28, 2008 Share #5 Posted April 28, 2008 The eagle on the front looks like the one used on an Army enlisted mans hat device, minus the brass mounting disc. The hat cord looks like the all silver type used by many law enforcement agencies. Note that it's tied in the front and doesn't have the standard slide-thru as is typical of these hat cords. To me, this looks like a put together hat, but who knows for what reason this was done. Does not look like anything official U.S. Army. Just my humble opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nkomo Posted April 28, 2008 Author Share #6 Posted April 28, 2008 It could be a put together piece, but whoever put it together did it a very long time ago. Another thing that Stanton's book said was that they ordered the accessories for the hats from police catlaogues. Another thing, I am providing a link to a website about the Order of the Spur. The link is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_spur According to that website, Warrant Officers (CW4 & CW5) are supposed to wear silver braid around their Stetsons. Whatever the case, the hat is quite the enigma. Thanks for everyone's responses so far. Arch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the.warlord1944 Posted May 1, 2008 Share #7 Posted May 1, 2008 Looks to me an a wac capinsignia put on a local police stetson. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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