Aggressor Force garrison cap

[Cilldara69]

Hi all, I thought I'd start my first post with this item of headgear. It's an Aggressor Force garrison cap and one of my favourite pieces. From what I can gather, Aggressor garrison caps were usually khaki garrison caps dyed green, red or black. This one however was manufactured specifically for the US Army in Germany by Clemens Wagner of Braunschweig and labeled as such. The name is familiar to collectors of WW2 German headgear as they produced a lot of headgear during the Third Reich. I've tried to find out if they manufactured anything post war for the US Army but only come up references to war time products.

It is made of dark green wool.

This is the label inside the cap. I'd appreciate any info anyone could give me on this. Does the 73 in the 73-C-NSN stand for 1973? I've read that National Stock Numbers started around that time, but as this was made in Germany, could it instead stand for Nato Stock Number? The QM Proc. Center info is throwing me off as any contract info I've found relates to US manufacture and not QM.

I attached a small Trigon patch to it to cover the star while taking this photo, more out of curiosity as I saw a photo a while back, of an soldier wear an AG44 cap with a trigon attached.

[MattS]

That's a cool piece of OPFOR headgear, thanks for sharing!

[PriorityOne]

Some of those 70s and 60s stock numbers are really funky. Great piece!

[kammo-man]

Thats Great !

 

owen

[RustyCanteen]

The '73' isn't a country code in this instance, but I'm not sure that it has anything to do with a year. It was probably made in the 1970s though, since it has an NSN.

 

Very seldom seen!

 

RC

[automatic]

I always love aggressor stuff, and garrison caps. I didn't even think they had an aggressor garrison cap! Thanks for sharing!

[firefighter]

Awesome cap.I really like the big red star.

[B229]

Very cool and unusual item, but it dates from the 1950's, most likely 1952. "PC QM 601-52" is likely the purchasing instrument number that tracked the funds used to procure this, with 52 indicating the year it was written.

 

The "73-C-" contract number is the system used by the Army's QM Corps from about 1943-1953, when it was replaced by the DoD-wide Federal Stock Number (FSN) system. 73 is for clothing and C stands for Cap.

 

The National/NATO Stock Number (NSN) system didn't get implemented until 1974. So, NSN in this instance stands for "No Stock Number", probably because this was a locally authorized and acquired item.

 

The 7853d Quartermaster Processing Center was obviously the proponent agency in USAREUR that handled contracts let locally and the procurement of material produced on those contracts.

 

 

 

 

[B229]

Some of those 70s and 60s stock numbers are really funky. Great piece!

 

Not at all. Actually the most confusing stock numbers are those from the 1950's, unless you know what to look for.

[Cilldara69]

Thanks guys and thank you B229, for explaining the label.

 

I initially thought it was from the 50s because of the wool and type of construction and the '52' on the label seemed to make sense in a way but then I was thrown by the NSN as the normal meaning for the acronym was from a different decade. It's great tofinally know it's that old.

 

Firefighter, yes I like the red star on it too. It's clearly a Communist symbol but when it was applied, i've no idea. It could have been during the vietnam era, or later for OPFOR use . I've got an Aggressor shirt in my collection that has a small viet cong flag on it's sleeve so that shirt was repurposed for training troops going to Vietnam. Maybe the cap was too.

[riflegreen297]

That is über cool