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Desert Shield USAF chocolate chip 8-point covers


oakleaf777
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Back during Desert Shield, I remember watching TV as a kid and seeing USAF general officers wearing chocolate chip camo 8-point covers with their rank sewn on. I dont recall ever seeing USAF wearing such headgear in the woodland pattern. Was this a unique uniform modification just for general officers? I had always thought the 8-point covers were strictly a USMC and Navy thing...

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As mentioned earlier, USAF Security Forces commonly wore the 8-point cover. This can be seen in lots of pictures from early in OEF/OIF with personnel wearing the 8-point DCU pattern examples.

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When Desert Shield began, troops were hurriedly shipped to Saudi Arabia. Most of us received two sets of Desert BDUs and a boonie hat. The only way you could get a chocolate chip field cap was to order one from The Cav Store or some other business catering to military customers. I got my field cap by writing my wife and telling her to go to our local surplus store and to purchase one for me. The cap was NOT issue. It had a pocket sewn into the crown.

 

During my seven months in theater, I managed to score a few Saudi Army chocolate chip field caps and even got a chocolate chip baseball cap with a tan mesh back. I got this cap from a USAF major that I saw with some frequency. He told me that they had been ordered with unit funds and that they were distributed to the zoomies in his unit. The Marines that I encountered did have the 8 corner desert camo caps. I always assumed that they were simply a Cav Store type of purchase, but there were a lot more of those in theater than anything else (except for the ever present boonie hat). My bet is that the USAF Security forces picked up what they could in theater and the majority of non-boonie hats would have been the 8 point USN/ USMC covers.

 

Allan

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  • 2 weeks later...
Cap Camouflage Pattern I

The only US government contracted hat in 6 color desert is the boonie, all others were commercially made and individually or unit purchased.

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