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Iraqi Freedom souvenir hat


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Babylon was the HQ of the multi national division. It was led by Spain but had Latvians, Bulgarians, Romanians, Hondurans, El Salvadoran's, Macedonians, Poles, Ukrainians and more. The hats were made by AAFES contracted vendors mainly from India or Bangladesh. Nice hat!   Scott

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Thanks Scott, So why is that patch so hard to find on line? AND why did we have anyone their? Sounds like a cluster F in the making. I take it one came in from or went home from Kuwait as indicated by their flag on the hat. The tag is in the hat.

20210130_203624.jpg

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  Babylon was the HQ MNF-I. As the acronym denotes, it was a multinational force that operated in that region of Iraq. As for why anyone was there, I am not sure I understand the question? The multinational force performed duties much like the US and were part of the coalition to remove Saddam Hussein from power. They had engineers, medics, infantry, etc... like us. Babylon was their main base and it included US units as well. I spent some time there as I had teams operating in that area. To avoid a cluster, we had liaisons as did the other nations, and I can't say as I ever got the impression of anything being a cluster, though there were certainly units we would rather not rely on...

   Yes, most units came through Kuwait as a general rule, but many of the hats were done as sort of a template. Many have the same flags a lot of them have scorpions and camels etc. The patch is likely a bit hard to find as it didn't last long and it isn't US. Hope this helps. I have a couple of hats that were made for me, just can't find the pics...   Scott

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I was reading that the command structure was a cluster in that any time a group was asked to do something they had to go up their command structure before giving an answer. Did anyone actually wear that hat or was that an item one picked up a wall hanger keep sake? The US flag would not be presented correctly if it was worn and it is a bit flashy. The flag shows it as a command insignia, or at least that is the way it looks to me. Was their another insignia?

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The hats were personalized by AAFES vendors on almost all coalition bases - you provide the hat, they do the embroidery.  You told them what you wanted, they'd make it to the best of their ability. 

 

At least with the Marines, the hats were strictly souvenirs - the 1stSgts or Company Gunnies would be all over you if they ever caught you wearing one.

 

On a side note, on of the guys at the place I work now, has his up in a shadow box display in his office.  It's got a monkey F-ing a football on the top - his opinion of the cluster at his camp.

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4 minutes ago, Jarhead8007 said:

The hats were personalized by AAFES vendors on almost all coalition bases - you provide the hat, they do the embroidery.  You told them what you wanted, they'd make it to the best of their ability. 

 

At least with the Marines, the hats were strictly souvenirs - the 1stSgts or Company Gunnies would be all over you if they ever caught you wearing one.

 

On a side note, on of the guys at the place I work now, has his up in a shadow box display in his office.  It's got a monkey F-ing a football on the top - his opinion of the cluster at his camp.

LOLLOL Take a pic of that if you can. That is fantastic!!!!

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I got a picture of the hat in question (with the owner's permission).  The owner said got it as a going away present from his unit.  When something wasn't going the way it was supposed to, he was famous for saying "looks like a monkey F-ing a football" so his team had one made for him.  Kind of appropriate for Super Bowl weekend.

 

football monkey.jpg

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