Three different WW2 USN garrison caps.

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Here we have three different USN garrison caps worn with the three principal officers'/ CPOs' uniforms of WW2..namely, navy blue, khaki and slate grey. USN garrison caps had a slightly different profile to their Army equivalents.

 

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Insignia detail. Pin-back USN cap device by Balfour. Miniature aviators' wings marked LGB.

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Brooch-pin type CPOs' device, no maker's mark, just "STERLING".

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WW2 USN navy blue garrison cap with Lt. Commanders' rank insignia.

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WW2 USN Aviator's slate grey garrison cap with Lt. JG rank insignia.

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WW2 USN khaki garrison cap with CPOs' device.

 

 

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WW2 USN Aviator's slate grey garrison cap with Lt. JG rank insignia.

 

Hi Ian, nice caps, somehow I have always preferred the more unusual grey colored ones to the more numerous khaki ones.

 

Those polystyrene heads I find look a little nicer with a coat of matt Magnolia emulsion paint, takes the stark white appearance off them, adds a little skin tone to the features and also being matt emulsion is actually a good fire retardant covering the polystyrene.

 

ken

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Thanks for the tip Ken. As they don't weigh too much, I'll load them into the car and bring them over with me in October so you can demonstrate your painting skills. I'll pop over to B&Q tomorrow (American readers think "Home Depot") for a litre of Warm Magnolia silk emulsion. Thanks again!

 

Ian

[General Apathy]

Thanks for the tip Ken. As they don't weigh too much, I'll load them into the car and bring them over with me in October so you can demonstrate your painting skills. I'll pop over to B&Q tomorrow (American readers think "Home Depot") for a litre of Warm Magnolia silk emulsion. Thanks again!

 

Ian

 

Oh Ian, the other little trick I used to do with these heads, underneath in the centre of the base there should be a circular whole. So the small platic tubes that 35mm film used to come in fits that dimension perfectly, fill the tube with sand insert into the recess and it really gives some stability to the head. :thumbsup:

 

Actually my daughter used to enjoy painting all my polystyrene heads for me, five or six years back.

 

lewis

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Regarding display noggins: I've read that one should cover these types with muslin as they give off chemical fumes that eventually can damage cloth and leather. Same with the wooden ones that are varnished, stained, dyed, etc. The muslin act as a barrier between the two surfaces.

 

Steve Z.

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Nice hats, here is my collection. I'm not really into them so they spend a lot of time in storage.

It looks like the cpo hat device is for the combination style hat.

 

John

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Nice hats, here is my collection. I'm not really into them so they spend a lot of time in storage.

It looks like the cpo hat device is for the combination style hat.

 

John

 

 

Hi John...nice collection! I particularly like the V-5 variants! Re the CPO device, if you look at the illustration on p.111 of Jeff Warner's USN uniforms book, Vol 5, there's a khaki garrison cap with a CPO device just like mine, size-wise. Could it be that they were interchangeable?

 

Ian

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I could be wrong but I do not believe that cpo's would wear a device so different in proprtion to all the other devices worn by USN,USCG and USMS officers. I cannot pin it down in the regs and there may be a reason that warner shows it and there may be a reason for it but that would mean that there is no use for the 1 1/4" pins that show up in ww2 cpo groups.

It should be interesting to see what others have to say.

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I could be wrong but I do not believe that cpo's would wear a device so different in proprtion to all the other devices worn by USN,USCG and USMS officers. I cannot pin it down in the regs and there may be a reason that warner shows it and there may be a reason for it but that would mean that there is no use for the 1 1/4" pins that show up in ww2 cpo groups.

It should be interesting to see what others have to say.

 

 

I have a brooch-pin backed one of those 1 1/4" types too so I could easily swap them around! JW refers to the illustrated example as "full-size", so it probably was non-standard but worn in this manner on occasions?

 

Ian :thumbsup:

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I have a brooch-pin backed one of those 1 1/4" types too so I could easily swap them around! JW refers to the illustrated example as "full-size", so it probably was non-standard but worn in this manner on occasions?

 

Ian :thumbsup:

You need to understand the history of the uniform. CPOs got Khakis in 1940. At that time, the full size anchor was all there was. So, that was what was worn. On top of that, there were just times when things were not available. My uncle made Chief in early '42 out in the Pacific. He said that for the first three months, he wore dungarees and a borrowed CPO hat. He got some khakis when they met up with a tender, and about '44, he finially got a set of blues. So, during WW 2, there was just a lot of "make do". Officers on the other hand, had the uniforms for about ten years by then and their stuff was established.

 

Steve Hesson

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You need to understand the history of the uniform. CPOs got Khakis in 1940. At that time, the full size anchor was all there was. So, that was what was worn. On top of that, there were just times when things were not available. My uncle made Chief in early '42 out in the Pacific. He said that for the first three months, he wore dungarees and a borrowed CPO hat. He got some khakis when they met up with a tender, and about '44, he finially got a set of blues. So, during WW 2, there was just a lot of "make do". Officers on the other hand, had the uniforms for about ten years by then and their stuff was established.

 

Steve Hesson

 

 

Good info...thanks Steve!

 

Ian :thumbsup: