I wore a Mk II talker hemet while standing lookout during GQ onboard USS Sellers , DDG 11 in the 1980s. The first time I donned one I felt like a Death Star gunner .
The swat hat was issued to me at boot camp in 1973. In the mid 70’s, we could purchase conventional ball caps with the NAS Chase Field emblem on it. We wore large silver petty officer pin on the front. We wore it with our utilities and our dungarees. We were still wearing dungarees in the late 1970’s.
Back when the Navy was still going to Subic Bay, P.I., many sailors bought custom hats with their petty officer stripes on them. I never heard of anyone telling them they couldn't wear them.
@@TXMEDRGR I still haven't the vaguest idea why the Navy did away with dungarees. I found them extremely comfortable, easy to take care of, and inexpensive if they got destroyed while working. The chambray shirt went perfectly with them. I was in 1968-'72 and wore dungarees all 4 years. I also remember that we weren't allowed to be out in public in them. Now, everyone wears camos all the time. They even go shopping, into restaurants, etc. No respect for the uniform.
The NAVY hat was issued to me in basic. Some of the command caps that you have I served on. Great memories. I wore the MK II Talker helmet only once; I found no problems with it. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Fair Winds. 😁
That's ultimately what Spaceballs was parodying, even though what they were directly parodying was Star Wars; Some of the Imperial Navy crewmen in Star Wars were wearing that style of helmet as "inspired" by they style in use by the Navy, but the Imperials were not wearing headphones of mics so wearing such an unnecessarily wide helmet is ridiculous. So of course Spaceballs made fun of that.
@@g00gleminus96 I think if I was top deck with headphones and a Zero was headed towards the ship, I’d want that big ass helmet on, too. Nice video, Master Chief.
Another well done video! As for the reference to "Hot Shots," there's a reason why the jets all had "THE NAVY" emblazoned on the side and the wings instead of "US NAVY," that reason being the US Navy refused to cooperate or recognize the movie in any way due to its content, and since the film makers didn't have the Navy's support they were prohibited from using the term "US NAVY" on the jets; hence "THE NAVY." Funny movie, but I totally understand why the USN refused to cooperate with it!
About the movie Top Gun - - I was onboard USS Ranger ('Top Gun of the Pacific Fleet') shortly before the movie kept out and several scenes were taken from colorized PLAT footage, or filmed on the flight deck while moored at NASNI. Every Rangerman I have ever talked to hated that movie, and felt it was an embarrassing joke.
@@edwardweeden2834 It was a Joke though and while some fell flat for lots of folks it was hilarious and Very lucrative! For Me I just loved seeing Folland Gnats again ( and the Fighting Version the 'Midge',used by the Indians with some success) They were Small,but beautifully formed Aircraft,notably while wearing the Red Colour Scheme of the Red Arrows.
I was issued a blue "flat hat" with my boot camp issue in 1962. In my experience, it was never worn as part of a "uniform of the day." The story I heard was that, originally part of winter dress uniform, and the "white hat" was worn with dungarees and summer whites. Supposedly, daring WWII, with so many servicemen hitch-hiking, sailors were getting hit by automobiles at night: with the dark blue uniform, it was hard to see them. The white hat began to be mandated as a way to make them more visible. This was adopted Navy-wide, and although the flat had continued to be issued, it was never again a part of official uniform.
Love your videos. Looking at your ball caps I was attached to the NWC, for special duty (fixing stuff) and served on the USNS Comfort (two of the caps there). I was issued the OD green 8 point when I came into the SEABEES. We used to block, starch and bake them for a hard flat stand up cover. I wish I kept my blocks. I watched your video about uniforms and didn't see the OD green uniform. We were in them till after the Gulf War. Rumor had it that we sold many of our surplus OD greens to Iraq. So the USMC took a few pot shots at the SEABEES during DS. I missed out on that. We did get new uniforms (BDUs as I remember) not long after. I got out and came back in 03. In 10 I went into a unit attached to SOUTHCOM that had us back in BDUs. I was one of the only sailors (was a joint CMD) that had his own BDU cold weather jacket (from the 90s). I retired and disposed of many (3 sea chests) of my old uniforms. I kept the BDU jacket. I remember getting called out on the street by a navy veteran telling me we were the last USN unit in BDUs. I got the NWU Type II at the end.
In Bahrain we wore an 8 point cap with desert camouflage while attached to SecDet/Harbor Patrol in the early/mid 90's. I just missed the chocolate chip version, but was never so happy to put my dungarees and chambray shirt back on to feel like a real sailor. Lol
I wore M2 phone talker’s helmet for 30 hours straight once while at GQ aboard a disabled minesweeper in Vietnam. The top of my head can still feel that heavy bastard.
@@jluvs2ride Marines do occasionally display humor. Thus the part about people laughing after he said it. Marines also call doors hatches.. which is incorrect. Hatches separate decks, doors go through bulkheads laterally. I am Marine Corps trained (AOCS 1990). A totally tougher animal that was a 17 week program with Marine Corps drill instructors. Does not exist anymore. Much more challenging then boot camp or OCS ever was. Lighten up, it was funny.
Regarding 4:56, the bizarre design of the Overseas Cap or a Garrison Cap caused it also to be known in vulgar jargon as a Cunt Cap or a Piss Cutter. This is because of the distinctive fold along its top ridge which resembles the pudendal cleft of a vulva.
Master Chief, after 21 years as an Airedale I can say the cranial was not perfect, it had gaps that would allow the knife edge of a landing gear door to get to your grape between the front and back shell causing severe pain along with bringing you to your knees. I always thought the black garrison cap made me look like I belonged to the Kriegsmarine.
I was issued a knit blue watch cap as part of my first uniform in boot camp (1970). Once we were issued our white hats, we never wore the watch cap again, no matter what station I was sent to. Once I got onboard ship, we found that our XO hated the watch cap and we never were allowed to wear it. I never saw a sailor on my ship wear it - ever - and I was on that ship for 3 years until I mustered out. I later wound up giving it away, but regret it. Many is the time I froze my head wearing a blue ball cap or a white hat and wishing it were my warm blue knit watch cap.
In 1977 NTC Orlando we were issued a watch cap with our uniforms and I thought this hat was practical and i might some day wear it at sea. Nope, never happened. Almost 4 years of sea duty and I think I wore it once. It had to be authorized uniform of the day wear which it never was. But you still had to have the damn thing in your sea bag for inspections. Never made sense.
Great channel. My Father started his Naval career in 1933 with the Lighter than Air (ZP-12) in Lakehurst,NJ then later deployed on the U.S.S. Arkansas to the U.S.S. Redfin (Gato class sub) then in 1943/45 the U.S.S . Wasp CV-18 (essex class Aircraft carrier) in the South Pacific, Dad was a CPO First class radio operator. Thank you for your Service!🇺🇸✌️
The German sociologist, Max Weber, posited that "distinctive dress" was one of the characteristics of a profession. In the Canadian forces, a corollary to this idea was perverted as, "He must be a professional, he has a silly hat!" Canadian sailors, soldiers, and smurfs have had some odd looking headgear over the years, but I have to admit that the USN has usually surpassed them. Hats off to them!
My father-in-law served in The Essex & Kent Scottish Regiment in Chatham, ON. His unit wore an olive drab Balmoral, complete with pompon. I'm contemplating a "Silly Hats II: The International Version."
@@masterchiefsseachest1983, your dad-in-law was in the Eeks & Squeaks? Cool! (They have a much more vulgar nickname, but I will not repeat it here.) The Balmoral bonnet was actually a khaki rather than olive drab. They also had a Glengarry bonnet with a red, white and black diced band for wear with service dress. The band made them easy to recognize and avoid from a distance. The woolly spheroid on top of the Balmoral and Glengarry bonnets is a "touri."
I was issued a "flat hat" in boot camp in Sept '62 but never wore it. I discarded it somewhere and regret that to this day, knowing it is part of (my) history. I completed 25 yrs in 1987. Thanks for the memories. W.E. Beyatte, LCDR, USN (Ret).
I wore a MkII talker's helmet while standing lookout during GQ on USS Sellers , DDG 11back in the 1980s . The first time I saw one it reminded me of the helmets worn by the gunners on the Death Star in Star Wars .
I was stationed on a submarine tender back in the mid 80s. In addition to plenty of the standard M1 steel buckets and phone talker helmets, we had some so called at least 3 different "prototype" helmets. None of which looked like today's current Kevlar models. These prototype helmets looked like something out of Star Wars. There was even a phone talker version. No inside harness. Simply peel and stick foam blocks the you would fit inside to fit.
The old combination cap image brought back memories from my early days in the Navy starting in 1980. I actually like the old Salt + Pepper and Johnny Cash uniforms with that cover of that time.
Bringing back memories. Basic training for me ( fort Jackson SC 1975) everyone hated the issue boots, hard to polish for inspection. Like you, at first chance to go to PX we all bought ( Jump boots) so many of my fellow Trainy Were going to Airborne Ranger for AIT. The jump boot we bought we only put on for inspection. When I got home after basic ( NG) We were allowed to put the Army number of the vessel we were stationed on. YES spent 6 years on a ( ST) small Tug. My support Company was full of ( LCM-8s) without any weather cover over square Driving pilot House. After I got out, they started making canvas covers for ( LCMs)
*Hey Master Chief!* You keep dredging old memories out of my past. Ever been called a sea therapist? The phone talker helmet was a big part of my life at one point as in the mid eighties I was the Focs'le phone talker for Sea and Anchor on AOR 6, USS Kalamazoo, a rather large oiler. I was right at the bullnose, tied there by a sound powered phone cord and duty, and the storm line was my arch nemesis. Double plaited nylon. I don't remember exactly but I couldn't put both hands around it and touch fingers. Maybe 8" diameter. No tattletales, le sigh. By the time the tugs were done it was soaked. Things got sporty tying up. I had about 6' of leash on the phones and that 30 pound helmet wobbling on my head, otherwise nothing but dungarees to protect me. Now and then the CCTV played training films like "Synthetic line snapback, your deadly shipmate." I was EXACTLY WHERE THAT TRAINING FILM TOLD ME TO NEVER BE. And my own Master Chief liked to look me in the eye as my ass puckered. I "earned" my spot by being the only dude who used a diamond hitch to pass the stopper when singling up, then casually holding the stopper with one hand while gently palming the standing part of the mooring line with the other as it took the strain. Hell, I only did it because I got so damned nervous when someone else would throw a couple of panicked rolling hitches in and hold on for dear life. A nervous stopper-lad makes for a jittery up from behind, if ya smell what I'm steppin' in. Dear lord, I'm novelizing again. Somewhere in Spain, we were shepherded to the pier by the tugs, there was a stiff offshore breeze. We got singled up and the tug with our stormline cast off. I have my head over the bow, getting ready to report the line clear so it could be made up to a bollard on the pier as we double up and get nice and snug. There's a good bit of messenger line in a pile on the tug's stern, whipping overboard with the weight of the sinking stormline. The tug captain guns it, the linehandler stumbles and gets caught up in the bight. He goes down and I key the phones and scream "SLACK THE STORMLINE!" so everybody in the Med can hear it. The linehandler is dragged to the fender rail by his foot, he hits the rail and stops. BMCM is screaming "Belay That!" and "Who the hell do you think you are?" (paraphrased) The storm line tightens, a wake forms starting near our bow and zipping toward the tug as the entire massive stormline tries to rise out of the water. It's coming out halfway between the tug and me now. The wake stops and the whole line is raining seawater as it takes the load and with a soundless "pop" a black shoe flies in an arc toward me. The linehandler is rolling over onto his stomach, trying to push himself up and BMCM has me by the collar, shaking me and screaming something, spit flying in my face. It get's kinda blurry here but we're doubled up now and the storm line is on the bollard. We've been fighting the wind the whole time and BMCM want's to get us REAL SAFE and make a point to me about who's the boss, apparently. We start reefing on the stormline. Again, no tattletales, so we do this shit by smell, sound and sight, right? Visual strain: we see the line shrink to half it's original diameter and start to quiver. Audible strain: It's not the high pitched *Wiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnggggg* of the measely 3" mooring lines. It's a deep hum, like a 10,000 pound Buddhist. *ooooooOOOOOAAAAHHHHMMMMMM* Smoke. The bullnose is blowing puffs of vaporized paint and red-lead primer smoke in my face with every fraction of an inch the line moves. She starts singing higher and higher notes, the bullnose barking with each puff of smoke. The paint is gone now and it's a distinctly different smell as the smoke goes from bluish white to white with black streaks, tiny smudges of greasy soot landing and sticking or hanging until whipped away on the wind. Nylon. I enter a fugue state I'm still in someplace deep in my spleen. This is my line. I'm in charge of the foc'sle and the line locker, almost two years now. I've inspected every lay length of every mooring line here, installed every eye and tattletail, including the eye in the stormline, which I thought I deserved the Navy Achievement Medal for at least, since I was an E2 when I did it.... Ever try to splice an eye in 8" double plait? That shit ain't in the BM 3 & 2 or the The Bluejackets manual. I suck up tight to the forward side of starboard frame #2, My entire body curled up inside that stupid helmet. I learned a lot that day. I hated that man and he hated me but it all happened right under the bridge and in front of the whole sea and anchor detail. The old man invested in me after that. He had watched the whole thing. He asked me about it the next time I stood bridgewatch, mostly about the poor dude on the tug who had lost his foot, but he did mention that at one point he couldn't see me through the smoke and made a joke about it. First he sent me to advanced firefighting school. Then small boat handling school at Little Creek. Then SAR school at Jacksonville. I made 2 jumps above the arctic circle in the North Sea as a SAR swimmer. The first time I lost 13 marines and 2 pilots in a helo crash, the bird sinking out from under me just as I got to it in forty foot seas. It was a non-starter. I could have declined and nobody would have said a word but it was my first "real" jump so I went. The second time was during an UNREP when my buddy Monty was phone talker and got yanked overboard, again above the arctic circle. We both got 2 days bedrest out of that one as we were both in dungarees and kapoks, lol. Sorry. Novelizing again. So to summarize, yeah, some PTSD for sure but ultimately it was a confidence builder. Would I do it again? Yes.
Love these uniform history videos and are very interesting. And as a Marine we added cover to the end of everything. Overseas cover, garrison cover, 8 point cover, blues cover, boonie covers etc. exception was the combat helmet. I only ever heard it called kevlar. All the tags in the headgear I still have list everything as cover and then what type.
My Grandfathers both were naval officers during WW2, and one thing they had in common was the opinion that the only headgear worth a damn was the wool watch cap. Everything else was impractical for one reason or another. Watch cap kept their head warm during the cold nights, soaked up sweat during the hot days, padded their skulls from impacts, and were fire-resistant. You could even fold them such to give some shade to your eyes if you really needed it.
Enlisting on 24 September 1964, I was just too late to be issued a flat hat, but when stationed at NAB Coronado, I obtained one from the lucky bag, even though I couldn't actually wear it, I had one.
I loved wearing my 8 point sateen utility cap. Blocked and starched. Seabees Can Do. The watch cap is still my favorite when worn with a Peacoat. My short stint as a Merchant Marine.
Having just discovered your channel with this video I'm very impressed! I'm so old I clearly remember the admiral who decided it was a good idea to put everybody in basically the same "dress" uniform....The same guy who thought facial hair (beards primarily) was a good idea in the age of Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Warfare....Yeah, get an air tight fit with a protective mask over that if you can....Somebody will write your folks a nice tear jerker of a letter I'm sure. Keep up the great work as even us old, tired, and wore out Army Veterans still like to learn things.
Admiral Zumwalt. He had relaxed hair regs too. Some guys were really shaggy for awhike, til the Navy tightened back up. Though us lower enlisteds hated losing our beards.
Thanks for the video. I was in from 74-79 and got stuck with Zumwalt's abomination of a uniform. I was unaware that our "utility cap" was known as a SWAT hat. I had been trying to find them for years and when I did a search for "navy swat cap" I found them and bought a couple.
I admit, I hate covers in uniform, but I love the ship-name ball caps. I also kinda love how simple the NAVY ball cap was. Simple, cheap, to the point.
The 'Garrison' or 'Overseas' Cap was known as The Forage Cap in the British Military or The 'Chipbag" (Chips are French Fries this side) or in the RAF as the D.I.L.A.C, Hat in less Polite Circles (as in 'Don't I Look a C..t') in this Hat, which referenced another name for the type,with a biological base!
We still have the 1942 pattern SPP helmets in repair lockers in Coast Guard Cutters. I wore one for 6 months as the SPP talker on my cutter before being moved over to an investigator billet.
I was a victim of the Zumwalt regime. Had to wear the Milkman enlisted whites uniform from 1973-1979. Seems like as soon as I separated the Navy went back to “the Dixie cup”. I was so pi$$ed.
Good video, very informative. But one addition I'll make. My ASW frigate, USS Ainsworth FF-1090, went into a yard period for refit in Charleston, SC. in late 1983- early1984. Being a "construction zone" in the shipyard, we were issued a basic white plastic hard hat. We added the metal rate insignia, ET3 in my case. We developed our signature "turtle greeting", doffing the hard hat and banging them together. When the yard period ended, we had to turn them back in. Wish I could have kept it.
I was a BMSN on board the USS Saratoga (CV-60) in 1980 when we moved her from NS Mayport to NSF Philadelphia for SLEP Program. I wore the talkers helmet and phone while stationed at sea and anchor ⚓ detail. My job was to tell the bridge we had cast off our line and sea detail is now secure. Sure happy I had the big Darth Vader helmet to protect me from the sea spray and possible giant octopus 🐙 that was lurking off NS Mayport during the Cold War. That was a close one!!!
I wore that "silliest looking of Navy hats" the Flight Deck Cranial for almost half of my 20 years. Being an AT, the version I wore had headphones and a boom mic so I could do radio checks and check other equipment for sound. Didn't even know it's number that entire time.
While touring the USS Alabama in Mobile, I'm sure there was a picture of sailors wearing "helmets" made of fleece lined leather for watch standing in the north Atlantic. There was a front piece that covered everything, but the eyes and mouth, there was a nose piece which jutted out to cover the nose. Most likely it was open at the bottom of the nose piece.
Great video very informative. Not sure I’d call all these covers silly when the designs had useful logic. While the flat ones and pretty much most of the 1800s hats (excluding the watch cap) were silly and I still think the Dixxi cup white hat is silly there was a lot of logic in the design for many of the covers especially the helmets. The phone talker helmets provided protection of the phone talkers head and room for the head sets. Watch caps kept the wearer warm. Flight deck helmet provide light weight protection required for the environment they are used in. Not sure anyone can give a logical reason for a camouflage hat or uniform to be used on a major warship at sea. Unless the ship is painted like a WW 1 or 2 ship to break up its silhouette someone on deck in cami’s would stand out like a sore thumb. I expected you to mention the white hat use as a emergency flotation device. Never mind a sailor would likely lose it prior to abandoning ship.
Wore many a SP phone talker's helmet on various bridges over the years. UP side: you can wear talker gear underneath. DOWN side: weight produces a splitting headache after about an hour on your watch. BTW, thanks Master Chief for letting us all know why the Navy only wears stripes on the left side nowadays.
Thanks for the interesting story. A little off topic.. I remember the Chief I used to work with just couldn't understand why the Navy chose a Blue Camouflaged uniform.!! ) During the Vietnam War the Army issued a baseball style cap with a stiffened front crown that gave a "conehead" appearance and was hated by almost everyone... especially as the "dimples" made by GIs to improve its appearance were frowned on. Army personnel in Vietnam quickly adopted the ARVN baseball cap (Your SWAT cap is of that cut) but that cap was only available in Vietnam until the Army went to the permapress OD uniform when that cap cut style became the regulation cap. The Army at that time allowed ( more tolerated) a few aftermarket od baseball cap styles to be worn but just prior to the BDU adoption..cracked down on these variants. (My elastic backed, longer billed cap popular with Army Air crews was no longer tolerated, much to my disappointment . ) As a point of interest.. when the BDU uniform was adopted there was no cap designed for the uniform. The Patrol cap was chosen as it was very popular with Infantrymen (particularly at FT Benning) as a field cap and most interestingly was not issued for years. Grunts bought copies ( reproductions, really, or found issue caps from the 50s....this was about 1980 !!!..)
When I went into the Navy in late 1980 (second hitch, first was USAF), they were just discontinuing the blue utility/SWAT hat. We called them "painter's caps". I too could never understand the "logic" of blue camo. What the heck were they thinking? But I was out by then.
Senator John S. McCain, III loved his "Navy" ball cap, although it used a different font than that in your photograph. I'm certain, of course, that you are alive to this fact. Thanks!
I received the 1959 pattern cotton cap in 1967. I always thought it looked more appropriate for a house painter or grease gun jockey. Never wore it once out of GLAKES.
I like it that you brought up the concept of being "covered." During the 16th-Century at the beginning of the Hapsburg monarchy, Spanish aristocrats could be promoted to the status of Grandees. That meant that they could be in the presence of the king while remaining "covered." Hats on.
I agree that Combo Hats were a pain to store, and hotter than h--l in the tropics, even with the white cotton issue cover. So what did I do to help make mine easier to clean? I purchased a waterproof cover. Now let's stand in formation for an hour or so while the Hawaiian sun beams down on us. The inside of the cover is like a sauna. I'm betting someone passes out! Now I'M the Bone-Head. The Dungarees also changed. My first issues in 1977 were Navy blue minus the traditional bell-bottoms. And the shirts were some God-Forsaken medium blue color. One word... UGLY! I soon traded up to the original working uniform, which was thinner material (and MUCH COOLER). The "Camo" uniforms were issued some years after my EAOS in 1981. I always thought this was another bone-head move... Who decided this? Why put camo on anyone at sea, especially a USN Sailor? I was on two Knox Class Frigates. Who or what are we hiding from? A boarding party of Somali Pirates? It seems to me that camo would make it much harder to spot a sailor who had fallen overboard! What do you think? That's why we wore ORANGE PFD's at General Quarters, right? But what do I know...?
The camouflage utility uniform was created to replace a stack of other working uniforms. The camouflage pattern in blue and gray had a very distinct purpose: if in dungarees, coveralls, or another work uniform, brushing by some wet haze gray paint would render the uniform unserviceable. The gray in the pattern was intended to give Sailors a reprieve from having to buy whole new uniforms because of a paint stain. I know this for a fact, as it was told to me directly by the MCPON and the head of Task Force Uniform.
@@georgehopper7310 NTC Orlando Mar 77 - May 77, FLEASWTRACENPAC San Diego Jun 77 - Aug 77 (Sonar A School), USS Brewton FF-!086 Sept 77 - Sept 79, USS Hewes FF-1078, Sept 79 - EAOS in Mar 81.
@@masterchiefsseachest1983 That does make sense; the camo would also help hide grease from brushing against cables, the bane of khakis. Was there any discussion about sewing reflective bands to the uniforms, like the Australians? It might help for a man overboard...
That Mark 2 talkers helmet has really stuck into my memory as a kid! I was watching a WW2 movie. Cannot remember the film’s name but men on deck were setting depth charges. The clip showed a sailor with one. I would guess that was a actual live footage because the bombs exploding in the water looked “ home movie “ like. All remember was was that Bazaar helmet!
For the Sateen utility cap, they were starched to stand up and remove wrinkles, we Marines did this with a cover block which was a adjustable tube we stuck the cover on and let it dry in the sun, The Squids however used a device in their hats to get it the 8 points when it was drying in the sun. Marines don't do the 8 point thing. At least we didn't way back when.....
Great video Chief. The hst makes the man as the old fashion advice used to say. I attended Norwich University, the nation's oldest private military college, where we had both Army and Air Force ROTC programs, and during my sophomore year, the Navy arrived. I always like the Navy uniforms, especially the officers dress and mess dress, but also the chief's khakis. They looked sharp. My niece and her husband are currently serving in the USN as Corpsman, although I think the navy changed the name. I am not a fan of the enlisted sailor's uniform today. To my eye they pretty much look like the mechanic at a local garage, with their ball caps blue coveralls or dickies type of shirt and trousers. I always thought the lighter blue shirt with the darker blue dungarees looked best. And even the Dixie cup cap looked good with it. Although I definitely prefer the old school flat cap or the modern Royal Navy flat caps with the ships name embroidered around the band. Now that the Army has gone back to the WWII greens and ditched that ugly beret (our army is not French) , perhaps the navy will return to the WWII style of uniforms. Pretty much all ranks looked sharp whether it was working or full dress uniform. Just my opinion.
The N-3 Tropical Helmet AKA... Helmet, Sun, Rigid. AKA...Pressed, Fiber, Sun Helmet. This helmet is the longest-used service hat in US military history. In use since 1934. The idea of the US design came from USMC Gen. Smedley Butler during a campaign in Hati where other hats in tropical weather would not hold up. The original designer was a college friend of his Jesse Barnum Hawley.
To a Marine, the 8-pointer is a COVER; first, last and always! :D Oh for the days we soaked them in starch...though the SEAL seemed to be wearing a starched cover.
I wore one when I was a navy MP stationed at CFAY Yokosuka Japan . Some starched them , some ironed them , some left them floppy and scrunched down . I ironed mine . One night on patrol a drunk marine asked my why we were wearing their cover . I just gaffed him off .
Smart Marines always had at least one starched utility cover and one floppy utility cover. If you were caught out in the rain in the starched cover, you would have the starch running down the sides of your face!
The lower enlisted cap was a humorous decision on the navy’s part. You are right in that the lockers messed it up terribly; I don’t think I’ve seen an example on the market that isn’t horribly deformed in some way or another.
An interesting side note regarding the "8 point utility hat". The USMC "borrowed" this hat from the US Army during WWII. It was originally the M1942 Mechanics hat. Later called HBT Field hat. The marines took it and rotated the crown 5 degrees so they could affix their EGA hat device to it. Later, the EGA was "iron on "..
One reason the US adopted the Overseas cap (so called, because its wear was only permitted overseas. The then chief of staff of the Army hated them so much that they stationed military police on the docks after the war to arrest any disembarking troops wearing it or any officers wearing a Sam Brown belt, which he also despised. When Pershing became chief of staff, he changed all that) because when you had to put on your helmet, you could fold it in half and stick in your pocket, it was also a lot easier to stow in your backpack than the alternatives.
There was a short running series by DC comics in the sixties, called The Atomic Knights. Army soldiers in this series wore a helmet which looked a lot like the Mk II talker helmet.
I enjoy your videos and there is some info I had never seen. I also think you skipped a few things. I haven't seen anything on Navy uniforms for CPOs and Officers in aviation (greens). Keep up the good work. 1966-72 USN, 1978-1999 USMCR
See that's why I always thought the mk 2 talker helmet was for the anti-aircraft gunners because of all the footage I've seen of sailors during World War II wearing them while they're on the anti aircraft guns
September 1968. I was issued my basic seabag. A uniform issue with NO SIGNIFICANT changes since WWI. A perfectly functional uniform! Today, every six months the ENTIRE seabag, plus several containers of "NEW UNIFORMS" ARE REQUIRED!! how IS A YOUNG BLUEJACKET supposed to keep up??
The sheer number of headgear items is astounding. [BTW, I was in the Navy from 1971 - 1974, NAVOCS R.I. as a "ROC" in the Summer of 1970, then finishing NAVOCS in the Summer of 1971 and 2.5 years as an Ens, and Lt. (j.g.) in a WWII Sumner Class "FRAM II" (DD-779) and six months as a "Ship Supt." at Phila Naval Shipyard in 1974.] I noticed that you didn't call out the nickname of the Naval Aviator, then universal officer garrison cap as a "Piss cutter." Do you have any idea where that term came from? I always thought it was both strange and rather gross. I enjoy your channel. My time in the Navy was a major formative experience for me.
Hello. We have a photo of two family members who were in the US Navy during the Spanish American War. Trying to identify the uniforms in the photo and can’t match them to anything I can find on the internet. Is there any way I could send you a copy for your opinion? Thanks, Master Chief!
The worst hat was the "Recruit" hat they started issuing in boot camp. At the end after you went thru "Battle Stations", a rip off of the Marine Crucible, the "Recruit" hat was exchanged for a "Navy" hat. This was done like the Navy hat meant something. And then when that newly graduated sailor got to his or her first ship they were told to toss that piece of garbage and get a ships hat.
I always wondered what those talker helmets were for. I also wondered how they were stored. I asked my dad (Lt.Cmndr in WWII) about them and he said it was just a poor design. My favorite of the strang looking helmets were aircrew helmets that like like a giant billiard ball with a slider to raise or lower the sun shield. As I recall it had a cable to plug into the aircraft for the headphones and microphone. Apparently they were very expensive
