Stetson with kilt

[Tarheel]

For those of you who may not know who Col. Crandall is look at the blue ribbon around his neck. The one with the little white stars. That is The Medal of Honor.

I do not know Col. Crandall, but every service member (active, inactive and the Commander in Chief) salutes the person wearing the blue ribbon and white stars. I give my respects to the man and the award.

[freep]

There are plenty of boonie hats around here, but I prefer the wider brim on a cowboy hat. And, as mentioned by the Q above it obviously doesn't go with the formal wear, but I wear a hat most of the time I'm outside during the summer, kilted or not.

I usually wear a ballcap. Always.
Except for:
Working on the ranch--beat up straw cowboy hat.
Fishing--boonie hat, precisely because it has a smaller brim, protects from sun, not in the way.
4wd exploration--boonie hat, ditto.
Hiking--boonie hat, ditto.
The odd formal occasion--nekkid heid.

[OC Richard]

As I implied earlier Stetson is a firm that makes a wide variety of caps and hats; Stetson doesn't refer to any particular style or form of hat. (Lest our non-American brethren be misled.)

[freep]

True, but for the purposed of this thread, I'm guessing most have figured out we're talking "cowboy" or "western." In the past, I believe, a wide brimmed felt hat was known as a slouch hat.

[Steve Ashton]

Yea, I think people are starting to catch on the Stetson is a hat making company.
That a Cav Stetson is a particular style of hat made by the Stetson company and quite different from the cowboy or western hat,
And that a Slouch hat is another particular and different style.

[Steve Ashton]

Oh, and for those who don't know who Col. Crandall is - watch "We Were Soldiers", the story of the first pitched battle between US Air Cav and troops of the North Vietnamese Regular Army. Col. (Then Maj) Crandall was the Medical Evacuation Helicopter Pilot that is featured. His call sign was "Snake" and he is portrayed by Greg Kinnear.

[freep]

Yea, I think people are starting to catch on the Stetson is a hat making company.
That a Cav Stetson is a particular style of hat made by the Stetson company and quite different from the cowboy or western hat,
And that a Slouch hat is another particular and different style.

I'm a bit confused about slouch hats then. In a brief bit of online research I've found Cavalier, Aussie Army, sombero, cowboy and several others described as "slouch hats." In cases such as this my go-to resource is the Oxford English Dictionary which describes "slouch hat" as a "A hat with a wide, flexible brim."

I do stand ready to be corrected, as always.

[Cavalry Scout]

Just to clarify, enlisted soldiers wear cords on their hats in their branch colors. Tankets and cavalry scouts wear yellow cords. Infantrymen wear light blue, artillerymen wear red, etc.

Cheers, Mark

[Benning Boy]

You can see some US Army Stetson hats here:

http://www.militaryhats.com/hats.php...0Hats&catID=90

There are small variations in the shapes, with each belonging to a different unit or duty station. I believe this first came about when different Army posts began began establishing mounted color guards harking back to the early days of each post. Fort Riley, Kansas, home of the US Cavalry, where the old horse cavalry school was located, and where substantial horse cav units where stationed, and where the last serving cavalry horse is buried, may have been the first post to mount a color guard. I've seen soldiers of the guard wearing their black Stetsons at the stables, but when actually performing their duties as a mounted unit I've seen them only in kepies, but that doesn't mean they don't wear big black hats when performing.


It is said the black Stetson of today is reminiscent of the hat worn by the cavalry on the frontier, during the time of the Indian Wars, in the late 1800s. However the campaign hat of that era was worn by all arms and services, and was not exclusive to the cavalry. (And quite often in those days kepis continued to be worn as well as privetely purchased hats of other styles, includiing straw hats in the field.) If you look at the hats at the above link you will see one designated as the Fort Benning style. That hat is probably a more accurate representation of the 1875 model hat (believe that's the year of adoption) than any of the others. I could walk onto any post wearing a big black hat with crossed rifles pinned to the front and not be stealing anyones' thunder, as that would be a representation of the hat worn by infantry in olden time, too. In the same vein, a soldier could wear the Fort Riley style hat with the red hat cord of the artillery with crossed cannons pinned on and not be fouling the cav, as the pack artillery school was also located at Fort Riley.

At the link one or two of the hats have officer rank insignia mounted above the crossed sabers. That's a modern thing. In yesteryear only the sabers would have been attached, if any thing at all was attached.

The big black hats the cav wear nowadays more accurately reflect the styles worn in the movies, and being that they are in a way a bit of theatrical customary that seems appropriate. I vaguely recall in at least one or two old movies cavalry troopers are shown wearing yellow neckerchiefs as a Boy Scout might do. I can't wait for modern pony soldiers to adopt this bit of garb.

ETA: check this out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QT6tVqWbl0 Think about it, cavalry dismounting to fight like Infantry. The US cavalry fought more like European dragoons.

[MacKenzie]

And, likewise, the "slouch" hat had/has as many variations as the Cavalry hats - different units, different armies, etc.

In the civilian world a slouch hat also referred to a cowboy-era hat with little or no defined crown or brim.