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Whats with the funny sailor hats?


Dirty Dan Dawkins

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Those 'hats' can be turned inside out and help you maintain floating capabilities in the water.

They are tightly knit and will hold an air bubble for a period of time.

 

..........Widder

 

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Since you didn't provide a pic or link to the hat you're curious about, it's hard to say.

 

As for the US Navy Dixie/DIxie Cup cover, there is a long history (1886) and it's not worn the same today as it was when first implemented.

 

They serve a whole lot more useful purposes than the pi$$ cutters that were more recently "borrowed" from the other services for enlisted wear.

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Berets just show what service you're in and are easy to stow when not needed. Kinda like the old flat cap the Boy Scouts used to wear.

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2 hours ago, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said:

I'm still trying to figure out what a beret is good for.

It has never been Good for anything. Initially when Special Forces adopted it they were stationed in Europe and worked with many foreign militaries.

It was sort of a “we’re all allies in the Cold War” thing. The army looked the other at as they did with a lot of deployed units. Wearing in the US was a no no of the Ist degree. They are a pretty good field cap for the cooler climes of Europe. Obviously not anywhere else. After Kennedy approved them for SF, everybody wanted one. Rangers, Armor, Airborne, SEALS, Air Commandoes, Security Police. 
then Gen Shinseki in 2001 gave black berets to everybody.

Originally it was something you had to earn. Then it became a participation trophy. :angry:

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I don’t understand. Did you just notice the caps?? They’ve been around for awhile. 

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3 hours ago, Springfield Slim SASS #24733 said:

Berets just show what service you're in and are easy to stow when not needed. Kinda like the old flat cap the Boy Scouts used to wear.

Dixie Cups are easy to stow, too.  Folded into a triangle and tucked into your belt/waistband/pocket.

 

And not all members of all branches need to wear camouflage fatigues all the time.

 

And if one camouflage is better than the rest, why can't all members of all branches that need it, wear it?

 

And why does each branch need its own special "cut"?

 

Total waste of money...

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10 minutes ago, SHOOTIN FOX said:

First question. Why do the Navy and Air Force need camouflage. The jets make enough noise everyone knows where you are, if you fall in the ocean, do you really want to not be seen? Just asking. 

Take it from someone who's spent a lot of time at sea - you don't want to fall overboard PERIOD.

 

It doesn't matter what you are wearing.

 

The ships are required to perform man-overboard drill on a regular basis.  Typically, a mannequin in an orange gumby suit is thrown overboard near the bow.

USCG SOLAS Immersion Suits - USCG Gumby Suit :: Air-Sea Safety %

At the very least, the dummy (mannequin) has an orange kapok life jacket on.

You may, or may not, be surprised at how little swells are required to completely hide the dummy, especially if there is a lot of chop.

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Oh, and unless you're a SeaBee, SEAL or Riverine unit - IMO - the Navy doesn't need camouflage unless attached to another unit/service.  And then, everyone should be wearing the same camouflage.

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21 minutes ago, SHOOTIN FOX said:

First question. Why do the Navy and Air Force need camouflage. The jets make enough noise everyone knows where you are, if you fall in the ocean, do you really want to not be seen? Just asking. 

Because the army and marines look cool. Seriously. The decisions were made mostly for recruiting purposes. The Air Force admitted it and also said it was a morale thing. Their faux tiger stripe pattern was hideous however.

The Navy claimed the blue camo wasn’t camo at all. It was just a more practical uniform that wouldn’t show grease and oil so much. Yeah they actually said that.  :lol:
 

Chief Rick is right. I believe the combat air controllers are now wearing the same camo as the unit they’re attached too.

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The Navy’s blue BDUs we’re about the stupidest uniform I have ever seen. When I was in the Navy we were Dungarees and the Dixie Cup unless we wore or ships insignia on a dark blue ball cap. 
Now the Navy has a green camo. Just as stupid. 
I am convinced they went the BDU route so guys wouldn’t look at girl’s butts. 
 

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3 minutes ago, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:


I am convinced they went the BDU route so guys wouldn’t look at girl’s butts. 
 

They thought that would work??? :lol::lol:

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9 minutes ago, Utah Bob #35998 said:

The Navy claimed the blue camo wasn’t camo at all. It was just a more practical uniform that wouldn’t show grease and oil so much. Yeah they actually said that.  :lol:

Everything on a ship is white, black or some shade of grey.

 

Coveralls were not allowed on the mess decks for many years because they were considered a dirty uniform (and most were covered in paint and/or grease).

 

I do have to admit, that raindrop camo did hide paint better than any other uniform we had.

 

Nothing beat dungarees for pure comfort.

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9 minutes ago, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:

I am convinced they went the BDU route so guys wouldn’t look at girl’s butts. 
 

One thing is for certain, if a female could make dungarees look good, she could make ANYTHING look good.

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6 minutes ago, Utah Bob #35998 said:

They thought that would work??? :lol::lol:

Personal opinion, I believe they with BDUs to keep from having to make male and female specific working uniforms.  BDUs, with the baggy "hips" were/are more comfortable for females than unisex (i.e., male cut) work pants.

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The Dixie cup made a good frisbee. We'd go down in the well deck (on the USS Raleigh LPD-1) and toss them around. 

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In Navy boot camp, we were put in the water, fully clothed, and instructed on how to, among other things, remove our cover (hat), and use it for a flotation device, as well as our bell bottom pants. 

The hat is both traditional, and, as they taught us in boot camp, functional. 

 

Right, wrong, or sideways, that is what we were taught and told. 

 

There ya go.

 

W.K.

 

 

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5 hours ago, Waxahachie Kid #17017 L said:

In Navy boot camp, we were put in the water, fully clothed, and instructed on how to, among other things, remove our cover (hat), and use it for a flotation device, as well as our bell bottom pants. 

The hat is both traditional, and, as they taught us in boot camp, functional. 

 

Right, wrong, or sideways, that is what we were taught and told. 

 

There ya go.

 

W.K.

 

 

Yep, boondockers and all. Except we used the goofy little gray ball cap that we were wearing. 
 

I do recall the Navy SEALs giving us the training tossing Dixie Cup covers into the pool and having us try them as floatation devices. Even though I only weighed about 150 at the time I still had to kick my feet a bit to stay afloat. 
I also remember the “raisin” uniform pants could not be taken off over your boondockers and they gave us denim dungarees to use. 
Tie knots in the pant legs the grasp the waist band, slam them into the water filling the legs with air then push the crotch of the pants under you and belly float with the legs protruding upwards under your armpits. 
It actually works very well. 
Within short order after leaving boot camp I bought traditional dungarees and tossed the “raisin” uniforms. 

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1 hour ago, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:


I also remember the “raisin” uniform pants could not be taken off over your boondockers and they gave us denim dungarees to use. 

. . . .
Within short order after leaving boot camp I bought traditional dungarees and tossed the “raisin” uniforms. 

I did the same thing -- ditched those ridiculous uniforms and got proper dungarees at the first opportunity.

 

Side story about them . . .

 

I often volunteered for zone inspection duties when I was ship's company on the Forrestal. I enjoyed the opportunity to see the hidden spaces and voids of the ship. Some zone guides hated it, because if the inspection sheet listed a void to inspect, other inspectors would glance in with a light but I'd crawl right on in.

 

Somewhere around mid-1990, while inspecting a 100-man crib, I climbed up on a chair to look behind a row of lockers because the bulkhead sloped away. Shined a light back there and, lo! and behold, a bunch of those old uniforms piled nearly to the top of the lockers. When I pulled a couple out, the zone guide's comment was, 'What the hell are THOSE? We haven't had any foreign sailors in here.'

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16 hours ago, Chief Rick said:

Take it from someone who's spent a lot of time at sea - you don't want to fall overboard PERIOD.

 

It doesn't matter what you are wearing.

 

The ships are required to perform man-overboard drill on a regular basis.  Typically, a mannequin in an orange gumby suit is thrown overboard near the bow.

USCG SOLAS Immersion Suits - USCG Gumby Suit :: Air-Sea Safety %

At the very least, the dummy (mannequin) has an orange kapok life jacket on.

You may, or may not, be surprised at how little swells are required to completely hide the dummy, especially if there is a lot of chop.

 

The entire video is worth watching but to the part I bookmarked is a real eye opener to just how hard it is to see a person from a rescue boat.

 

 

The entire Smarter Every Day channel is a really good place to go when you need a little gray matter stimulation.

 

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Anybody that ever had to roll out of their rack and get to their assigned GQ station ASAP understood why the Navy issued bell bottom dungarees.

 

Fortunately for me I got out just as the uniform crazyness started.

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16 hours ago, Chief Rick said:

Personal opinion, I believe they with BDUs to keep from having to make male and female specific working uniforms.  BDUs, with the baggy "hips" were/are more comfortable for females than unisex (i.e., male cut) work pants.

The Army OCP has now been adopted by the Air Force (they use brown lettering, rank, and badges where the Army's is black, but the camouflage uniform is the same), and the Space Force (who uses blue lettering, rank, and badges).  However, there is a male and female version of it.

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I remember the Sea Daddy, a Marine assigned to a Navy station, used to call Naval personnel with their Dixie Caps sea going bellhops.  And that is how the fight started.  He was a WWII vet that fought in the Marriannas and had some of the greatest stories.  I still miss that old phart.

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3 hours ago, Sedalia Dave said:

 

The entire video is worth watching but to the part I bookmarked is a real eye opener to just how hard it is to see a person from a rescue boat.

 

 

The entire Smarter Every Day channel is a really good place to go when you need a little gray matter stimulation.

 


A couple of times we searched for guys that fell overboard off the Eisenhower. We never found them. :(
 

We had a couple of guys go over the side. One jumped on purpose. He somehow got knocked out by a 1st Lieutenant when the boatswains hook he was using to snag the guy accidentally whacked him in the head. The guy wasn’t wrapped real tight. He was trying to swim to shore in Italy. He got helo’d off the ship and we never had to deal with him again. 
One guy fell overboard. We got him in the nick of time. He leaned against a helo net that wasn’t pinned, if I recall correctly. It took us a bit to get to him. He was out of shape. Darn near drowned. He got in shape after that. 
We also did some night time man overboard drills when doing shakedowns in Cuba. We lost one dummy. Found another. 

I personally almost went overboard twice. Once when playing String Volleyball in the IO. I jumped back to hit a ball. My butt hit the top of the helo net and over I went. A big Nuke ET got me by the side of my shorts one handed and I slammed against the  side but he held on until other guys could grab me. That all took about 3 seconds. Staring into the prop wash seemed like an eternity. Than man drank on me in Mauritius. 
One dark night in the Med I walked out onto main deck and counted my steps to the torpedo tubes. I used the tubes as a reference point to get my bearings and night eyes. 1, 2, 3 where’s the tube? Smack! A hand slapped me in the chest just as I was about to step over the side. A deck ape saved my butt. He was standing watch over the torpedo tube until someone could come along and call the bridge to let them know the &@$#ing Torpedoman forgot to swing the tubes in after completing some maintenance. 
That Torpedoman lost a chevron the next day at Captain’s Mast. 
That Boatswain liked Jack Daniel’s whiskey. He helped me spend a bunch of money one night in Greece. I didn’t mind at all. 

 

 

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I wonder if the Navy has stats on volleyball related deaths? :lol:

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On 1/26/2022 at 3:05 PM, Utah Bob #35998 said:

It has never been Good for anything. Initially when Special Forces adopted it they were stationed in Europe and worked with many foreign militaries.

It was sort of a “we’re all allies in the Cold War” thing. The army looked the other at as they did with a lot of deployed units. Wearing in the US was a no no of the Ist degree. They are a pretty good field cap for the cooler climes of Europe. Obviously not anywhere else. After Kennedy approved them for SF, everybody wanted one. Rangers, Armor, Airborne, SEALS, Air Commandoes, Security Police. 
then Gen Shinseki in 2001 gave black berets to everybody.

Originally it was something you had to earn. Then it became a participation trophy. :angry:

Made me look gorgeous though. :lol::lol:

188F4EE3-DB0E-4FD3-8B88-49CF713EB9F4.jpeg

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I just figured out why that looks wrong.

 

You've posted that picture before, but it's always look wrong somehow.

 

Every picture you post of yourself now, you're smiling. And that picture ain't got no smile. It just don't look right.

 

:)

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42 minutes ago, Alpo said:

I just figured out why that looks wrong.

 

You've posted that picture before, but it's always look wrong somehow.

 

Every picture you post of yourself now, you're smiling. And that picture ain't got no smile. It just don't look right.

 

:)

Of course he's not smiling. He's wearing a BERET!

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1 hour ago, Alpo said:

I just figured out why that looks wrong.

 

You've posted that picture before, but it's always look wrong somehow.

 

Every picture you post of yourself now, you're smiling. And that picture ain't got no smile. It just don't look right.

 

:)

Against regs. Must look professional. I was grinning inside. :P

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It's better than my brother. His boot camp portrait, wearing the fake dress blues - he looks scared to death. Like the DI is standing next to the cameraman holding a rifle.

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