Boy Scouts, New York City, 1917.
Okay, probably not.
Very young Boy Scouts in Chicago, 1942. This was right about the time that the uniforms started to change. The campaign hat of this period was extremely similar, if not identical, to the M1911 Army campaign hat.
Or can you?
Well, again, probably not . . .there's been some really goofy headgear out there over the years used by any uniformed group.
But hats and caps do tell a story.
Part of that story has been told here before, of course, one of the most popular threads here of all time is the long running one on caps and hats. That thread looks at all kinds of caps and hats and their history, and the history of certain specific types of caps at hats. And some are indeed organizational in nature, as various military caps and hats are addressed.
But what about the Boy Scouts (and perhaps the Girl Scouts)? It's sort of interesting, although we should dare not to presume too much from it.
The first Boy Scouts were British. And of course, therefore, the first Boy Scout headgear was. . . the "Montana Peak Stetson".
Eh?
Yup. the peaked broad brimmed hat known by that name at the time, and in later years following adoption by the U.S. Army and Marine Corps and later the United States Park Service as the "campaign hat", the "big brown round", "the DI's hat" or the "Smokey the Bear Hat".
Only you can prevent bad headgear.
The original Boy Scout hats were campaign hats, and not just in the US but in the UK. Lord Baden Powell started the Scouts as, as we have already explored, an outdoors organization hoping to boost outdoor skills and manly Christian values in the British young. It rapidly leaped the Atlantic to the US and Canada, and every other English speaking place, and then to darned near everywhere else.
Lord Baden Powell in his younger, pre Scouting, days. He brought the campaign hat over into the Scouts with him. . . and indeed the early Scouting uniform was unmistakably military in origin.
Lord Baden Powell had been a career British military officer and served in various regular and irregular capacities in the British Army in Africa in the late 19th and very early 20th Century before becoming the British Chief of Cavalry. This included service in the British South Africa Scouts in the Matabele War where he met and was influenced by American adventurer Frederick Russell Burnham. Burnham, in spite of an odd penchant for serving in British colonial wars, was an American westerner (born on a Sioux reservation in Minnesota and full of scouting lore. He also wore, sometimes, an American Montana Peak hat. Baden Powell may have picked up the hat directly from that influence, but it has to be noted that Montana Peak hats became hugely popular with Dominion and Colonial forces in this time frame anyhow, introduced at least in part by the Canadians who adopted them wholesale. New Zealand soon followed, and of course so did the United States in 1911. When Baden Powell formed the scouts they too adopted the campaign hat, with the original British ones being of the Canadian type.
The Scout campaign hat was a really practical outdoor hat. All of the felt hats of that type, whether they are campaign hats or cowboy hats or slouch hats, if made out of quality materials, shed rain and snow and keep the sun off our your head and out of your eyes. I've dealt with this elsewhere but their demise came about not due to style, but because of the helmet, in military service.
Now, with the Scouts, I don't know what caused them, the campaign hats that is, to fade, but it wasn't the helmet, so Scouts weren't faced with trying to pack around a big hat and a helmet at the same time, like soldiers were. I suspect with the Scouts they just followed the Army trend and that caused the changes. It's been interesting.
The 1911 style campaign hat's fortune began to officially fade in Scouting in 1943 when the Scouts added the garrison hat to their chapeau stable, following the Army's lead.* The campaign hat was, nonetheless, still in nearly universal use in the 1940s.
In the Army, the M1911 campaign hat went from universal issue to a cavalry and competitive Army rifleman's item during World War Two. There were still units at the start of the war where 100% of soldiers in the units had campaign hats, indeed most did. By 1945 that was no longer true for the reasons noted above. Scouts were still all wearing campaign hats, but not for long. Scouting uniforms in general were changed in the 1940s, following an earlier change post World War One, and the change pretty closely mirrored garrison duty uniforms of the U.S. Army, incorporating a greenish khaki cotton uniform to match the Army's garrison (and theoretically field) khaki uniform). Among the Army uniform changes followed by the Scouts was the introduction of leggings and a garrison cap. Breaches and World War One style uniform coats had gone out already during the 1920s.** The new uniform heavily resembled the Army's khaki uniform of the 1940s, albeit with some notable differences including its light green color.***
This uniform was still around into the 1970s with modifications. This uniform very much recalls the Army's khaki uniform of the 1930s and 1940s. They were made of heavy cotton with epaulets. The shirts were nice outdoors uniform shirts. The trousers were much like Army chinos, but had a really distinct buttoning pocket that recalled the same feature on Army Field Pants. As noted, the Army appearance of the uniform was completed by leggings, theoretically, and brown boots.
In the Army, the M1911 campaign hat went from universal issue to a cavalry and competitive Army rifleman's item during World War Two. There were still units at the start of the war where 100% of soldiers in the units had campaign hats, indeed most did. By 1945 that was no longer true for the reasons noted above. Scouts were still all wearing campaign hats, but not for long. Scouting uniforms in general were changed in the 1940s, following an earlier change post World War One, and the change pretty closely mirrored garrison duty uniforms of the U.S. Army, incorporating a greenish khaki cotton uniform to match the Army's garrison (and theoretically field) khaki uniform). Among the Army uniform changes followed by the Scouts was the introduction of leggings and a garrison cap. Breaches and World War One style uniform coats had gone out already during the 1920s.** The new uniform heavily resembled the Army's khaki uniform of the 1940s, albeit with some notable differences including its light green color.***
This uniform was still around into the 1970s with modifications. This uniform very much recalls the Army's khaki uniform of the 1930s and 1940s. They were made of heavy cotton with epaulets. The shirts were nice outdoors uniform shirts. The trousers were much like Army chinos, but had a really distinct buttoning pocket that recalled the same feature on Army Field Pants. As noted, the Army appearance of the uniform was completed by leggings, theoretically, and brown boots.
Boy Scout and Girl Scout uniforms of the mid 20th Century.
Anyhow, garrison caps entered the U.S. Army's stocks during World War One and then disappeared thereafter only to reappear in the 1930s. The garrison cap is close to being one of the most worthless hats ever devised and came about only because you have to have something on your head. They were first introduced into the U.S. Army late in World War One when the M1917 helmet became universal in France. You will sometimes see it claimed that M1911 campaign hats didn't make it to France at all, but that is way off the mark. In fact, M1911 campaign hats were worn widely in France throughout and after the war, but as the flood of conscripted soldiers began to arrive in the Spring of 1918 the garrison cap made its gigantic ugly appearance. Also really making an enormous appearance at the same time, but somewhat forgotten, was the wheelhouse cap, or peak cap, which was favored by officers as it is a much better looking hat.
American soldiers marching in Lyon, France, shortly after the garrison cap was introduced. This photograph was taken on July 14, 1918, during a Bastille Day parade.
Black U.S. Army soldier standing guard overseas during World War One. While the date of this photograph is uncertain, it's likely late in World War One. The soldier is wearing the American pattern of Garrison, or Overseas, Cap that started to replace the M1911 Campaign hat in France. He's also wearing puttees rather than leggings, and wartime roughout Pershing Boots rather than American Munson Last Marching Shoes. His jacket, moreover, appears to be on of the British supplied jackets with a fold down collar rather than the American standard issue jacket of the same period. He is carrying a M1917 Enfield Rifle.
Garrison caps are a hat that made a bit appearance in the French Army, with the style spreading to the American Army, during the Great War. In its original form its a folded up piece of wool cloth fabricated in such a fashion that it can be pulled down over the ears. In its wool form, it served to keep the head moderately warm and to protect the ears, but it doesn't do anything else. It's real advantage, and its only real one, is that it's really easy to pack. That fact was a virtue in the helmet era of the military and it spread far and wide in various militaries as a result. By early World War Two the hat had spread from the French Army to the American Army (which wore it, in France, in World War One), to the British Army, German Army Army and Red Army. Also by the Second World War the functionality of the original hat had been lost, to the extent there ever was one, in some armies, including the American Army (but not the British and German armies) in that in some versions you can no longer pull down ear flaps. The hat simply sits on a person's head doing nothing else.
Nonetheless the U.S. Army went big into garrison caps during World War Two and you'll even see them in use, officially, by soldiers in field uniforms outside of combat. That ended after World War Two but it was common during World War Two. During the war the U.S. Army issued khaki and olive pattern garrison caps, the Navy issued khaki ones (although Naval officers very much preferred wheelhouse caps) and the Marines issued dark olive ones. During this period, or near it, the Boy Scouts went to their light green/khaki pattern garrison cap that matched their uniform.
It's a totally worthless cap. Even the Boy Scouts own history of its uniforms notes this.
Today the garrison cap, we'll note, hangs on in military service but its fortunes in the U.S. Army have faded in favor of the beret, which we will address in a moment. All the services retain the cap, but the Army wears it the least. I wouldn't be surprised to see it fade from Army use entirely.
Army pattern Garrison Caps being worn as part of the Civilian Conservation Corps uniform. . . showing the militarized nature of the CCC as well as a rather odd use of the impractical cap.
Nonetheless the U.S. Army went big into garrison caps during World War Two and you'll even see them in use, officially, by soldiers in field uniforms outside of combat. That ended after World War Two but it was common during World War Two. During the war the U.S. Army issued khaki and olive pattern garrison caps, the Navy issued khaki ones (although Naval officers very much preferred wheelhouse caps) and the Marines issued dark olive ones. During this period, or near it, the Boy Scouts went to their light green/khaki pattern garrison cap that matched their uniform.
Signal Corps officer during World War Two in dress uniform.
It's a totally worthless cap. Even the Boy Scouts own history of its uniforms notes this.
Today the garrison cap, we'll note, hangs on in military service but its fortunes in the U.S. Army have faded in favor of the beret, which we will address in a moment. All the services retain the cap, but the Army wears it the least. I wouldn't be surprised to see it fade from Army use entirely.
Spry looking Red Army veteran of World War Two wearing the Red Army pattern of garrison cap while Russian (military?) school children wearing the enormous Russian pattern of wheelhouse cap walk across street at WWII commemoration event in 2008. Assuming that this man's uniform matches his service, he was in the NKVD, given his blue trousers. He seems to be drinking a beer.
Indeed, it's a weird hat, and it ought to go.
Now, a couple of things before I become completely unhinged, unmoored and unintelligible.
First of all, when the Scouts changed their uniform in the 1920s through the 1940s it made a lot of sense. The old Scouting uniform, which was wool, with wool shirt, wool breeches and wool coat, except for summer when they had, I think, a heavy duty cotton shirt was getting a bit dated to say the least. The new, very martial (like the first) uniform reflected an update in technology that I've already addressed, the washing machine, and was practical. It probably took a lot of the washing burden down for mothers who had to wash the uniforms for one thing, as it allowed the use of washing machines that were coming into homes, and indeed already had. And the elimination of breeches for trousers, which the Army had also done (save for cavalry) was practical as well. Shorts were retained in pretty much the same form as they had been. Boots that featured leather leggings were phased out in favor of boots with canvas leggings, as noted. All leggings are a huge pain but the latter was at least more practical for a "dismounted" man than the former, and indeed the Army had canvas puttees for ground pounders for decades prior to the Scouts adoption of them, although ironically the Army (but not quite the Marine Corps at that time) were on the verge of phasing leggings out forever in favor of higher boots. Nobody missed leggings.
An interesting aspect of this is that the modern image of a Boy Scout really solidified and still sort of remains. Somehow or another the Boy Scouts developed an association with Norman Rockwell who started illustrating the covers to their manuals. Rockwell had illustrated Scouts going back to his early work, as part of his cover illustrations for the Saturday Evening Post, although he was not alone in that. Indeed, Boy Scouts were a popular cover topic in the teens and not only Rockwell by J. C. Leydecker used Boy Scouts in their uniforms of that era as frequent cover illustration topics. Leydecker has been forgotten in the popular imagination, but this sort of illustration sort of defines in a way the modern concept of Rockwell even, who is associated with an Americana so strong that the fact that he also painted some contemporary political scenes from the Civil Rights movement is missed.
The only thing that wasn't really practical about the new Scout uniform of the 1940s was the garrison cap, but in fairness here too Scout Troops were allowed to retain campaign hats if they wished to as noted. Most didn't seem to, and that may have been due to the expense. Campaign hats were undoubtedly more expensive than garrison caps, which are cheap, if worthless. And as broad brimmed hats became less common in society at large, the costs of the good ones rose while the quality of bad ones became worse.
As a worthless cap its interesting to note that the soldiers of the giant Army of World War Two began to defeat the wearing of the garrison cap during the war, even though it had enormously widespread use. This was due to the fatigue hat, fatigue cap, and the jeep cap.
Prior to World War Two, indeed very much prior, dating back in at least the cavalry and artillery branches back to some point close in time to the end of the Civil War, the Army had adopted fatigue uniforms for dirty work. These heavy cotton uniforms acknowledged that, even in the pre washing machine era, cotton was a lot easier to wash than wool. Early on they were made of white cotton duck clothing, and associated with mounted men. By the late 19th Century they had become brown cotton duck, like Carhartts, to which they bore a remarkable resemblance. That uniform was actually pressed into service as a field uniform during the Spanish American War, but after that, at some point, the brown cotton duck uniform, which was suitable for field use in a pinch, was phased out in favor of a blue denim uniform.
That blue denim uniform included a floppy brimmed hat which very much resembles the modern "boonie hate" used by the Army and even more closely resembled the boon hat used first by the Red Army and now by the current Russian Army.
Immediately prior to World War Two the Army went to an "olive drab" fatigue uniform made out of cotton herringbone tweed cloth, which the Army in turn almost immediately adopted as a hot weather combat uniform (although that uniform saw much less use in the the ETO and North Africa than imagined. . . it saw huge use in the Pacific). When that was done, the Army retained a the floppy hat in that cloth, but it also adopted a "mechanics hat" based on the working man's cap that was strongly associated with railroad men at the time. Soldiers liked the mechanics cap a lot and it was very widely issued. As a result of that, that hat became the most common off duty hat for men wearing field uniforms, even though the garrison cap was likewise an official cap. Indeed, the mechanics hat was not liked a great deal by Army brass as it contributed to a pretty causal appearance on the part of off duty soldiers. Be that as it may, it was that cap that went on to be the official cap to go with field uniforms when not wearing the helmet after World War Two, replacing the garrison cap in that role.
And the reason for that is, no how limited in utility a cap with just a bill may be, at least it has a bill.
But it is sloppy looking for the most part, which is no doubt why the Boy Scouts never adopted it. And its likewise no doubt why the Army replaced it in that role with the Patrol Cap by 1950. The Patrol Cap very strongly resembles a type of cap called a "Painter's Cap" due to its use by that occupation, but it has in its original, and then revived, form ear flaps inside. Its not a great winter cap by any means and its not even as dually useful as the German Gebirgsmutze or M1943 cap but it definitely has more utility than the mechanics cap. By the Korean War it was standard for field uniforms and its therefore slightly surprising that the Boy Scouts didn't adopt it. It's hard to imagine a Boy Scout version of that cap, but only because it wasn't done.
That cap in Army use has gone through various permutations but as this isn't the "history of Army caps" thread we'll omit further discussion on the Patrol Cap here and go back to the Scouts. As noted, by the 1940s the Scouts had adopted a cotton Garrison Cap. That cap hung on all the way into the 1980s, at least, just as the campaign hat apparently also did, but in declining use staring with the adoption of the beret in the 1970s.
Yes, the dred beret.
Or a baseball cap. We'll get to that in a moment.
As any reader here already knows, I view the beret about the same way as I view the Garrison Cap. They're worthless. They may not be as completely worthless as the garrison cap, as used by the post World War One U.S. Army, but they're darned close.
Berets are a traditional European cap worn by the peasantry who couldn't afford anything better. They were never great by any means, but in the damp cold and then sometimes hot weather of southern Europe they were better than nothing. Not by much, but better than nothing.
Berets, it should be noted, were not originally a military cap and its quite difficult to tell when they became so and where. Some would claim the gigantic beret of the French Chasseurs Alpin, an adoption of peasant headgear by French mountain troops, brought it in. Others would cite to Scottish tams as the original example, and they're certainly a similar cap. Be that as it may, early use of such caps, which would include through World War One, was limited to special troops or ones from distinct regions where such caps were common in civilian use.
It was following the Great War that berets made their appearance in earnest. The first army I'm aware of to adopt one outside of those mentioned was the Germany Army, oddly enough. After Germany began to rebuild their army under Hitler, it adopted a whole host of new uniforms and including berets for German tankers.
Now that undoubtedly seems odd and if you see photographs of them, it really is odd. The Germans adopted a gigantic black beret to go with the black uniform they adopted for tank crews.
The choice of black was due to the dirty greasy nature of tank service. Berets were adopted, however, as the Germans also adopted a helmet for tankers and the beret was designed to fit over it. Sort of an uber beanie if you will.
The British followed suit but not with a helmet, but simply a beret, introducing a black beret for tankers and then following to introduce a "khaki", by which they meant greenish brown or brownish green, beret for general use, and various colors for distinct service. Maroon famously became the color of the airborne. Green became the color of the Special Boat Service. The distinct British beret and its color coding had arrived.
But not with the US. That would take another twenty plus years when the Special Forces were able to convince the service that a green beret, leaning on the beret color of the Special Boat Service, wold be a cool addition for them. Hence the arrival of the Green Berets.
Indeed, hence the arrival of berets in U.S. service in general, although in a highly confusing fashion. Unofficially during the Vietnam War Marine Corps, Marine Corps Reconnaissance units also adopted the green beret, figuring that they were as special as the Special Forces and, intentionally or unintentionally, replicating the prior use of that color by the Special Boat Service. Army Ranger units for a time unintentionally adopted black berets. At the same time armored personnel in the U.S. Army stationed in Germany were allowed to unofficially adopt black berets, including armored cavalry units, even though at the same time some of their branch co-horts in Vietnam had unofficially adopted Stetsons. At least armored use of the black beret matched the identical British use. Air Force Security police officially adopted a blue beret, which while it was in a different shade, recalled sort of the use of that color by the British Special Air Service.
Starting late in the Vietnam War and then into the 1970s the Army told all of its units wearing berets, except for the Special Forces, to knock it off and they all went, save for the green beret. In the 1980s (I think) however, the maroon beret associated with British airborne was adopted for American airborne. Following this the Army determined to adopt the black beret for everyone else. The Rangers were unhappy and were ultimately given their own khaki beret, which is ironic considering that's the basic soldier color for the original mass beret issuing army, the British.
At the same time the beret began to gain some cache with other disparate groups. The Basque beret, the universal peasant cap for the Basque region of Spain, became associated, probably inaccurately, with the Spanish Republicans so that beret picked up in use by various Socialist extremist around the globe, most notably, but certainly not exclusively, by Che Guevera.
Also in the 1960s the U.S. Army adopted a type of baseball cap for Army use. It was hideous.
The Army cap is universally regarded as one of the ugliest attempts at military headgear ever adopted by the U.S. Army in modern times. It seems to have come about as service in Vietnam required a hat that wasn't so warm as the Army's existing fatigue cap. It was lighter, but the stiffened front was weird and nobody like it. In spite of that, it was adopted by the Army and the Air Force and the door was hence open to widespread military use, for a time, of the baseball cap.
Only for a time, however, as when BDU's came in during the early 1980s the hated baseball cap went out in favor of the patrol cap once again. Both the Army and the Air Force adopted the patrol cap as a fatigue cap and its remained in service ever since. Looked at that way, the patrol cap has nearly a half century or more of use now with the Army.
Be that as it may, the baseball cap was on its way into to outfits using uniforms and worst of all in its hideous trucker's hat form, that being a shorter brimmed, square front, version with a mesh back. Indeed, the Army's baseball cap was so hideous that a trucker's hat variant of that even made a brief unofficial appearance in Army units, and it actually looked better than the issue cap.
In 1972, as the same time it was adopting the beret, the Scouts adopted a uniform patter of the baseball cap. It was a really basic ball cap with no frills other than the Scout insignia on the front. In adopting it, the Scouts sort of followed the Army's lead, but less so.
Some time after the 1970s, and I don't really know when, the Boy Scouts adopted the trucker's hat type baseball cap. It features a mesh back and a colored front. It's a useless outdoors cap.
In 1980 all the Scout uniforms underwent a major, and at the time somewhat controversial, overhaul courtesy of Oscar de la Renta, the fashion designer, who was retained for the project. The result was a severing from the old military influenced uniform to one that more Forest Service or Park Service like (except that the Park Service, in addition to issuing baseball caps itself, still retains the M1911 campaign hat as prt of its official uniform).**** Green shirts were phased out for khaki. Dark green trousers, ultimately with massive cargo pockets (probably a good addition) were brought in, completing, no doubt unintentionally, the Boy Scout's ode to the World War Two paratrooper uniform.. The new uniform didn't look completely non military, but it sure looked a whole lot Park Service. Except for the hat, of course.
In 06 or so, the Scouts adopted the patrol cap version of the baseball cap and it seems to have replaced the trucker's hat. That at least is a slightly positive turn of events.
The patrol cap version of the baseball cap shouldn't be confused with the regular service patrol cap. Rather, that version of the baseball cap is a modern long-billed style of baseball cap with no mesh. That style of cap, much better looking than the truckers cap, seems to have come over from. . . baseball. It was picked up in strength by special military units, for some reason, early in the war in Afghanistan and soon thereafter manufacturers started making them specifically for servicemen, with Velcro panels for the attachment of insignia and ultraviolet reflective panels. They have not been officially adopted by any branch of the service but they are very widespread.
The Scouts seem to have picked up on this and in 06 started issuing an OD patrol cap type baseball cap. In the Scouts it seems to have replaced the trucker's cap, which continues to afflict the Cub Scotus and the Webelos.
Additionally, in apparent recognition that baseball caps are a poor choice for outdoor use, the Scouts adopted a version of the boonie cap.
Boonie hats are a type of brimmed soft cotton cap that has been around since at least World War Two in one form or another. Back then the hat was in blue denim and was not a field service hat. After the war it disappeared but a hat nearly identical to the later American pattern was used by the British for jungle and desert service. It spread to Australian service during the Maylay Emergency and then to U.S. service during the Vietnam War. It's been around ever since. The Scouts, realizing that baseball caps aren't ideal, began authorizing a version of it fairly recently.
And they also, oddly, adopted the ugly looking wool felt version of a broad brimmed hat usually affected by people who are ignorant of broad brimmed hats. Using the least suitable felt for that type of hat, it usually looks thick. But folks who are ignorant on hats like that type as they think it looks like a fedora.
Which it does not.
All of which is odd, and not, as its a full circle sort of thing. Boonie caps definitely have their place but they're not as useful as campaign hats, although they're a lot cheaper. And for some odd reason they can look great or goofy depending upon the design, even though it doesn't vary much. Much of that is knowing how to wear one and being comfortable with it.
So, what does this evolution of uniform design tell us. Well probably not all that much, maybe.
_________________________________________________________________________________
*The Boy Scouts have never made any one hat or cap they've approved officially obsolete. They can all still be worn and the M1911 type campaign hat is actually still offered fro purchase by Scout suppliers.
**Congress made the wearing of military uniforms by civilians of any type illegal in 1916 but had made an exception for the Boy Scouts, whose uniform very closely resembled that of the U.S. Army. The doughboy style uniform went out in 1923, but of note the Army was also overhauling uniforms at that time and also abandoned its prior uniform at that time.
***In addition to going from breaches to trousers, one big change was the adoption of shorts in the 1930s for Boy Scouts, having been mandated for leaders over some protest in 1920.
Shorts are very common now but even when I was a kid in the 1960s and 1970s they were something worn only by small children as a rule. There's no earthly way that I would have been caught wearing shorts after I was about ten years old and I can recall actually declaring that I would no longer wear them, to some slight expression of sadness from my mother.
****Indeed, Park Service uniforms also descent from the Army's uniform, and from the same original period. The Park Service was created just prior to World War One and relieved the Army from the role of patrolling the National Parks.
Now, a couple of things before I become completely unhinged, unmoored and unintelligible.
First of all, when the Scouts changed their uniform in the 1920s through the 1940s it made a lot of sense. The old Scouting uniform, which was wool, with wool shirt, wool breeches and wool coat, except for summer when they had, I think, a heavy duty cotton shirt was getting a bit dated to say the least. The new, very martial (like the first) uniform reflected an update in technology that I've already addressed, the washing machine, and was practical. It probably took a lot of the washing burden down for mothers who had to wash the uniforms for one thing, as it allowed the use of washing machines that were coming into homes, and indeed already had. And the elimination of breeches for trousers, which the Army had also done (save for cavalry) was practical as well. Shorts were retained in pretty much the same form as they had been. Boots that featured leather leggings were phased out in favor of boots with canvas leggings, as noted. All leggings are a huge pain but the latter was at least more practical for a "dismounted" man than the former, and indeed the Army had canvas puttees for ground pounders for decades prior to the Scouts adoption of them, although ironically the Army (but not quite the Marine Corps at that time) were on the verge of phasing leggings out forever in favor of higher boots. Nobody missed leggings.
An interesting aspect of this is that the modern image of a Boy Scout really solidified and still sort of remains. Somehow or another the Boy Scouts developed an association with Norman Rockwell who started illustrating the covers to their manuals. Rockwell had illustrated Scouts going back to his early work, as part of his cover illustrations for the Saturday Evening Post, although he was not alone in that. Indeed, Boy Scouts were a popular cover topic in the teens and not only Rockwell by J. C. Leydecker used Boy Scouts in their uniforms of that era as frequent cover illustration topics. Leydecker has been forgotten in the popular imagination, but this sort of illustration sort of defines in a way the modern concept of Rockwell even, who is associated with an Americana so strong that the fact that he also painted some contemporary political scenes from the Civil Rights movement is missed.
1963 Boy Scout handbook.
But how accurate was Rockwell by 1963? We've noted of course that this new uniform came in during the 1940s and it very heavily leaned on the existing Army uniform. The Scout wore an Army style garrison cap with red piping (I have no idea as to why red). His cotton shirt was quite heavy and was of the odd light green color that closely approximated the color used at first by U.S. airborne infantry during World War Two until switched to the Olive Drab after Normandy. The new trousers approximated the Army's airborne field pants as well with pockets that would button up, although they admitted the utilitarian cargo pockets (that would come much later, as we'll see). And the Scout wore russet boots topped off with leggings.
So depicted Rockwell, but period photographs show that this full uniform was rarely ever actually worn, so what we are seeing in his romantic portrait is in fact romanticized. In reality, Scouts of the 40s kept the campaign hats for awhile in some groups and abandoned them rapidly in others. The shirts were universally worn, but it's pretty much impossible to find a photo of a Scout at any point in this era wearing leggings. Leggings, as noted, are a uncomfortable piece of footgear and widely disliked even by those who were supposed to wear them by compulsion. And in terms of trousers, after the wool trouser was abandoned Scouts seem to have often simply worn some sort of chino at first, which were popular trousers at the time anyhow, and by the end, which is close to my brief time as a Scout, if the Scouts I knew were any guideline, the trousers were a baggy green chino officially but Levis were much more often worn. So in reality, only the shirt and the garrison cap was really common. So what does this tell us of Rockwell's portrait for the handbook? Well, that Rockwell was so associated with wholesome Americana at the time that he was the Scout's natural choice for what a Scout ought to look like, and perhaps by implication be, rather than what they did look like.
As a worthless cap its interesting to note that the soldiers of the giant Army of World War Two began to defeat the wearing of the garrison cap during the war, even though it had enormously widespread use. This was due to the fatigue hat, fatigue cap, and the jeep cap.
Poster depicting U.S. Army garrison cap of World War Two. In this case, the red piping would indicate that the soldier was an artilleryman. This cap was very close in pattern to the Boy Scouts' cap that came in during the 1940s. Indeed, it's basically identical, although a green one one as depicted here would have been a wool garrison cap. The Scouting caps were always cotton.
Prior to World War Two, indeed very much prior, dating back in at least the cavalry and artillery branches back to some point close in time to the end of the Civil War, the Army had adopted fatigue uniforms for dirty work. These heavy cotton uniforms acknowledged that, even in the pre washing machine era, cotton was a lot easier to wash than wool. Early on they were made of white cotton duck clothing, and associated with mounted men. By the late 19th Century they had become brown cotton duck, like Carhartts, to which they bore a remarkable resemblance. That uniform was actually pressed into service as a field uniform during the Spanish American War, but after that, at some point, the brown cotton duck uniform, which was suitable for field use in a pinch, was phased out in favor of a blue denim uniform.
U.S. Army Coastal Artilleryman at Ft. Story, Virginia, in 1942. This photograph is unusual in that this Sergeant is wearing a blue denim fatigue uniform as a duty uniform, which apparently was sufficiently widespread in this unit such that orders had been given to sew rank insignia on to the fatigue jacket, a practice falling outside of regulation. My guess is that Coastal Artillery were not being issued the new herringbone tweed field uniforms and they didn't want to get their khakis or wool OD uniform dirty in a job that's dirty by nature. By late 1944 this soldier was almost certainly serving as an infantryman in France.
That blue denim uniform included a floppy brimmed hat which very much resembles the modern "boonie hate" used by the Army and even more closely resembled the boon hat used first by the Red Army and now by the current Russian Army.
Immediately prior to World War Two the Army went to an "olive drab" fatigue uniform made out of cotton herringbone tweed cloth, which the Army in turn almost immediately adopted as a hot weather combat uniform (although that uniform saw much less use in the the ETO and North Africa than imagined. . . it saw huge use in the Pacific). When that was done, the Army retained a the floppy hat in that cloth, but it also adopted a "mechanics hat" based on the working man's cap that was strongly associated with railroad men at the time. Soldiers liked the mechanics cap a lot and it was very widely issued. As a result of that, that hat became the most common off duty hat for men wearing field uniforms, even though the garrison cap was likewise an official cap. Indeed, the mechanics hat was not liked a great deal by Army brass as it contributed to a pretty causal appearance on the part of off duty soldiers. Be that as it may, it was that cap that went on to be the official cap to go with field uniforms when not wearing the helmet after World War Two, replacing the garrison cap in that role.
And the reason for that is, no how limited in utility a cap with just a bill may be, at least it has a bill.
I prefer this pattern of cap over a regular baseball cap, so when I found a reproduction one offered, I bought a couple. This is a reproduction of the originally World War Two Herring Bone Tweed cap that was introduced early in the war. A version of the cap stayed in use into the 1950s in the Army and survives today in the form of the Marine Corps utility cover.
But it is sloppy looking for the most part, which is no doubt why the Boy Scouts never adopted it. And its likewise no doubt why the Army replaced it in that role with the Patrol Cap by 1950. The Patrol Cap very strongly resembles a type of cap called a "Painter's Cap" due to its use by that occupation, but it has in its original, and then revived, form ear flaps inside. Its not a great winter cap by any means and its not even as dually useful as the German Gebirgsmutze or M1943 cap but it definitely has more utility than the mechanics cap. By the Korean War it was standard for field uniforms and its therefore slightly surprising that the Boy Scouts didn't adopt it. It's hard to imagine a Boy Scout version of that cap, but only because it wasn't done.
U.S. Army First Lieutenant and Captain wearing the cotton uniform of the Korean War, including M1951 Field Caps, which were themselves a version of the M1943 cap. It's popular to imagine the Korean War uniform as being the same as that of World War Two, but it definitely is not. Following the war a stiffened version of the cap was used for some time as the Ridgeway Cap. The M1943 pattern returned with the Army's Battledress Uniform and a version of it is still used today. The pattern has even become popular with civilians
That cap in Army use has gone through various permutations but as this isn't the "history of Army caps" thread we'll omit further discussion on the Patrol Cap here and go back to the Scouts. As noted, by the 1940s the Scouts had adopted a cotton Garrison Cap. That cap hung on all the way into the 1980s, at least, just as the campaign hat apparently also did, but in declining use staring with the adoption of the beret in the 1970s.
Fidel Castro in 1959. While being a dedicated opponent of the U.S., Castro ended up being sort of a living museum of late 1950s U.S. Army uniforms. He never abandoned the M1953 pattern of U.S. field jacket and he loved the "Ridgeway" cap for some reason. Next to him here is a rather hairy Camilo Cienfuegos Garrigarian wearing a U.S. Air Force flight jacket that even has an Air Force insignia stenciled on the sleeve.
Yes, the dred beret.
Or a baseball cap. We'll get to that in a moment.
As any reader here already knows, I view the beret about the same way as I view the Garrison Cap. They're worthless. They may not be as completely worthless as the garrison cap, as used by the post World War One U.S. Army, but they're darned close.
Berets are a traditional European cap worn by the peasantry who couldn't afford anything better. They were never great by any means, but in the damp cold and then sometimes hot weather of southern Europe they were better than nothing. Not by much, but better than nothing.
Berets, it should be noted, were not originally a military cap and its quite difficult to tell when they became so and where. Some would claim the gigantic beret of the French Chasseurs Alpin, an adoption of peasant headgear by French mountain troops, brought it in. Others would cite to Scottish tams as the original example, and they're certainly a similar cap. Be that as it may, early use of such caps, which would include through World War One, was limited to special troops or ones from distinct regions where such caps were common in civilian use.
The choice of black was due to the dirty greasy nature of tank service. Berets were adopted, however, as the Germans also adopted a helmet for tankers and the beret was designed to fit over it. Sort of an uber beanie if you will.
German armor in Poland, 1939. The tankers are wearing the short lived German super sized beret. Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1976-071-36 / CC-BY-SA 3.0
The British followed suit but not with a helmet, but simply a beret, introducing a black beret for tankers and then following to introduce a "khaki", by which they meant greenish brown or brownish green, beret for general use, and various colors for distinct service. Maroon famously became the color of the airborne. Green became the color of the Special Boat Service. The distinct British beret and its color coding had arrived.
British Special Air Service troops, 1944. Their berets should be blue.
But not with the US. That would take another twenty plus years when the Special Forces were able to convince the service that a green beret, leaning on the beret color of the Special Boat Service, wold be a cool addition for them. Hence the arrival of the Green Berets.
Indeed, hence the arrival of berets in U.S. service in general, although in a highly confusing fashion. Unofficially during the Vietnam War Marine Corps, Marine Corps Reconnaissance units also adopted the green beret, figuring that they were as special as the Special Forces and, intentionally or unintentionally, replicating the prior use of that color by the Special Boat Service. Army Ranger units for a time unintentionally adopted black berets. At the same time armored personnel in the U.S. Army stationed in Germany were allowed to unofficially adopt black berets, including armored cavalry units, even though at the same time some of their branch co-horts in Vietnam had unofficially adopted Stetsons. At least armored use of the black beret matched the identical British use. Air Force Security police officially adopted a blue beret, which while it was in a different shade, recalled sort of the use of that color by the British Special Air Service.
Starting late in the Vietnam War and then into the 1970s the Army told all of its units wearing berets, except for the Special Forces, to knock it off and they all went, save for the green beret. In the 1980s (I think) however, the maroon beret associated with British airborne was adopted for American airborne. Following this the Army determined to adopt the black beret for everyone else. The Rangers were unhappy and were ultimately given their own khaki beret, which is ironic considering that's the basic soldier color for the original mass beret issuing army, the British.
At the same time the beret began to gain some cache with other disparate groups. The Basque beret, the universal peasant cap for the Basque region of Spain, became associated, probably inaccurately, with the Spanish Republicans so that beret picked up in use by various Socialist extremist around the globe, most notably, but certainly not exclusively, by Che Guevera.
Che Guevera wearing a basque beret in the most famous, cropped, photo of the rather horrible individual.
A less Basque, but still rather cropped, version was used, for example, by Jonas Savimbi, the socialist but also Catholic revolutionary in Angola.
Anyhow, it was 1971 when the Boy Scouts, seeing which way the wind was blowing the caps, adopted the red beret. It first came in for the "Leadership Corps", today's "Venture Crew" which was an advisory board in the Boy Scouts in which selected members advised their leaders. In other words, the red beret was at first a sort of distinctive honorary uniform item, somewhat the way the maroon beret, green beret, etc., are in military service. In 1975 it spread to general use, beating out the Army's adoption of the universal black beret by twenty six years.
I don't know if there was any flak about this at the time, I suspect not. I suspect there would be now. One thing about that time is that the U.S. military was in an all time low in terms of public respect and therefore there likely wouldn't have been a visceral reaction to such a thing as there would now, when accolades to everything military are often grossly over done. At any rate, the Boy Scouts were no doubt not trying to leap on board the Airborne bandwagon but it sort of had that odd appearance to it. Scarlet is pretty close to maroon to most people, so it looks pretty darned close to the airborne beret.
It was that useless cap that was in use when I was briefly a scout and while I don't have any other item of my Boy Scout stuff, I still have that. But then I like hats. At some point after I got out I took off the Boy Scout fluer de lis and so it has no insignia on it. Why, well I was thinking it would look like a cool British Airborne beret at that time. And it sort of did. Not that I wore it, it was just part of a collection.
Like every other hat we've discussed here, the beret remains an official Boy Scout cap but it's very rare. At some point it must have occurred to the Scouts that everyone looks like a goof, a Communist guerrilla, and just wacky wearing a red beret. They can still be worn, but they're no longer being offered by Scouting suppliers.
In their place came. . .
yes. . .
the dred cap that has sucked all the air out of the room. The trucker's variety of the baseball cap.
Anyhow, it was 1971 when the Boy Scouts, seeing which way the wind was blowing the caps, adopted the red beret. It first came in for the "Leadership Corps", today's "Venture Crew" which was an advisory board in the Boy Scouts in which selected members advised their leaders. In other words, the red beret was at first a sort of distinctive honorary uniform item, somewhat the way the maroon beret, green beret, etc., are in military service. In 1975 it spread to general use, beating out the Army's adoption of the universal black beret by twenty six years.
I don't know if there was any flak about this at the time, I suspect not. I suspect there would be now. One thing about that time is that the U.S. military was in an all time low in terms of public respect and therefore there likely wouldn't have been a visceral reaction to such a thing as there would now, when accolades to everything military are often grossly over done. At any rate, the Boy Scouts were no doubt not trying to leap on board the Airborne bandwagon but it sort of had that odd appearance to it. Scarlet is pretty close to maroon to most people, so it looks pretty darned close to the airborne beret.
It was that useless cap that was in use when I was briefly a scout and while I don't have any other item of my Boy Scout stuff, I still have that. But then I like hats. At some point after I got out I took off the Boy Scout fluer de lis and so it has no insignia on it. Why, well I was thinking it would look like a cool British Airborne beret at that time. And it sort of did. Not that I wore it, it was just part of a collection.
Like every other hat we've discussed here, the beret remains an official Boy Scout cap but it's very rare. At some point it must have occurred to the Scouts that everyone looks like a goof, a Communist guerrilla, and just wacky wearing a red beret. They can still be worn, but they're no longer being offered by Scouting suppliers.
In their place came. . .
yes. . .
the dred cap that has sucked all the air out of the room. The trucker's variety of the baseball cap.
Comparison and contrast. Finnish police wearing patrol type baseball caps with Finnish border guards wearing the uncommon fat type of garrison cap. Fat garrison caps are pretty close to the German feldmutze bizarrely absent a brim. Feldmutze are a traditional northern European cap that have seen a lot of military and outdoors use and are a truly useful cap.
Well, actually the Boy Scouts adopted baseball hats at the same time as they adopted the beret.
Now, I've written about baseball caps before and I'm not really hugely opposed to baseball caps.
Well, to put it more bluntly, I actually am basically opposed to baseball caps even though I wear a different style of them all the time.
The thing about baseball caps is that they've taken over everything but are really not suitable for most things. They're a great hat for sports as they're simple and easy and in their modern cotton version, easy to keep and wear. It was those qualities which caused the longer billed version to first make an appearance in the Navy on the decks of aircraft carriers during World War Two and then spread to the USAF for men on flight lines by the Korean War. They made sense in that application.
But as an outdoors field cap they really suck.
They don't protect the ears or the back of the neck and they simply become sodden in the rain. They have made a major appearance in the game fields and everywhere else, but they aren't really an appropriate outdoor cap and ought to go in that use. But they won't be any time soon.
In fact the opposite is largely true.
They are better than the beret or garrison cap, as an outdoor cap, however.
Baseball caps (using the term generically) have over a century of existence but it wasn't until after World War Two that they really started to become ubiquitous. Indeed, as noted in our earlier thread, they would have been regarded as indecent for most uses until that time and while they do start showing up in some photos of working men in the 1930s, it wasn't really until the war that they started to spread. As already noted, during World War Two they spread into Navy use in a form with a modified gigantic brim and they shortly thereafter spread into Air Force ground crew use. By the Korean War the USAF was using them very widely as an unofficial flight line cap in dark blue, which made some sense as ground crews otherwise, at that time, used a variant of the OD mechanics cap discussed above. By the 1960s it was very common in the USAF and remained so for a very long time.
Now, I've written about baseball caps before and I'm not really hugely opposed to baseball caps.
Well, to put it more bluntly, I actually am basically opposed to baseball caps even though I wear a different style of them all the time.
The thing about baseball caps is that they've taken over everything but are really not suitable for most things. They're a great hat for sports as they're simple and easy and in their modern cotton version, easy to keep and wear. It was those qualities which caused the longer billed version to first make an appearance in the Navy on the decks of aircraft carriers during World War Two and then spread to the USAF for men on flight lines by the Korean War. They made sense in that application.
But as an outdoors field cap they really suck.
They don't protect the ears or the back of the neck and they simply become sodden in the rain. They have made a major appearance in the game fields and everywhere else, but they aren't really an appropriate outdoor cap and ought to go in that use. But they won't be any time soon.
In fact the opposite is largely true.
They are better than the beret or garrison cap, as an outdoor cap, however.
Baseball caps (using the term generically) have over a century of existence but it wasn't until after World War Two that they really started to become ubiquitous. Indeed, as noted in our earlier thread, they would have been regarded as indecent for most uses until that time and while they do start showing up in some photos of working men in the 1930s, it wasn't really until the war that they started to spread. As already noted, during World War Two they spread into Navy use in a form with a modified gigantic brim and they shortly thereafter spread into Air Force ground crew use. By the Korean War the USAF was using them very widely as an unofficial flight line cap in dark blue, which made some sense as ground crews otherwise, at that time, used a variant of the OD mechanics cap discussed above. By the 1960s it was very common in the USAF and remained so for a very long time.
Also in the 1960s the U.S. Army adopted a type of baseball cap for Army use. It was hideous.
The Army cap is universally regarded as one of the ugliest attempts at military headgear ever adopted by the U.S. Army in modern times. It seems to have come about as service in Vietnam required a hat that wasn't so warm as the Army's existing fatigue cap. It was lighter, but the stiffened front was weird and nobody like it. In spite of that, it was adopted by the Army and the Air Force and the door was hence open to widespread military use, for a time, of the baseball cap.
Only for a time, however, as when BDU's came in during the early 1980s the hated baseball cap went out in favor of the patrol cap once again. Both the Army and the Air Force adopted the patrol cap as a fatigue cap and its remained in service ever since. Looked at that way, the patrol cap has nearly a half century or more of use now with the Army.
Be that as it may, the baseball cap was on its way into to outfits using uniforms and worst of all in its hideous trucker's hat form, that being a shorter brimmed, square front, version with a mesh back. Indeed, the Army's baseball cap was so hideous that a trucker's hat variant of that even made a brief unofficial appearance in Army units, and it actually looked better than the issue cap.
In 1972, as the same time it was adopting the beret, the Scouts adopted a uniform patter of the baseball cap. It was a really basic ball cap with no frills other than the Scout insignia on the front. In adopting it, the Scouts sort of followed the Army's lead, but less so.
Some time after the 1970s, and I don't really know when, the Boy Scouts adopted the trucker's hat type baseball cap. It features a mesh back and a colored front. It's a useless outdoors cap.
In 1980 all the Scout uniforms underwent a major, and at the time somewhat controversial, overhaul courtesy of Oscar de la Renta, the fashion designer, who was retained for the project. The result was a severing from the old military influenced uniform to one that more Forest Service or Park Service like (except that the Park Service, in addition to issuing baseball caps itself, still retains the M1911 campaign hat as prt of its official uniform).**** Green shirts were phased out for khaki. Dark green trousers, ultimately with massive cargo pockets (probably a good addition) were brought in, completing, no doubt unintentionally, the Boy Scout's ode to the World War Two paratrooper uniform.. The new uniform didn't look completely non military, but it sure looked a whole lot Park Service. Except for the hat, of course.
In 06 or so, the Scouts adopted the patrol cap version of the baseball cap and it seems to have replaced the trucker's hat. That at least is a slightly positive turn of events.
Current patrol cap style of baseball cap, this one by the Australian military suppler and outdoors company Platypus Outdoors. The patch on the front is a Velcro backed State of Wyoming flag in subdued desert colors which is designed to affix to military uniforms and apparel, such as this.
The patrol cap version of the baseball cap shouldn't be confused with the regular service patrol cap. Rather, that version of the baseball cap is a modern long-billed style of baseball cap with no mesh. That style of cap, much better looking than the truckers cap, seems to have come over from. . . baseball. It was picked up in strength by special military units, for some reason, early in the war in Afghanistan and soon thereafter manufacturers started making them specifically for servicemen, with Velcro panels for the attachment of insignia and ultraviolet reflective panels. They have not been officially adopted by any branch of the service but they are very widespread.
The Scouts seem to have picked up on this and in 06 started issuing an OD patrol cap type baseball cap. In the Scouts it seems to have replaced the trucker's cap, which continues to afflict the Cub Scotus and the Webelos.
Additionally, in apparent recognition that baseball caps are a poor choice for outdoor use, the Scouts adopted a version of the boonie cap.
U.S. troops in Afghanistan in 2001 wearing boonie caps
Malayan police in British jungle kit.
And they also, oddly, adopted the ugly looking wool felt version of a broad brimmed hat usually affected by people who are ignorant of broad brimmed hats. Using the least suitable felt for that type of hat, it usually looks thick. But folks who are ignorant on hats like that type as they think it looks like a fedora.
Which it does not.
All of which is odd, and not, as its a full circle sort of thing. Boonie caps definitely have their place but they're not as useful as campaign hats, although they're a lot cheaper. And for some odd reason they can look great or goofy depending upon the design, even though it doesn't vary much. Much of that is knowing how to wear one and being comfortable with it.
So, what does this evolution of uniform design tell us. Well probably not all that much, maybe.
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*The Boy Scouts have never made any one hat or cap they've approved officially obsolete. They can all still be worn and the M1911 type campaign hat is actually still offered fro purchase by Scout suppliers.
**Congress made the wearing of military uniforms by civilians of any type illegal in 1916 but had made an exception for the Boy Scouts, whose uniform very closely resembled that of the U.S. Army. The doughboy style uniform went out in 1923, but of note the Army was also overhauling uniforms at that time and also abandoned its prior uniform at that time.
***In addition to going from breaches to trousers, one big change was the adoption of shorts in the 1930s for Boy Scouts, having been mandated for leaders over some protest in 1920.
Shorts are very common now but even when I was a kid in the 1960s and 1970s they were something worn only by small children as a rule. There's no earthly way that I would have been caught wearing shorts after I was about ten years old and I can recall actually declaring that I would no longer wear them, to some slight expression of sadness from my mother.
****Indeed, Park Service uniforms also descent from the Army's uniform, and from the same original period. The Park Service was created just prior to World War One and relieved the Army from the role of patrolling the National Parks.
